division of fertilizer and soil chemistry

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126th NATIONAL ACS MEETING Iron and aluminum phosphate produced by treating wet-process phosphoric acid with ammonia is filtered out at TVA pilot plant. A step in manufacture of diammonium phosphate fertilizer DIVISION OF FERTILIZER AND SOIL CHEMISTRY Surfactants No Fertilizer Panacea Surfactants of limited use in manufacture of phosphatic and mixed fertilizers Application of chemistry improves soil testing techniques, trace element utilization and bigger crops versity of South Carolina. Secondary factors, he said, were such things as taxes, community services, and favor- able attitudes of local leaders toward new industries. Future industrial op- portunities will be based on these same major factors. Evaluating Chemical Firms. "Break- even" charts, developed for 100 com- panies in 1952 in forecasting and plan- ning future company operations, were discussed at market division meeting by Robert J. Roth, Bjorksten Research Laboratories, Madison, Wis. To illus- trate their value, actual expenses of these companies for 1952 and 1953 were compared with those calculated from the break-even chart equations. Speaker said other means for evaluat- ing company activities include the price of its common stock, earnings per share, price-earnings ratio, dividends per share, and dividend yield. Market price of its stock depends upon the actual or expected earnings of the company, but psychological and economic conditions are also important in establishing cur- rent market prices. This is quite ob- vious, speaker said, in fluctuation of price-earnings ratio for any one com- pany and its variation for different com- panies in the same industry. But even with these calculations and correlations it was important to recog- nize that an analysis of company reports does not furnish the complete answer on how to beat the stock mar- ket. Nor are there any clues to evaluat- ing the effects of fortuitous or unex- pected events, or of psychological fac- tors. Stock averages of Dow-Jones and newspapers were presented for discus- sion. Roth's discussions on evaluating chemical companies and on chemical stock averages were presented at a general meeting of the division at which D. S. Weddel, Monsanto Chemi- cal, presided. The Dow-Jones average is the N oldest, Roth showed, still it is above 300 although most of the stocks comprising it have a value be- low 100. Reason is that the average is comparable over Dow-Jones entire history, over 50 years, and has been compensated for stock "splits." Con- tinuity of the index has been preserved by use of a constant divisor. Chemical "scrap" was taken up at same session by Seymour Mann of Aceto Chemical, Flushing, N. Y. Sales of reclaimable scrap has increased with growth of the process industries. Sales of reclaimed material ranges up to $10 million a year. Chemical scrap was de- fined by speaker as raw materials which process industries wish to dispose of and which their sales staffs are not equipped to sell. SURFACTANTS are not a panacea to all ^ ills in manufacturing fertilizer, al- though they have offered new hope. At least this seemed evident at sym- posium on fertilizer technology held by the Division of Fertilizer and Soil Chemistry. Recent pilot plant studies by Wil- liam J. Tucker, G. L. F. Soil Build- ing Service, indicate that surfactants bring about no permanent benefits in the manufacture of mixed fertilizers. E. J. Fox, U. S. Department of Agri- culture, notes that in aqueous solu- tions, phosphate rock tends to remove surfactants by sorption. Rikio Kumagai, USDA and G. F. Sachsel, Battelle Memorial Institute, in separate papers, say that surfactants did little to reduce caking tendencies of mixed fertilizers. Kumagai did note, however, a 2 to 6% increase in efficiency of superphosphate to absorb ammonia. Some of the technical problems in making diammonium phosphate fer- tilizers from wet-process phosphoric acid are being solved by pilot plant studies, E. C. Houston, Tennessee Val- ley Authority, says. The TVA process involves ammoniation of the acid, filtra- tion to remove iron and aluminum phosphate precipitates, and crystalliza- tion of diammonium phosphate in the presence of added ammonia in a con- tinuous vacuum crystallization. The crystals are centrifuged and mixed with the filter cake and dried, yielding a granular product (18% N and 47 °/o P 2 O s ). Other mixtures such as 18-18- 18 or 7-28-28 may be made. The pre- cipitation and crystallization steps re- quired considerable study. The trend toward heat drying as opposed to natural curing of ammoni- ated superphosphates and mixed fer- tilizers has raised the problem of nitro- gen loss by heating. In laboratory tests involving superphosphate containing nitrogen in various forms and (drying at different temperatures, G. L. Bridger, Iowa State College, finds that tempera- ture is the major factor. Unless proper temperatures are used, nitrogen losses of 15 to 20% may result. 384Q CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING NEWS

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126th NATIONAL ACS MEETING

Iron and aluminum phosphate produced by treating wet-process phosphoric acid with ammonia is filtered out at TVA pilot plant. A step in manufacture of diammonium phosphate fertilizer

DIVISION OF FERTILIZER AND SOIL CHEMISTRY

Surfactants No Fertilizer Panacea • Surfactants of limited use in manufacture of

phosphatic and mixed fertilizers

• Application of chemistry improves soil testing techniques, trace element utilization and bigger crops

versity of South Carolina. Secondary factors, he said, were such things as taxes, community services, and favor­able attitudes of local leaders toward new industries. Fu tu re industrial op­portunities will be based on these same major factors.

