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OAR Box 1872 

Prepped by Keeia Richards 

Document Number: 

20) 11-1-69 

Docket Number: 

A-90-19 

Printed 11/26/2008 8:51:49 AM Sheet 20 of 204 
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Linde Revamps Gas Technology 

A-90-19 

III 6 9 

The Linde Division of Union Carbide Corporation 

last week unveiled a new technology for producing 

middle-sized quantities of medium-purity oxygen and 

nitrogen that promises to reduce the costs of non-cryogenic production of these gases by 20 to 50 percent and 

open new markets based on lower costs. The Linde 

announcement comes in the wake of recent price increases by major industrial gas producers and annual 

growth of 3 to 7 percent for the largest industrial 

gases 

Cryogenic separation accounts for 90 to 95 percent 

of the bulk industrial gas market, and membrane and 

pressure swing adsorption (PSA) account for less than 

10 percent. The new technology, which Linde calls 

"OxyGEN" and "NitroGEN" vacuum pressure swing 

adsorption (VPSA), produces only oxygen and nitrogen, but the firm expects it to displace 25 to 30 percent 

of the merchant liquid market for these chemic. 

The new VPSA systems produce gaseous nit. ~„— 

and oxygen over a range of volumes and purities. The 

on-site "OxyGEN" system can produce 10,000 to 

150,000 cubic feet per hour (cfh) of oxygen at 90 to 95 

percent purity. The "NitroGEN" system can economically produce 50,000 cfh of nitrogen at 99.9 percent 

purity 

Linde concedes the new technology cannot gobble up 

the entire market for these two gases. Cryogenic separation remains the cheapest method for very large 

Continued on Page 29 

TMs new on-site vacuum pressure swing adsorption system of 

Union Carbide Corporation's Unde Division produces 25,000 cubic feet per hour ot 90 percent pure oxygen lor Manitoba Rolling 

Mills in Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada. 

EBDC Makers Cut Back Uses 

As EPA Readies New Curbs 

Three US manufacturers of ethylene 

bisdithiocarbamate (EBDC) fungicides 

say they will voluntarily suspend registrations for various US crops in order to 

meet Environmental Protection Agency 

guidelines on acceptable risk. 

E. 1. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Pennwalt 

Corporation and Rohm and Haas Company 

say the action is being taken to maintain 

public confidence in the safety of fruits and 

vegetables The proposal would allow continued use on 13 crops tn the US. 

EPA called the chemical companies' action "a step in the right direction," but said it 

may move to further reduce the potential 

cancer risk from a lifetime of eating foods 

treated with the fungicides 

Mancozeb. marketed by all three firms, 

and Pennwall's maneb have been the subject 

of an ongoing "special review" initiated by 

EPA in 1987. The fungicides will no longer be 

used on food crops such as apples, carrots and 

melons. Use will continue on tomatoes, potatoes and wheat. 

In a joint statement, the companies say 

"EBDC fungicides offer an important contribution lo safe food production However, the 

theoretical risk associated with some 

specific uses of these products unnecessarily 

raises questions about the safety of this entire class of fungicides By acting now to 

suspend certain uses, we hope to maintain 

public confidence in these products." 

The companies' decision came as EPA was 

preparing to order curbs on EBDC uses because of recent tests that indicated unacceptable cancer risks from residues In some 

foods. 

Although the manufacturers say the fungicides are safe if used properly. EPA tests 

show the cancer risks posed by EBDC 

residues on some foods can be more than 23 

times the one-in-a-million level the agency 

uses to indicate negligible risk In the case of 

residues on tomatoes, it can be 63 limes the 

benchmark level, according to EPA documents. 

That contrasts EPA's estimate of a lifetime cancer risk of 45 times the benchmark 

for "Alar." (For additional details of a proposed phaseout of "Alar" tolerances, see separate story on page 9), 

EPA estimates that the chances of a person developing cancer over a lifetime from 

exposure to EBDC residues on all foods could 

be as high as one-in-10,000, a level that has 

typically triggered chemical restrictions in 

the past 

EPA spokesman John Kasper says the 

companies' voluntary withdrawal will be examined by the agency because suspensions 

require approval "It's entirely possible we 

could make the restrictions on EBDC's use 

Continued on Page 20 

Chemical Marketing Rep§rter~ 

VOLUME 238 

Numb«r11 

SEPTEMBER 11. 1989 

Chloroform Problem 

Clouds CFC Outlook 

Exxon Starts Up PP Unit; 

EPDM Projects on Target 

Exxon Chemical Company has started 

up a new 310-million-pound polypropylene unit at its Baytown, Tex. plant. 

