Oil v. Wheat

The U.S. citizen received a strong hint last week that his tires may be confiscated. That, indicated WPB's Don Nelson and Rubber Tsar Arthur Newhall, is just how bad the rubber situation is. There is not now even enough rubber for all war purposes. There will not be enough--certainly not enough for civilian purposes--until well into 1944.

Where is the synthetic rubber? asked the U.S. Jesse Jones, on the Congressional rubber carpet again last week, squirmed and upped his estimates (of how much there should be, some day) from 800,000 to 1,000,000 tons a year. WPB had just told him there would be more alcohol than anyone had dared hope for, enough to provide the raw material for 200,000 tons of rubber (given the conversion plants to make it in). But, as of last week, while 90% of his 800,000-ton program was under contract or in the "letter of intent" stage, only 20% was actually under construction. In all 1942 there will probably not be more than 30,000 tons produced; next year, said Arthur Newhall, if the U.S. produces as much as 350,000 tons, "it will be a miracle." Every person concerned with synthetic rubber had his own excuses (mostly buck-passing) for this slow start.

But now there is something else to fight about: Should synthetic be made from alcohol or oil? Of the 800,000-ton program, 700,000 is to be of the I.G. Farben-Standard Oil buna-S type--the only synthetic so far that has proved out for heavy-duty tires (even buna-S must be mixed with some natural rubber). The rest is divided between Du Pont's oil-resistant neoprene* and Standard's much mooted butyl (cheaper than buna-S but no good, so far, for high speeds or heavy duty tires). It was around buna-S that the fight centered last week. For buna-S is not only the most versatile of synthetics in its end use, but in the raw materials from which it can be made.

Rubber from wheat was the new battle cry, and in Congress the farm bloc gave tongue for all it was worth. Wheat can be made into alcohol, which can be made into butadiene for buna-S. Before Senator Guy M. Gillette's Agriculture Committee last week startling claims were made for wheat rubber. It was said that it was not only cheaper but that plants to make it could be built with fewer scarce materials, and in one-third the time it takes to complete rubber-from-oil plants.

It was further said that the wheat farmer had been nefariously blocked out of the rubber program by WPB officials who came from the oil industry and from the industrial-alcohol companies.

There were quick answers from the planners who planned it the rubber-from-oil way. The wheat farmers' cost claims, it appeared, could stand up only if the wheat is considered as free--which, in practice, it certainly would not be. The alcohol plants would save time and take less steel, but require more copper--the scarcest metal of all.

Nonetheless, Guy Gillette and his cohorts are sure to get a slice of the rubber program. WPB last week hurriedly announced that the entire distilling industry would be converted from liquor to alcohol (it is now about 50% converted) and this week added that practically all of the alcohol would be made from grain. Arthur Newhall also made it clear that whatever alcohol is not needed for explosives, etc., will go into butadiene. But new alcohol plants are something else again: the final relative costs & merits of oil and alcohol are still in the "investigation" stage.

Enter Standard. To compound the investigation's confusion, Standard Oil of New Jersey last week produced technological news that looked like a revolution in rubber. By alkylating a new combination of distillates from the catalytic oil cracking process, Standard had stumbled upon a technique that simultaneously yields better grades of base stock for aviation gasoline plus two to three times as much raw material for buna-S and butyl rubber. Heretofore, the raw materials for aviation gas and for rubber competed directly for each unit of refinery gas production. By August, said Standard, its new aviation gas plant in Louisiana will be in production and, by early next year, it will be ready to turn out butadiene too, with no loss in high octane output.

If Standard's process pans out as advertised, it could mean an automatic increase in the 800,000-ton rubber program to 1,440,000 tons of capacity, with only minor additional facilities. Standard President William S. Parish also took pains to point out that Standard's I.G. Farben--invented process for making rubber from grain had been turned over to Guy Gillette. But his new technique was all on the side of oil. Oil was where Jones & Newhall had placed their bet; and oil, it appeared last week, is to be the source from which the U.S. car-owner will some day get most of his synthetic tires. But not for a long, long time.

* Since buna-N rubber has uses similar to neoprene, it is not included in the expansion program, as it comes from the same sources as the much more useful buna-S. "Ameripol" is a Goodrich trade name for both types of buna.

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