Evaluating Chemical Firms. "Break­even" charts, developed for 100 com­panies in 1952 in forecasting and plan­ning future company operations, were discussed at market division meeting by Robert J. Roth, Bjorksten Research Laboratories, Madison, Wis. To illus­trate their value, actual expenses of these companies for 1952 and 1953 were compared with those calculated from the break-even chart equations.

Speaker said other means for evaluat­ing company activities include the price of its common stock, earnings per share, price-earnings ratio, dividends per share, and dividend yield. Market price of its stock depends upon the actual or expected earnings of t he company, but psychological and economic conditions are also important in establishing cur­rent market prices. This is quite ob­vious, speaker said, in fluctuation of price-earnings ratio for any one com­pany and its variation for different com­panies in the same industry.

But even with these calculations and correlations it was important to recog­nize that an analysis of company reports does not furnish the complete answer on how to beat the stock mar­ket. Nor are there any clues to evaluat­ing the effects of fortuitous or unex­pected events, or of psychological fac­tors. Stock averages of Dow-Jones and newspapers were presented for discus­sion.

Roth's discussions on evaluating chemical companies and on chemical stock averages were presented at a general meeting of the division at which D. S. Weddel , Monsanto Chemi­cal, presided. The Dow-Jones average is theN oldest, Roth showed, still it is above 300 although most of the stocks comprising it have a value be­low 100. Reason is that the average is comparable over Dow-Jones entire history, over 50 years, and has been compensated for stock "splits." Con­tinuity of the index has been preserved by use of a constant divisor.

Chemical "scrap" was taken u p at same session by Seymour Mann of Aceto Chemical, Flushing, N. Y. Sales of reclaimable scrap has increased with growth of the process industries. Sales of reclaimed material ranges up to $10 million a year. Chemical scrap was de­fined by speaker as raw materials which process industries wish to dispose of and which their sales staffs are not equipped to sell.

S U R F A C T A N T S are not a panacea to all ^ ills in manufacturing fertilizer, al­though they have offered new hope. At least this seemed evident at sym­posium on fertilizer technology held by the Division of Fertilizer and Soil Chemistry.

Recent pilot plant studies by Wil­liam J. Tucker, G. L. F . Soil Build­ing Service, indicate that surfactants bring about no permanent benefits in the manufacture of mixed fertilizers. E. J. Fox, U. S. Depar tment of Agri­culture, notes that in aqueous solu­tions, phosphate rock tends to remove surfactants by sorption. Rikio Kumagai, USDA and G. F . Sachsel, Battelle Memorial Institute, in separate papers , say that surfactants did little to reduce caking tendencies of mixed fertilizers. Kumagai did note, however, a 2 to 6% increase in efficiency of superphosphate to absorb ammonia.

Some of the technical problems in making diammonium phosphate fer­tilizers from wet-process phosphoric acid are being solved by pilot plant

studies, E. C. Houston, Tennessee Val­ley Authority, says. The TVA process involves ammoniation of the acid, filtra­tion to remove iron and a luminum phosphate precipitates, and crystalliza­tion of diammonium phosphate in t h e presence of added ammonia i n a con­tinuous vacuum crystallization. T h e crystals are centrifuged and mixed with the filter cake and dried, yielding a granular product ( 1 8 % N a n d 4 7 °/o P 2 O s ) . Other mixtures such a s 18-18-18 or 7-28-28 may be made. T h e p re ­cipitation and crystallization s teps re ­quired considerable study.

The trend toward heat drying as opposed to natural curing of ammoni-ated superphosphates and mixed fer­tilizers has raised the problem of nitro­gen loss by heating. In laboratory tests involving superphosphate containing nitrogen in various forms and (drying at different temperatures, G. L. Bridger, Iowa State College, finds that t empera ­ture is the major factor. Unless proper temperatures are used, nitrogen losses of 15 to 2 0 % may result.

384Q 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

HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY

Another study on superphosphate, that involving the effect on ammonia absorption of various particle size, was reported by Charles E. Water, of Allied Chemical's Nitrogen Division. In labo­ratory scale tests, he notes an increase in absorption with a decrease in par­ticle size.

J. H. Caro, U S D A, said that empha­sis should be placed on physical char­acteristics such as surface areas, in addition to chemical characteristics, in considering natural and processed phos­phates. He set forth such data for a wide variety of natural, commercial and furnace products.

