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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1264.PDF
FLIGHT JULY 7XH, 1949 SOLVENTS BY SHELL industrial Chemicals from a Vast New British Plant ALTHOUGH on first consideration the production anduse of petroleum-based chemicals may appear tohave little connection with the aviation industry, these products are, in fact, of considerable basic impor-tance to the manufacturer, in this sphere as in many others. Among the most valuable of these chemicals—many ofwhich hitherto have been produced .only from coal—are those used as (or in the preparation of) industrial solvents.These solvents include acetone, extensively used in the production of nitro-cellulose lacquers and aircraft dopesand also in the manufacture of certain plastics. Another solvent, diacetone alcohol, is likewise used in lacquers, andhas another particularly valuable application, namely, as an ingredient of hydraulic fluids. Up to now, as we have indicated, most British organicchemicals have been processed by distillation from indi- genous coal, or by fermentation from imported molassesor other carbohydrates. The supply has also been aug- mented by import of finished products, both natural andsynthetic, from hard-currency areas. The need for the production of petroleum-based chemi-cals in this country has been fully recognized, and there are now several plants nearing completion. One of thefirst to start production is the new plant of Shell Chemi- cals, Ltd., at Stanlow, on the southern bank of the Man- Typifying continuous processing—a view of the cracking plant photographed after dusk. This impressive photograph shows fractionating towers on the distillation unit of the plant. Chester Ship Canal. Among the most up to date of itskind in the world, the installation represents the culmina- tion of years of research and development; it covers anarea of 1,200 acres and employs 4,000 men. The plant itself consists essentially of a thermal '' cracker,'' togetherwith units designed especially to deal with the '' cracked '' products by fractionation, hydrogenation and polymeriza-tion, synthesis and distillation, as well as a number of reactors and converters. Operation is continuous and, withautomatic and highly centralized control, the productivity per worker is expected to be among the highest in anyindustry in the country. The basic raw material for the plant is gas oil, whichis cracked, under carefully controlled conditions of high temperature and low pressure, to give a high yield ofhydrocarbons containing three and four carbon atoms. The new Stanlow refinery, at present under construction along-side the existing plants, is designed to refine i\ million tons of crude oil a year from non-dollar sources and will,when complete, provide the necessary feed-stocks without the necessity for special cracking. Complete integration ofrefining operations and chemical manufacture, as already achieved in America, will thus be possible. Shell chemical engineers, with their almost unrivalledexperience in the construction and operation of plants for manufacture of chemicals from petroleum, have broughtthe complicated and difficult processes of separation and distillation to a very high degree of perfection. This, itis stated, makes possible the production of solvents of minimum 99 per cent purity, the marketing specificationsof which are thus of essentially pure organic chemicals. Incidentally, a most handsome book, Britain's NewIndustry—Stanlow, 1949, designed by F. H. K. Henrion, F.S.I.A., with text and illustrations of high quality,has been published by the Shell Petroleum Co., Ltd., on behalf of their associated Chemical Branch at NormanHouse, Strand, London, W.C.2. A foreword is con- tributed by Sir Stafford Cripps, who is formally to openthe Stanlow plant on July 20th.
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