Heavy oil/water emulsion seeks fuel oil market A new emulsion technology that allows heavy crude oil and refinery by-products to be mixed with water into a low-viscosity, burnable fuel has been developed and patented by Petroferm, a small chemical spe­cialties company located in Fernan-dia Beach, Fla. It has licensed the technology to Steuart Petroleum, a leading independent marketer of pe­troleum products in the eastern U.S.

The emulsified product, known as preatomized fuel (PAF), is a par­ticularly stable emulsion of heavy hydrocarbons and about 30% water, explains Petroferm's president Wil­liam R. Galloway Jr. It has a low viscosity that is not dependent on temperature. The company expects it to compete favorably with No. 6 fuel oil for large industrial and util­ity applications. Unlike No. 6 fuel oil, PAF can be stored and trans­ported at ambient temperatures. It

As the Dow Jones Industrial Aver­age broke through the 2000 barrier earlier this month and continued rising to record levels almost every day, chemical stocks more than went along for the ride. Since the begin­ning of the year, they have outpaced the Dow Jones average slightly.

Between Jan. 2, the first trading day of the new year, and Jan. 14, chemical stocks as measured by C&EN's chemical stock index rose 7.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Aver­age rose just 5.6% to close at 2035.

The C&EN index also outper­formed most of the other standard measures of stock market activity.

also burns more efficiently, Gallo­way says, "yielding a substantial re­duction in particulate emissions compared to No. 6 oil/7 Its water content lowers its combustion tem­perature, and that decreases the ni­trogen oxides produced during com­bustion. Sulfur emissions from the emulsified fuel depend on the sul­fur content of the original petrole­um starting material. PAFs made from starting materials with differ­ent sulfur contents can be blended to produce a fuel mixture that can be tailored to meet local sulfur emis­sions standards, Galloway says.

Petroferm's technology base comes from exploiting natural bacterial sys­tems that produce oil-emulsifying biopolymers and surfactants. The proprietary chemicals it uses to make PAF include biopolymers, biostabilizers, and classical surfac­tants, the company says. D

While the C&EN index rose 7.2%, the New York Stock Exchange Com­posite index increased 6.8% to close at 151; the Standard & Poor's 500 index climbed 6.6% to close at 263; and the Standard & Poor's 400 In­dustrials rose 7.0% to close at 294.

Only the indexes of smaller stock activity outperformed the C&EN measure. The American Stock Ex­change Index, between Jan. 2 and Jan. 14, rose 8.3% to close at 290. But the best performance was seen in the over-the-counter stocks. The Over-the-Counter Composite rose 10.4% to 390; the Over-the-Counter Industrials rose 12.2% to 397.

The C&EN chemical stock index is made up of the weighted stock prices of seven major chemical companies—American Cyanamid, Celanese, Dow Chemical, W. R. Grace, Hercules, Monsanto, and Union Carbide.

Of the companies that make up the index, Carbide has been the best performer since the first of the year, rising 13% to close at $25.75 per share on Jan. 14. It was followed by Dow Chemical, rising 8.8% to close at $65.25 per share, and Monsanto, up 7.6% to close at $82.75 per share.

The remaining four companies all showed below average increases. Grace increased 6.1%; Hercules rose 5.9%; Cyanamid increased 4.9%; and Celanese rose just 0.2%. D

Carbide wins round in Bhopal court battle Union Carbide Corp. has won a key point in its legal battle with the Indian government over who is to blame for the chemical disaster in Bhopal. The Second U.S. Court of Appeals in New York ruled last week that Carbide should be given rights of gathering evidence in India equal to those the Indian govern­ment enjoys in the U.S.

The ruling was the second of two decisions made by the court. The first was to keep the trial in India, not move it back to the U.S. That decision ends any involvement by American lawyers on behalf of the victims.

In its appeal, Carbide was con­cerned that Indian procedures of discovery would prevent the com­pany from gathering all the evi­dence it needs in showing that pub­lic and corporate elements in India were responsible for the disaster. India argued that Indian law was sufficient to guarantee Carbide all the rights of discovery it needed.

Carbide was appealing part of the decision made last May by the Dis­trict Court in New York. The deci­sion, which basically went in Car­bide's favor, was that the trial be held in India, since most of the evi­dence resided there. Because the In­dian government was basing its case on faulty engineering design by Car-

Chemical stocks have outperformed most other indexes

C&EN Chemical Stock Index

Dow Jones Industrial Average New York Stock Exchange Composite

American Stock Exchange Index

Over-the-Counter Composite

Over-the-Counter Industrials

Standard & Poor's 500

Standard & Poor's 400 Industrials

Note: C&EN index based on the weighted stock price Hercules, Monsanto, and Union Carbide.

Jan. 14, 1987

464

2035.01

150.58

289.68

389.95

396.80

262.64

293.78

Jan. 2, 1987

433

1927.31

141.01

267.49

353.26

353.53

246.45

274.58

% change

7.2%

5.6

6.8

8.3

10.4

12.2

6.6

7.0

of American Cyanamid, Celanese, Dow Chemical, W. R. Grace,

Chemical stocks rise with market

January 19, 1987 C&EN 7

News of the Week

bide and the related fact that Car­bide financially controlled its Indi­an affiliate, it argued for trial in the U.S.