The facility uses technology licensed from 

Mitsui Petrochemicals Industries. Lid. of 

Tokyo Product capability covers homopolymers, random copolymers and impact copolymers. 

Addition of impact copolymers to the company's portfolio .will enable it to increase 

participation in the expanding automotive, 

appliance and rigid packaging markets, says 

Greg McPike, vice-president for industry 

sector marketing. 

In addition to a broad offering of reactor 

resins, over the next year we will be introducing a range of high performing, polypropylene-based compounds designed to bridge the 

performance gap between conventional 

polyolefins and engineering thermoplastic 

resins," he says. Mytex Polymers. Inc., 

Exxon's joint venture with Mitsubishi Petrochemical, will also benefit from the resin-tailoring capability of the new line, be says. 

Mytex supplies advanced polypropylenebased compounds to the US automotive industry and Japanese auto companies that 

have manufacturing facilities located in 

North America, through Exxon's automotive 

and transportation industry sector located in 

Farmington Hills, Mich 

Homopolymers from the new line will be 

targeted to textile and packaging markets. 

The new unit raises the company's total polypropylene capacity to above 1 billion pounds 

per year. 

At Farmington and other locations. Exxon 

is also expanding ethylene-propylene rubber 

in response to increasing demand worldwide 

in automotive applications for sucb products 

as radiator hose, weather stripping, plastics 

modification and motor oil additives, according to Frank Brzenk. director of the company's automotive and transport Industries 

sector The executive says the expansions 

Continued on Page 21 

The explosion at LCP Chemicals Inc. 's 

Moundsvllle. W. Va., plant has resulted 

in the shutdown there of carbon tetrachloride, methylene chloride, methyl 

chloride and chloroform, but the chloroform market will be hardest hit by this 

drop in supply. 

LCP, Dow Chemical Company, Occidental 

Chemical Company and Vulcan Materials 

Company were each in the midst of planning 

10 notify customers of a 2-cent-per-pound 

price increase for the fourth quarter, because of tight supplies, when the accident 

occurred on August 20 

Chloroform is expected to grow by 7 to 9 

percent per year over the next five years as a 

raw materia] for chlorofluorocarbon 22. 

which is not regulated under the Montreal 

Protocol, and is being used to replace CFCs 

11 and 12 in some applications LCP was 

bringing on new capacity to meet demand 

when the explosion took place. A spokesman 

says although the cause of the accident has 

not been completely pinned down, there is 

nothing to indicate that the technology Itself 

was to blame. 

"We had run tbe new unit on a trial basis 

The explosion occurred 14 hours after we bad 

shut it down," he says The technology is licensed, on a US-exclusive basis, from 

Tokuyama Soda Ltd. and was first expected 

to be on stream at LCP late last year. 

The new plant was set up In parallel with 

Chemical Marketing Cues 

CHLOROFORM: Plant explosion clouds the future outlook for chlorof!uorocarix)ns Page 3 

STYRENICS: The forecast is for a more competitive 

styrenic elastomers market Page 9 

TDI: Industry awaits impact of new capacity as recordbreaking demand continues Page 13 

the old one and LCP intended to run them 

both (or about a year and then Uk< 

unit down, depending on market BWdrUoM 

The chloroform capacity of the new unit ts 90 

million pounds per year, the old unit made 40 

million pounds per year. 

The technology also improves the ratio of 

chloroform production to methyl' 

production by the use of different catalysts at 

low temperature and high pressure, instead 

of high temperature and low pressure. 

Tokuyama Soda has used this technology Itself tor several years and has just licensed It 

