Dateline: January 24, 2006

News
Technically Speaking

USA

Glycerine halt
Dow Chemical will stop producing all grades of synthetic glycerine at its 50,000 ton/year Freeport, Texas plant beginning January 31.  Dow will no longer market and ship these products to customers based in the Americas and Asia-Pacific.  Production will still continue in Stade, Germany, to meet demand from customers in other world regions.

Expansion
Universal Preserv-a-Chem Inc. will invest approximately $8 million to expand its distribution operations to a new facility in Somerset, New Jersey.  The company will outfit its new 100,000 to 125,000 square-foot facility as a high-density warehouse.  The warehouse should be operational by summer 2006.

Plant closure
NOVA Chemicals Corporation will close its Chesapeake, Virginia, site in 2006. The plant's production capacity is 300 million pounds/year polystyrene production capacity and a compounding capability of 170 million pounds/year.

India

Medicinal chem plant
SAFC will build a small-scale facility in India to support its medicinal chemistry operations while tapping into the region's growing active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) market.  

Expansion
Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corp. plans to invest about $90 million to build a 300,000 metric ton/year complex that will produce nitric acid and AN in Paradip in Orissa.

Biodiesel project
Govind Gramin Prathisthan, an Ahmednagar-based NGO, will launch a pilot project to produce biodiesel from jatropha.  The trial run will begin in May.  Approximately 30 to 40% of the jatropha seeds are used for the production of biodiesel - after extraction, they obtain an oil cake with 38% protein. 

Technically Speaking

Is it possible to compare the resistance to chloride attack of several materials of construction?

The Pitting Resistance Equivalent Index (PRE) can be used for such a comparison if the chemical make-up of each material is known.

The formula for the PRE is:

PRE = % Cr + (3.3 x % Mo) + (30 x % N)

As an example, let's say that one wanted to compare the resistance to pitting of 316 SS, Incoloy 825, and 254 SMO. The major components of each material is: 316 SS : 17% Chromium, 2.5% Molybdenum, and 0.10% Nitrogen Incoloy 825:21.5% Chromium, 3.0% Molybdenum, and no N2 254 SMO:19.5% Chromium, 6.0% Molybdenum, and 0.18% Nitrogen.

PRE (316SS) = 28
PRE (Incoloy 825) = 31
PRE (254 SMO) = 45

So, we can confirm from this index that under most circumstances, 254 SMO will be more resistant to cloride pitting attack that both 316 SS and Incoloy 825.

There are a couple of PRE online calculators that you can use at:

http://www.ionikconsulting.com/minigen/

under the "Toolbox" menu item.