Presently known plant food raw materials and processing equipment limit the total plant nutrient content of liquid fertilizers to 30-35%, Peter G. Arvan, Monsanto Chemical, reported. Crystallization and other reactions occur at higher concentrations. Liquid fertilizers contain primary plant nu­trients completely dissolved in water. These nutrients are derived generally from combinations of phosphoric acid, monoammonium phosphate, diammo-nium phosphate, anhydrous or aqueous ammonia, urea, ammonium nitrate, ammonia-ammonium nitrate liquors, ammonia-urea liquors, and potassium chloride. Compositions are adjusted to obtain complete solubility at tempera­tures as low as 32° F. and pH between 6 and 8. Arvan says that low cost equipment can be used successfully in manufacturing these liquid fertilizers.

• Scientific Farming Enters

Application of chemistry to crop pro­duction on 45,000 acres has increased crop yields approximately 40%, Frank App, Seabrook Farming says. Changes have been made in fertilizer and cover cropping practices which usually re­sult in lower plant food consumption per unit of production. After deterr mining fertilizer levels necessary for optimum yields for both cash and cover crops, soil analyses are made each year for each field and plant food added to meet required standards.

Soil Testing Appraisal. Soil testing is now being extended beyond pH and "available" phosphorus, potassium, cal­cium and magnesium, J. F. Reed, American Potash Institute reported. Determination of organic matter, nitro­gen in various forms and certain trace elements and more tests on the avail­able constituents are made often. Jack­son B. Hester, Hester Agricultural Re­search Laboratories, in discussing a re­lated topic included as important fac­tors, salt concentration, oxidation po­tentials, mechanical analyses and pro­file characteristics. Hester also said that by addition of potassium chloride

to soils to be tested and placing such soils in leaching frames, it is possible to estimate quickly and economically die loss of plant nutrients by leaching action.

Trace Elements. Correcting soils for deficiencies in trace elements often poses problems, says A. A. Nikitin, Tennessee Corp. research laboratories. Relationships between soils, major plant nutrients, and trace elements are often complex. One frequently interferes with another and thus affects avail­ability of trace elements to plants.

In the case of boron, N. R. Page, Clemson Agricultural College, said that the more soluble borates such as sodium borates often provided toxic amounts of boron to plants or were leached out by rain. He proposes use of less soluble borates, as calcium borate, or possibly boron containing frits to overcome these difficulties.

On some acidic soils, molybdenum is not available to plants. This is gen­erally overcome by liming, according to Charles H. Kline, Climax Molybdenum. He says that plants which ordinarily require a rather high p H can b e grown successfully at lower pH if molybdenum is supplied in small amounts such as one ounce of molybdate per acre. This is equivalent to adding one ton

E ARE EXHIBITING the dry bones and ignoring the spirit of chem­

istry, said Bernard Jaffee before the Division of History of Chemistry. To arouse interest of high school students in chemistry, teachers should sacrifice some of the sterile, nonessential facts of chemistry for the cultural, human­istic, and imaginative aspects of it, con­tinues Jaffee, a teacher at James Madi­son High, Brooklyn.

The historical approach to chemistry has subtle, inspirational overtones. It gives high schoolers a real concept of the spirit of the men of science. More­over, at the high school level, the most

of limestone. He reported successful results on leached soils in New Zea­land and Australia by means of aerial topdressing of hilly pastures with molybdate in conjunction with fer­tilizer, sprays, dusts and seeds.

Because silicon is not considered an essential plant nutrient, its role in plant growth is often overlooked, re­ported H. P. Cooper, South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station. He pointed out that in silicon accumulat­ing plants and timber trees, the silicon has a significant passive role in the up­take and synthesis of carbon dioxide.

Chelating Agent Use. Applications of chelating (complexing) agents as trace element carriers is spreading, James M. O'Donnell, Woonsocket Color & Chemical, says. Studies he has conducted indicate that the chelate compounds not only supply trace ele­ments but may also be absorbed in the plants themselves. Edwin J. Haertl and Albert E. Frost of Bersworth Chem­ical and Martin Rubin of Georgetown University, all say that stability and resistance to microorganisms of syn­thetic chelates is an added advantage. These agents are derivatives of ethyl-enediaminetetraacetic acid. Applica­tion of synthetic amino acid chelating agents may serve to correct unbalance in mineral feeds.

important objectives of science instruc­tion is to inculcate and spread more widely the habits of scientific thinking and acting.

Facts and formulas of elementary chemistry disappear rather quickly, according to Jaffee. The scientists' method of approaching and solving problems has a better chance of being retained longer. An effective way to teach the methods of science is to show how our great scientists reached their goal and how their minds worked in the process. According to Jaffee, teach­ing the history of chemistry is the best method available to teachers for illus-

DIVISION OF HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY

Chemist's Link to Humanity • Linking chemistry to chemical p ioneers a n d

their approaches , fires h igh schooler 's interest

• Earliest chemical techno logy w a s deve loped by w o m e n ; it routes f r om her cu l inary skill

V O L U M E 3 2, N O . 39 • S E P T E M B E R 2 7. 1954 3 8 4 1