to a company tn Spain, according to the LCP 

spokesman Methylene chloride capacity 

was lo be upped at LCP as well, from 51 

million in the old plant lo 60 million pounds 

per year in the new one 

The spokesman says ihe new unit was totally destroyed and that as the damage sur 

vey continues, more problems have been 

found in the old unit as well, due to tin- r .pl<> 

slon. As reported earlier. LCP has declared 

force majeure and sources say the plant 

problably cannot be repaired until next year 

A CFC-22 producer says. "This outage has 

aggravated an already bad situ.i • 

shipments will be delayed for some customers 

"The timing is somewhat fortunate, 

though," he continues, "because the summer 

cooling season is over " Seasonal buying for 

chloroform and CFC-22 is down bin u< 

Continued on Page 15 

INSIDE CMR 

Advomsofs' md*. M 

CMR Business Brtffs IT 

Chemical Imports I I 

Chemical Prices 42 

Chomical Pronio U 

Classified AtJvorttsomtmts M 

OCCurronla 7 

Detergents NowsFtonl 38 

Financial NawsFront «M 

Jobs 4 Poopio ... . 17 

Meetings Calendar M 

News Capsula | 

PlasttcsWook J7 

Specialties HowsFroni 34 

CompJo.a Mows Insist* en "•» • 4 

September 11,1989 CHEMICAL MARKETING REPORTER 
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ALIPHATIC ORGANICS 

Chloroform Problem 

ries will not be rebuilt for next year, 

causing a long-term shortage outlook. 

US chloroform capacity, including LCP, 

is 531 million pounds per year and a 

producer says he expects 1989 demand 

to reach 538 million pounds per year. By 

1990, demand will be 576 million pounds, 

he says. 

The LCP spokesman says his company has 

had no inventory for the last two years. All 

chloroform producers had put buyers on order control last year, which means monthly 

purchases cannot deviate substantially from 

one-twelfth of the previous year's annual 

purchase volume. CFC producers have their 

customers on similar order control systems, 

as the 1986 production level caps come into 

play, and other "tightening" in contract 

terms are slowly being implemented. 

"Shorter contract terms and prices effecUve with date of shipment will be instituted 

where possible," one producer says. CFC producers have planned out into mid-1990 what 

each customer is entitled to and when. 

"We're trying to build in some flexibility to 

allow for customer downtime and so on," one 

says, "and we're also trying to keep the administrative task from getting too complicated." "No one in this company has ever 

done this kind of thing," another says, referring to strategic planning under the quota 

system. 

PRODUCTION REFLECTS 1986 

Each CFC company may produce the same 

number of Protocol-listed ozone depleting 

units it did in 1986, but how that number is 

split between CFCs 11,12,113,114, and US 

is up to the producer. CFC 113 has an ozone 

depleting value of 8/10 and CFC US has a 

value of 6/10. CFCs 11,12 and 114 each have 

a value of 1. 

If a producer exports some CFCs, it may 

import an equivalent amount of ozone depleting values, but only from one of the eight 

offshore firms with allowances for importing 

into the US. Their total import allocations 

are also specified under the Protocol. 

Elf-Aquitane SA Is the only producer with 

US allowances (for the Atochem plant in Wi-

. chita, Kans., and Pennwalt Corporation's two 

plants in Kentucky and New Jersey) and import allowances. Sources say this added flexibility will probably not have much impact, 

though. 

The tight supplies of CFC 22 may encourage higher prices next year If chloroform 

producers ask for another increase before 

the spring buying season. Right now CFC 22 

is $1 per pound and CFC 12, which it is replacContinued from Page 3 

ing in polystyrene foam blowing, is f 1.04 per 

pound. Unfortunately for producers, any 

CFC price increases can encourage legislation before Congress to tax what it calls windfall profits resulting from government policy. 

At present, Dow's off-list chloroform increase is effecUve September 7, or as conPRICE TRENDLINES 

WEEK ENDING SEPT. 8,1989 

CHANGES/UP 

CHANGES/DOWN 

ALIPHATICS INDEX 

The Aliphatic Organics Index reflects 

the prices of 16 representative materials 

in this sector and the quantity of each 

produced in 1988. 

Sept 8,1989 272.32 

Sept 1,1989 269.49 

Aug. 11,1989 270.77 

Sept. 9,1988 245.19 

Chemical Priest Start on Pagan 

tracts allow. Occidental's list and off-list increase was effective September 1. Other 

producers are scheduled to raise list and offlist on October 1. 

PATTY ROSE 

OXO CHEMICALS - The drop in feedstock propylene prices has not yet restored 

margins to normal levels, oxo chemical producers say. A level of roughly 17c. per pound 

for chemical-grade propylene would be necessary, one says, and nominations for September ranged from 18c. to 19c. per pound. 

Oxo producers did not get the off-list increases attempted in April because export 

markets were covered by unusual quantities 

of Soviet material, especially for butanol, a 

producer says. They usually don't run their 

plant in the winter because the weather's too 

severe. This year, they had a mild winter and 

ran the plant straight through. They're marketing the output in the Far East," he says. 

