Above. This spring the newest of D u Pont's Texas plants (C&EN, May 28, page 2116) went into opera­tion near Victoria, Tex. Here, adiponitrile, made from butadiene, is being produced at the rate of 50 million pounds annually. This first unit will b e supplemented with two others in the future. Below. When this pic­ture was taken a few weeks ago, Gulf Oil Corp/s giant new cat cracker (60,000 barrels per day capacity) was rapidly taking shape (Aug. 21 , 1950, page 2 8 7 0 ) . In foreground are foundations for a vacuum distillation unit. Gulfs ethylene facilities (Nov. 20, 1950, page 4053) on the other side of Port Arthur Refinery are only in the initial stage^ and the recently announced (March 26 , page 1180) plant of the Koppers Co., using a portion of this ethylene as raw material for styrene and polystyrene, is also barely under way

At the far end of the Golden Bend, N e w Orleans, Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Co. is well along with its new four-potline reduction plant of 200 million pounds per year (C&EN, Feb. 26, page 7 3 1 ) . The concrete blocks are bases for 80 Nordberg radial gas turbines

C&EIM PICTORIAL PRESENTATION

The Golden Bend Still Booms ^ L M O S T tfiree years ago ( C & E N , D e c . 6, 1948 , p a g e s

3 6 2 4 - 5 ) , w e presented a pictorial sketch of the tre­m e n d o u s impetus in chemica l plant construction along the Gulf Coast. After the plants s h o w n w e r e comple ted there w a s a s lackening of construction, but t o d a y the boom is on again, b igger than ever. This spring t h e total invest­m e n t and p lanned expans ion in chemical plants and equip­m e n t had passed the bill ion-dollar mark. T h e Houston C h a m b e r of C o m m e r c e has est imated the average invest­m e n t per worker at $ 3 0 , 0 0 0 , t h e n u m b e r of workers, 2 6 , 0 0 0 , and the total m o n t h l y payroll , $9 mil l ion.

At Houston, the Lubrizol Corp/s new plant (C&EN, May 8, 1950, page 1544) , for manufacture of lubricat­

ing oil additives, has been in operation since midsummer

3730 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

/ i S ^ i ? 1 0 ? 1 « Lubrizol, the plant of the Ethyl Corp. Texas City, some steei works are beginning to show in con-i.F « Ϊ,', A u g * ,, ' , 1 9 5 0 > PaSe 2870) is well under way. At nection with Monsanto's $30 million acrylonitrile program SheU Chemicals plant nearby (C&EN, May 28, page 2115) (C&EN, Oct. 2, 1950, page 3427) . This project doubles the construction is just starting on the benzene facilities, and at size of the present plant which is used for styrene production

Diamond Alkali is in the midst of an expansion to bring its capacity to 400 tons of chlorine and 440 tons of caustic soda per day. Here, new pumps are being installed for caustic soda evaporation units

At Corpus Christi, Pontiac Refining Co.'s new plant is adding to the availability of butadiene—a valuable raw material in the synthetic rubber and plastics intermediates manufacturing along the Gulf Coast

Above. Dow's plant "B" Glycol unit—a late addition to the company's huge installations at Freeport and Velasco. Right. Two hundred miles north of the Gulf, production is scheduled to begin late this year on Texas Eastman Co.'s new ILongview plant. Although out of the Golden Bend, this plant illustrates industry's trend to locate in less heavily industrialized Southwest areas

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