Business

the industry can do or expect, in ar­eas, for example, such as plastics waste management/'

For CEFIC, the annual meetings have also become a welcome oppor­tunity to focus on contributions the industry is making to the environ­ment, rather than just to bemoan problems with environmentalists, hyperactive legislators, and others. This year, the meeting marked the emergence of the humble 55-gal steel drum as an environmental su­perstar in the second biennial CEFIC envi ronmenta l award. The first award was given in 1988 for newly devised technology for restoring historical art treasures. This year's award was far more mundane, but far more practical and of much more significance to the everyday world of the chemical industry.

The award, amounting to approxi­mately $30,000, went to Mauser-Werke GmbH, of Bruhl, West Ger­many, for its "optimally drainable steel drum." Mauser (no connection to the Mauser of armaments fame) introduced the new drum design, which can work on either steel drum or plastic drum or can, in 1989. It features a newly designed top end that helps drain and empty contents out of the drum.

According to Marten Burgdorf, di­rector of Mauser, in traditional de­signs some 800 to 1200 g of material usually remain in a drum and can't be removed. This then must be dealt with by a drum reconditioner, usu­ally in hazardous waste disposal. The units tend to become a bit inter­changeable, but his point is clear: "The target of our research work was to empty the drum, 1 L more. Instead of 1000 g, we wanted to empty it to zero or at least down to 50 g." By Burgdorf's estimates, if the industry could save 1 L for each of the 35 million drums manufactured and the 16 million reconditioned yearly in Western Europe, it would be "a tremendous savings in hazard­ous wastes."

"Worldwide," he adds, "there are 120 million new drums and 110 mil­lion reconditioned drums filled ev­ery year. With the new design, 230,000 [cubic meters] of hazardous waste are avoided—an amount of 100 meters l eng th , 100 meters width, and 23 meters height." D

Tight supply of acrylic esters to continue The supply of acrylic esters is ex­pected to continue to be tight, con­cludes a recent report by Eldib Engi­neering & Research Inc., a chemical market research firm located in Ber­keley Heights, N.J. Acrylic esters in­clude ft-butyl acrylate, ethyl acry­late, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, and meth­yl acrylate. U.S. supply has been tight for a couple of years, says Paul Gierer of Eldib, because production has not met the growing demands of major end-use markets. Tight sup­ply of acrylic acid feedstock is also a contributing factor.

With the current very high capac­ity use for acrylic esters, Gierer says, the situation is not expected to im­prove until capacity additions by the major producers are brought on line in the next year or two. According to SRI International, as of January 1990, producers of acrylic esters are BASF, Union Carbide, Hoechst Celanese, and Rohm & Haas, with a

total industry capacity of 1.46 billion lb. Significant expansions noted in the report that are slated to be com­pleted in the next couple of years are 150 million lb per year by Ho­echst Celanese at Clear Lake, Tex.; 200 million by Rohm & Haas at Deer Park, Tex.; and at least a 70% in­crease by Union Carbide at its Taft, La., site.

Although U.S. capacity will reach nearly 2 billion lb per year with the announced expansions, a large per­centage of U.S. output goes into cap­tive use or is exported. And, with production levels now below de­mand, Eldib reports that some sup­pliers are imposing restrictions on order size or are unable to accept new customers. The current tight supply situation, which will exist at least until the expansions are com­pleted, is making the U.S. market at­tractive to foreign suppliers.

Ann Thayer

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