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3.0 out of 5 stars
The story of Commercial Solvents--industrial solvents by fermentation,
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"One Thing Leads to Another: The Growth of an Industry," by Fred C. Kelly, Houghton Mifflin, Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1936. In World War I, the Allies needed a source of acetone, used to process naval gun propellants. At the time, acetone was a by-product of charcoal manufacture, which could not be easily expanded. In 1916, Chaim Weizmann, later to be first president of Israel, then at the University of Manchester, invented a process to make acetone by fermentation of corn. The Allies soon set about implementing the process but realizing that corn supplies too were insufficient, chose to acquire and convert a former whiskey distillery in Terre Haute, IN, in the heart of the US corn belt (and near abundant coal supplies).
This thin, 104 p hardback, tells the story of Commercial Solvents Corporation. By the time they were ready to begin production, the war had ended. Hence, Commercial Solvents came into being when the Allies sold the operations at auction in 1919. The new company undertook manufacture of acetone by fermentation and the sale of the co-products including ethanol, butanol, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. Weizmann received royalties for his process for the first dozen years until an improved process using molasses fermentation was developed. One of the first problems undertaken was a use for butanol, which had not been previously commercialized. In the early days unsaleable by-product butanol was collected in a large tank (the base of which later became a local swimming pool). Eventually derivative butyl acetate found use as a solvent for nitrocellulose lacquers in the then developing auto paint industry. Hence, a tradition evolved to research new uses for its by-products and their derivatives. Another new product was synthetic methanol. The research was begun to find uses for co-product hydrogen. Natural gas fields in Louisiana provided synthesis gas as feed for the first synthetic methanol plant. Co-product carbon dioxide was sold as dry ice. One must sometimes be reminded that fermentation is a living system, in so many words farming in a tank. Just as weeds can sometimes take a farmer's field, if cultures become contaminated the fermentation can go wrong--producing bad product or no product. This happened early in the days of Commercial Solvents. To guard against it, the company acquired a second, larger plant in Peoria, IL. Supplies became more reliable, because one plant could remain in production while the other was sterilized and reset. During the days of Prohibition, co-product ethanol was sold as laboratory grade alcohol, or was denatured and sold for solvent uses. In 1933, with the end of Prohibition, the company reentered the whiskey business. The bonded warehouses where bourbon was aged in charred oak barrels were again put to use. Commercial Solvents was an early participant in the titanium dioxide pigment business. Titanium dioxide is now the white pigment of choice used in almost all applications including paints and plastics. It now has completely displaced white lead, which once was the preferred white pigment. According to Kelly, Chaim Weizmann played a role in titanium dioxide too. His brother-in-law, Dr. Joseph Blumenfeld, a French chemist, realized that ilmenite, a mineral found on the shores of India, could be converted to white titanium dioxide with extraordinary pigment properties. Commercial Pigments Corporation was formed and a plant was built on Curtis Bay near Baltimore, presumably the one now owned by Millennium Chemicals. After two years operation, it was merged into Krebs Pigment and Color Corporation, a JV with Dupont, a major customer for the product. In 1934, Commercial Solvents sold its one-third interest to Dupont. The book ends in 1936, but there is much more to the Commercial Solvents story. Later the company developed a process for the nitration of propane and produced nitroparaffin solvents and derivatives. During World War II, it adapted its skills in large scale fermentation to the manufacture of penicillin, but was forced out of that business when prices plummeted after the war. It invented zeranol, a semisynthetic growth promoter for beef cattle. It constructed two large ammonia plants in co-operation with International Minerals & Chemical Corporation, who acquired Commercial Solvents in 1975. The book contains seventeen black and white photographs of equipment and products. No index. No references. Overall the book is highly readable and nicely done, and adds a few pages to the history of corporations and the chemical industry.
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