The appeals court decision raises the question of how the Indian court in Bhopal will react to the appeals ruling. That shouldn't be too much of a problem, according to Carbide's lawyer, Bud G. Holman. Simply put, says Holman, "It will be up to the judge in Bhopal to decide whether to adhere to the American discov­ery processes or those in effect in India. That's all we ever wanted." D

Priorities pinpointed for cocaine research Abuse of cocaine is a major U.S. health problem. Millions of persons regularly use the drug, an alkaloid from the plant Erythroxylon coca, gen­erally by sniffing the hydrochlo­ride salt, with absorption through the nasal mucous membranes. Al­though abuse of other drugs peaked in 1979 and has declined slightly since, the cocaine problem continues to intensify. Concern is rising espe­cially over the much more potent effects obtained by the growing fashion of smoking the alkaloid it­self as "free-base" or "crack."

However, much about cocaine re­mains uncertain or controversial. In an attempt to spur efforts by scien­tists and policy makers to deal with the problem, leading U.S. experts on cocaine addiction gathered last week in Rockville, Md., for a con­ference cosponsored by the Ameri­can Society for Pharmacology & Ex­perimental Therapeutics and the Committee on Problems of Drug De­pendence. The experts drew up an 18-page consensus paper pinpoint­ing priorities for future research and summarizing current knowledge in such areas as epidemiology; neuro-chemistry; electrophysiology; behav­ioral pharmacology; neuroendocrine, perinatal, cardiovascular, and other adverse effects; t reatment; and prevention.

In the area of neurochemistry, the paper cites the need for clearer un­derstanding of acute and chronic effects of cocaine on the nervous system, particularly on brain mono­

amine systems—including mono­amine levels, synthesis rates, and turnover; enzymes involved in syn­thesis; and electrical activity of the catecholamine and serotonin neu­rons. The paper urges study of spe­cific alterations in monoamine re­ceptor density and function from chronic cocaine use, and determi­nation of the density and distribu­tion of cocaine binding sites in var­ious brain regions. Comparison of cocaine's neurochemical effects with those of other amine-uptake block­ing agents and of amphetamines— and greater knowledge of its effects on neuropeptide-biogenic amine in­teractions in the brain—should aid understanding of cocaine's reward and addiction-inducing mechanisms.

The paper also urges study of co­caine's effects on neuroendocrine and endocrine function, about which data are scarce. Other drugs of abuse alter such functioning—affecting neuropeptide and steroid hormones, and feedback control mechanisms involving endogenous opioid sys­tems.

The conference's recommendations have been presented to Donald I. MacDonald, director of the Alco­hol, Drug Abuse & Mental Health Administration, and to Charles R. Schuster, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. A shorter version of the document is going to all members of Congress. D

Need for continued nuclear tests defended Defense Secretary Caspar W. Wein­berger's latest annual report to Con­gress, released last week, spells out in some detail Administration ar­guments supporting the continua­tion by the U.S. of underground nuclear testing, the only kind al­lowed under current treaty con­straints.

The report complains that under­ground testing by the Defense Nu­clear Agency has already been set back by budget restraints imposed by Congress. It states, "If these reduc­tions continue, vital test and devel­opment programs will be curtailed or canceled, affecting the entire range of nuclear deterrence programs."

The arguments for and against a comprehensive test ban treaty that would bar all nuclear testing was the subject of a presidential plenary session at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in the fall of 1985. The topic has had a high public profile since the Soviet Union unilaterally stopped such test­ing in August of 1985 and called upon the U.S. to do so. The Soviets have extended their moratorium sev­eral times. But they now indicate they will resume testing if the U.S. continues to test in 1987.

The Administration views a com­prehensive test ban treaty as a long-term policy goal that can be reached only in stages. The U.S. has invited the Soviets to send experts to ob­serve and measure a U.S. test. And the President has asked Congress to consider ratification of a 1974 trea­ty that limits underground tests to an explosive force equivalent to 150 kilotons of TNT. Both sides claim to have complied.

Advocacy for a comprehensive test ban has been strong in this coun­try. Last year Congress came close to putting some constraints on test­ing by the U.S. Proponents of such a ban claim that it would be an important step toward mutual nu­clear arms reductions by eventually prevent ing the development of new weapons. They also claim that adequate reliability of existing sys­tems can be maintained without nu­clear testing.

The new report indicates that the Defense Nuclear Agency has recent­ly conducted three underground tests. These provided data relative to the agency's primary function of examining the effects of nuclear blasts. They also validated new tech­nology for conducting lower-cost tests and helped validate testing of new strategic nuclear weapons sys­tems for the Navy and Air Force.

The Department of Energy has responsibility for underground tests to assure reliability of nuclear war­heads already in service and to de­velop new ones. The new report reiterates that nuclear testing is in­dispensable to the goal of enhanc­ing "nuclear deterrence by improv­ing the military effectiveness, safety, security, and liability of our nuclear weapons in all environments." D

8 January 19, 1987 C&EN