Developments in the Chemical and Process industries

produces a digitalis-like radioactive sub­stance.

Radioactive drugs are being used not only for the therapeutic effect of the radioactivity, but also as a means of following the metabolism of the com­pounds. Important contributions have al­ready been made by this technique. For example, it had been assumed for some time that the barbiturates concentrate preferentially in t he central nervous sys­tem. However, t he use of tagged barbit­urates has shown that they are distributed at random throughout the body.

Other Compounds

A new long acting insulin preparation called N P H Insulin has been introduced. A single injection daily is adequate for most diabetics.

The u s e of procaine base for infiltration anesthesia, has given duration of action up to t w o weeks. Sympathet ic ganglion blocks w i th procaine have relieved pain in herpes zoster. Intravenous pontocaine and procaine have given effective results in asthma, arthritis, low back pain, neuri­tis, and muscle strain.

Several preparations of choline and choline a n d inositol a re available for the treatment of abnormalities in lipid metabo­lism.

Gantrisin, 3,4-dimethyl-5-sulfanilamido-isoxazole, is described as a soluble sulfa drug. Its increased solubility diminishes the danger of crystal!uria. Several sulfa drug combinations have also appeared, taki ig advantage of the fact that the chemothexapontic activities are additive while t l i e solubilities are independent. Therefore*, in a triple sulfa combination,

only one third the dose of each drug is needed to give a good effect while de­creasing the chance of crystalluria.

Sodium-3-acetylamino-2,4,6-triiodo ben-zoate has been introduced as an x-ray contrast agent for use in the urinary tract and kidneys.

Cetyldimethylethylammonium chloride has been shown to b e an effective cold sterilizing agent. Ethylene oxide has also been used as an antibacterial and antiviral agent. It inactivates virus of the influenza-Newcastle group as well as neurotropic virus of mouse encephalitis.

A completely synthetic morphine ana­log, 3-hydroxy-N-methylmorphinan (Dro-moran, NU-2206) has given good clinical results.

iV - ()3 - Phenoxyisopropyl) - N - benzyl-/3-chloroethylamine-HCl is a promising orally active adrenergic blocking agent.

PULP AND PAPER PRODUCTION ACCELERATED HARRY F. LEWIS, Research Associate,

The Institute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, Wis.

After a sharp decline in early 1949, production started upward in 1950 and was sharply stimulated by inventory building and government buying

H E trend upward in pulp and paper production, which began late in 1949 and continued tlirough 1950, was accelerated in the last half of the year by increased government buying of paper and b y the building up of inventories resulting from an expected price rise. Although fourth quarter data are not available at the time of this writing, they are certain to show a continuation of the rate reached during the first nine' months of the year and will probably be higher.

Production data (still preliminary) for 1949 are compared with an estimated range for 1950 based on the rate of the first nine months and on the rate of in­crease for that period over the same period in 1949 are shown in Table I .

December production may reduce the higher estimate of the range, but what­

ever figure appears when 1950 data are finally tabulated by the Bureau of the Census, it will be the highest in the liistory o f the industry. Added to paper production will he an estimated 5 million tons of imported newsprint which, even after deducting a small amount of exports, will show a p e r capita consumption be­tween 3 T 2 and 384 pounds, based on the Census Bureau's population figure of 152 million, inclusive of those in the over­seas armed services. Per capita consump­tion of iill kinds of paper in 1949 was 334 pounds and in 1948—the highest record ixntil 1950—356 pounds .