Eastman Chemical Products Inc. and 

Union Carbide Corporation will both have 

expansions in place before the end of the year 

and all producers agree that running beALIPHATIC ORGANIC OUTPUT: 2ND QTR. 1989 

US INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION NUMBERS IN 1,000 KILOS 

Acetic add Utoa 

Action* kfloa 

Acrytonftrile ItOos 

n-Butano. kBoa 

Butadiene (rubber grade) k9oa 

Caprolactam klos 

Carbon tetrachloride kDoa 

Chloroform kHos 

Diathylana Glycol kUoa 

Ettianolamlnaa (mono, dl and tri) kilos 

Ethyl acalata (85 percant) kDoa 

Ethylene Uo* 

Ethylene glycol, mono kBoa 

Ethylene glycol, monooutytathar kBoa 

Ethylene oxide kUoa 

2-Ethylhaxanol kBoa 

Fluorocarbon 11 kUoa 

Fluorocarbon 12 kUoa 

Formaldehyde (37 percant by weight) kDoa 

Isopropyl alcohol kUoa 

Methanol kDoa 

Methyl tert-butyl ether kBoa 

Methyl chloride kUoa 

Methylene chloride kilo* 

Methyl ethyl ketone kUoa 

Pentaerythritoi kBoa 

Perchtoroettiylene kDoa 

Propylene kilos 

Propylene glycol kDoa 

1,1,1-Trichloroethane kDoa 

Vinyl scetate monomer kDoa 

Vlnyt chloride n 

2nd QTR 't t 

433,02s 

2e7,M3 

858,481 

136,044 

345,222 

141,773 

•3,054 

37,238 

e«,eo« 

76\246 

31,738 

3,873486 

775,130 

42,055 

731,437 

101,267 

27,461 

35,203 

740,345 

173,333 

(01,577 

6(2,432 

47,230 

65,320 

50,205 

14,026 

65,325 

Zj273,134 

34,713 

35,733 

2T7.3M 

332,371 

CUM.'S3 

810,334 

843,334 

872,855 

233,744 

712,723 

281,225 

132,135 

123,608 

134,003 

151.828 

65,785 

3\288,13B 

1,421,531 

87,171 

1,388,388 

188,444 

81,337 

112,321 

1,471,333 

333,078 

1,853,343 

1,152,257 

35,040 

110,808 

38,282 

28,438 

111,874 

4,537,202 

185,336 

178,646 

656,265 

2,034,300 

CUM.-38 

737,408 

304,783 

300,820 

242,088 

708,357 

272,050 

172,828 

114,031 

102,738 

135,234 

41,772 

8J)17,117 

1,001,238 

101,120 

1,133,204 

142,345 

60,726 

101,167 

1,444,670 

304,632 

1,413,678 

817,834 

88,887 

11X253 

117,717 

113,80— 4 

4,417,813 

201,811 

163,088 

578,218 

1,873,383 

VIGILANCE 

Niacet: Rising Above the Rest 

Fiercely loyal and protective, the eagle takes care of Its own. 

Niacet shows this same watchfulness and care towards Its 

customers. We insure that every shipment of chemicals you 

receive displays the purity and consistent, lot-to-lot 

uniformity you depend on. Our state-of-the-art facilities are 

designed to supply you with the finest metal acetates, 

anionic surfactants and propionates, when you need them, at 

the lowest cost. 

For half a century. Niacet has kept careful watch to provide 

top quality food and pharmaceutical grade chemicals to our 

customers. For superior quality, superior service, call Niacet 

today. 

UketktZafle... 

KeatUng for the Sty 

Corpoiation 

Niagara Falls Blvd. & 47th Street 

Dept. J . Niagara Falls. NY 14304-2102 

716-285-1474 

800-828-1207 (Toll Free) 

Telex 81512 • Fax 716-285-1497 

DRUM DISPOSAL 

SERVICE 

(East of the Miss.) 

Wadco, Inc. 

Camden, N.J. 

609-365-9222 

Chemical 

Marketing 

Reporter 

Quickest Way 

To Keep Current 

on Chemical Costs 

Mercaptans. 

For use as chemical 

intermediates in adhesives, agricultural products, cosmetics, metal 

treating, paints, plastics, 

textiles or chain transfer 

agents. 

To leam more, write:. 

Argus Division 

Witco Corporation 

520 Madison Avenue 

New York, NY 10022-4236 

Orcall212-605-3600 

Witco 

September 11,1989 CHEMICAL MARKETING REPORTER 15