jood as disinfectant Bromine chloride looks g Bromine chloride may be an effective alternative to chlorine for disinfecting secondary wastewater treatment plant effluent.

Jack F. Mills of Dow Chemical's halogens research laboratory told the Water Pollution Control Federation annual conference in Philadelphia last week that bromine chloride offers several advantages over other alter­natives. These advantages include greater effectiveness, lower toxicity, and lower relative cost.

The problems with chlorine are that, although it is more economical than other disinfection methods, it is more dangerous to handle and it combines with other substances in wastewater to form chlorinated or-ganics. It also reacts with ammonia in wastewater to form chloramines, which are known to be toxic to fish. These products also result in lower disinfectant power, Mill says.

Mills says that the chemistry of bromine chloride is similar to that of chlorine, except for some important differences. In water, bromine chlo­ride hydrolyzes exclusively its hypo-bromous acid. The hydrolysis con-

Third-quarter results still Another batch of remarks from two leading U.S. chemical producers this past week continues the pattern of mixed results from the third quarter (C&EN, Oct. 3, page 6). For example, Du Pont expects an earnings gain for the period over third-quarter 1976 on a 15% pickup in sales. But FMC pre­dicts flat earnings for third-quarter 1977 due in part to a drag from its chemical business.

At Du Pont, the two-tier nature of the company's earnings composition remained unchanged in the third quarter. Fibers did poorly, especially in Europe. Most other major product lines did well.

FMC outlined the fortunes of its chemical and other operations last week to security analysts in New York City. Overall, the third quarter brought a "good sales increase," but earnings are expected to be about the same as in third-quarter 1976.

In the chemicals area, company president Raymond C. Tower says that there was no significant volume increase in the third quarter. At the same time, FMC's chemicals caught the cost-price squeeze now wide­spread in the chemical industry.

Three specific chemicals giving FMC particular problems are ele­mental phosphorus, carbon tetra­chloride, and butadiene. With phos-

stant for bromine chloride is 4000 times greater than that for bromine. The rate of hydrolysis, according to Mills, has been estimated at less than 0.35 millisecond, which is faster than for either bromine or chlorine alone. The other important difference is that once in the wastewater, bromine chloride reacts with ammonia to form bromamines.

These bromamines offer a number of advantages over the chloramines that accompany chlorine disinfection, Mills says. The bromamines are far superior in terms of bactericidal and viricidal activity and are practically equal to free bromine in effectiveness at the pH of wastewater. The hypo-bromous acid and bromamines also are effective over a wider range of pH than are chloramines.

Mills also says that the cost of bromine chloride is competitive with other alternatives. The total treat­ment cost for a 10 million gal-per-day wastewater treatment plant would be about 2.1 cents per 1000 gal treated based on a cost of 25 cents per lb for bromine chloride. Capital costs also are included in this estimate. D

look mixed I phorus, company chairman Robert H.

Malott says, FMC should be pro­tected in a declining market by its status as the second largest and low­est-cost producer. About 30% of FMC's phosphorus output goes into home laundry products, which are gradually being reformulated under new local laws to remove phosphorus from waterways. Malott says that, although future reformulation would have an initial negative effect on company earnings, "it is reasonable to

Malott: FMC should be protected

expect the marginal and higher-cost facilities to close down, leaving the more efficient producers with ade­quate volumes and prices."

By contrast, FMC does not plan to hang on in the carbon tetrachloride business. As a result of the decline in this product caused by the concern over atmospheric ozone destruction by derivative chlorofluorocarbons, the company plans to phase out pro­duction and be out of the business entirely by the end of 1979.

Butadiene is still an earnings problem for FMC despite a greatly improved market this year (see page 15 for details on this unusual situa­tion). FMC's interest in this product comes through its 50% ownership of Petro-Tex Chemical. Tower says that Petro-Tex will show an overall profit for 1977 but only because of an ex­traordinary sale of assets. D

Chicago 7 defendant gets big OSHA job Chemist John R. Froines has been named the first director of the office of toxic substances for the Occupa­tional Safety & Health Administra­tion. A 38-year-old Ph.D. from Yale, Froines will receive $36,000 annually in his new post.

So far nothing remarkable on the scale of things in Washington, D.C. But Froines is not your average fed­eral bureaucrat. He was one of the now-famous Chicago Seven defen­dants tried on federal charges re­sulting from civil disturbances sur­rounding the 1968 Democratic Na­tional Convention.

Froines, along with a blue ribbon group of radicals and political dissi­dents—Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Delinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, and Black Panther Bobby Seale—was alleged by the govern­ment to have conspired in interstate commerce to, among other things, incite a riot in Chicago in August 1968. Froines was acquitted of the charges. At the time he was a member of the American Chemical Society, and he had a history of involvement in radical political causes.

At OSHA, Froines will be respon­sible for developing federal workplace standards to protect industrial workers from toxic materials. He brings industrial hygiene experience to the job. Prior to being named to the OSHA post, Froines was head of the Vermont Health Department's divi­sion of occupational health from 1974 to 1977. He also had held academic

Eositions in Vermont and Oregon efore that, according to the OSHA

announcement. •

8 C&EN Oct. 10, 1977