It may be expected that, before long, the government's requirements for dis­solving xpulp may increase. T h e Depart­ment of Commerce reports that several large p u l p plants which can be used for

Table I . Comparison Between Pulp and Paper Production 1949 and Est imated for 1950 (In thousands of tons)

19-19 12,157 13.610 20.330

Pulp production Pulp consumption (in paper.) Paper production1

1 Includes paperboard, building board, paper bags, as well as printing, wrapping, sanitary, and other papers.

1950 ESTIM ATK1) R A NO K

14,500-14,900 16,200-10,700 23,700-24. COO

P K H C K X T A O K I NCH KASK

19.6-23.0 19.0-23.1 10. 5-21.-1

the manufacture of dissolving pulps have been completed or expect to b e in pro­duction by early 1952. One such mill is already in production in Mississippi; one is about to be completed in Idaho; and one in North Carolina is mentioned for early 1952 production, as well as a bleached sulfite mill in British Columbia that will be in operation by early 1951. The two most important nonmilitary com­peting products for dissolving pulp and rayon and cellophane, both of which have been in increasing demand during 1950, with the result that prices have been steadily rising. Other grades of pulp have also increased in price, as have paper and board, although not all at the same rate.

Waste Elimination and Disposal

The report for 1949 stressed the work being done on trade waste elimination and disposal. Research and development work of this type have been carried on at an even increased rate during 1950. The plant at lihinelander, Wis., for the pro­duction of Torula yeast from sulfite spent liquor has now had a period of con­tinuing operation, and the report on the product indicates that the yeast produced is uniform in chemical characteristics and

V O L U M E 2 9, N O . 1 J A N U A R Y 1 , 1 9 5 1 31

C&EN ANNUAL REVIEW—1950

in its contents of the various components of the vitamin B complex. It is reported that riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, panthothenic acid, biotin, niacin, and folic acid show these materials to be present in good concentration. The summary of the chemical and vitamin assays on this sulfite liquor Torulo])sis utilis from a single source indicates that the prouact is uni­form and of high quality. The same strains of yeasts grown on spent sulfite liquors from three different pulp mills show ap­preciable differences in vitamin content. This yeast is currently being sold for animal and poultry feeds.

Evaporator Efficiency Studied During the year 1950 reports have been

made, by the Sulfite Pulp Manufacturers' Research League as to the efficiency of the Rosenblad evaporator for the evapo­ration of spent sulfite liquor. Indications are that concentrated liquors can be pro­duced efficiently and with satisfactory performance. Work has begun on the burning of the concentrated liquor from the evaporation operation. The first tests show that a mixture of the concentrated liquor containing 51.7% total solids and coal, in the ratio to produce 40 to 48r<: of the steam from the burning of the evaporated liquor, gives a boiler efficiency of 73%, or about 10% less than that when the coal is used alone. It is pointed out that one of the problems incidental to the burning of the concentrated calcium-base sulfite liquor is the production of a high fly ash amounting to approximately 200 pounds per ton of pulp. The dis­posal of this calcium-base fly ash offers a serious problem. Currently, its only important outlet appears to be as a ferti­lizer. It happens that, in the region around the large sulfite mills in Wisconsin where the current studies are in progress, there is little demand for fertilizers of this type. Incidentally, the ash production from the mixed fuel is 1.5 to 2 times that obtained when coal alone is burned.

Considerable additional work has been done to find uses for both the strong spent sulfite liquor from the digesters and the stronger liquor from the Rosenblad evaporator. More extended tests with the strong liquor as a road-treating material have been made during the summer of 1950 and over a fairly wide area. Al­though the results are satisfactory, the use must be looked upon as purely seasonal. Some tests have been made with the evaporated liquor for the same purpose. The digester liquor has been converted to give satisfactory dispersing agents with important surface-active properties. These are being used for the deflocculation of aqueous carbon black slurries in the pro­duction of rubber from synthetic rubber latex, as well as in the manufacture of cement, as a dispersing agent in dye-stuffs, and in oil well drilling muds.

The activity noted in 1949 in the semi-chemical cooking process has continued, and in 1950 it is estimated that there are

19 mills with a daily pulp capacity of 2,115 tons using one semichemical process or another. In 1947 the number of mills was 12 and the daily capacity of semichemical pulp was 1,490 tons. In 1945 10 mills made 925 tons of semichemical pulp per day. During the year the College of Fores­try of the State University of New York announced a process for the manufacture of "chemigroundwood pulp" from hard­wood species, particularly maple, aspen, birch, and beech, in which a mild chemi­cal pretreatment is given the wood, follow­ing which it is mechanically defibered by the conventional groundwood processing operation. The product is said to bleach to a good color and to have a strength between that of unbleached spruce sulfite and spruce groundwood. Because of the higher density of the wood, a higher yield per cord of pulp is obtained than is the case with spruce.

The Forest Products Laboratory at Madison has continued with its work of developing processes for making pulps in high yield; during the year they de­scribed their latest process in which a mild alkaline treatment is given the wood Followed by a mechanical treatment; the optimum treating condition was a two-hour treatment at 25° C. with sodium hydroxide solution containing 24 grams per liter. Chemical consumption was 5.5% sodium hydroxide and the pulp yield was 9 1 % . The wood used was aspen. The pulp makes a good grade of corrugating board. I n 1949 reference was made to the pos­sibility of increasing the yield and quality of pulp through the use of sodium chlorite or chlorine dioxide. Chlorine dioxide is currently being used in one bleaching stage in at least one southern kraft mill as well as in several sulfite mills in the United States and Canada; pulps are ob­tained of high brightness with little de­gradation in strength properties.

During the past year there has been considerable interest shown in the nature of barks—particularly the barks of West Coast woods., such as Douglas fir, pon-derosa pine, sugar pine, and redwood, as well as birch bark, with the aim of finding uses for the chemical components of the bark. In view of the fact that the bark represents a sizable percentage of the over-all weight of the tree and that its disposal is often difficult and a nuisance, the development of processes for utilizing the bark are of real interest.

Extensive studies have been carried out a t the Northern Regional Laboratory in Peoria, 111., on the production of pulps and papers from straw. These studies have shown that straw represents an acceptable substitute for at least a significant per­centage of wood pulp in the manufacture of certain types of paper. There has also been some interest shown in tropical woods 3.s a source of pulp but, in the main, the results of the experimental work have indicated that the extreme heterogeneity of these woods makes their application in papermaking difficult.

No attempt has been made in this re­view to cover all the research developments of the year 1950; rather, the general trends have been considered. There have been certain isolated reports of specific interest, such as the development in the paperboard container field of an orange container made of corrugated board in which the 9-point corrugated material is impregnated with sulfur and the finished container treated with diphenyl as a coating on the inside surface of the board, together with a masking agent to diminish the odor of the diphenyl and to add to the fungistatic properties of the coating. Oranges can be shipped in such containers without venti­lation, precooling, or refrigeration.

One of the by-products of lignin oxida­tion, ethyl vanillate, is reported as a cure for the fungus disease, histoplasmosis, by the School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University.

Waste Disposal Progress Expected to Slow

A number of papers have appeared during the year which have shown the ad­vances made in the application of electron microscopy to the structure of pulp fibers.

How the wartime situation will affect the course of the developments will be determined only as the year 1951 unfolds. Undoubtedly the emphasis on stream im­provement and the expansion of existing plants to include waste disposal processes will be slowed down by the greater need for essential raw materials for other manu­facturing purposes. In the meantime, it is hoped that research in these phases and in other fundamental areas will be contin­ued with the ultimate end in view of im­proving our operations.

In addition to the regular meetings of the technical men of the pulp and paper industry there have been held during 1950 at least two special conferences dealing with the fundamental problems of the pulp and paper industry. The first was the Second Lignin Round Table, sponsored jointly by the Committee on the Chemistry of Plant Products of the National Research Council and The Institute of Paper Chemistry, held in Appleton, Wis., during the late summer 1950. Here were gathered for three days some 85 chemists interested in the chemistry and utilization of lignin. The second meeting was a joint meeting sponsored jointly by the Fundamental Re­search Committee of the Technical Asso­ciation of the Pulp and Paper Industry and the Fundamental Research Committee of the Technical Section of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association. This meeting dealt specifically with the papermaking properties of fibers. The 75th Anniversary meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SO­CIETY and the 12th International Congress of Pure and Applied Chemistry to be held in New York in September 1951 will have sections of interest to the pulp and paper industry. These meetings denote an ex­panding interest in the fundamental prob­lems of the industry.

32 C H E M I C A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G N E W S