Shell Agricultural Chemical

Acknowledgments. We wish to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Fonds Herbette (Lausanne), Hoffmann-La Roche Co., AG (Basel), Shell Agriculture Chemical Co. (Modesto, Calif.) and E. I. de Pont de Nemours Co. (Wilmington, Del.) for generous financial support. We are grateful also to the Ecole Polytechnique Fidirale de Lausanne and its Centre de Calcul (Mr. P. Santschi) for computing time. 

Biological Sciences Research Center, Shell Agricultural Chemical Company, P.0. Box 4248, Modesto, CA 95352... 

Monsanto Agricultural Company, 368 Purdue University, 433 Ricerca, Inc., 199 Rohm and Haas Company, 318 Schering AG West Germany, 328 Shell Agricultural Chemical Company, 36,209,241,401 Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., 340 U.S. Department of Agriculture, 151,226,260,273,388,409,433,445 University of Arizona, 353 University of Maryland, 273 University of Minnesota, 141 Upjohn Company, 251... 

I. du Pont de Nemours Co., Wilmington, DE 19898 FMC Corporation, Princeton, NJ 08543 University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 Shell Agricultural Chemical Company, Modesto, CA 95352 American Cyanamid, Princeton, NJ 08540... 

Pfizer Central Research, 283 Purdue University, 191 Shell Agricultural Chemical Company, 316 Shimane University, 83 Thames Polytechnic, 25 University of California, 2,71,316 University of Cambridge, 14 University of Maryland School of Medicine, 107 University of Missouri, 174 University of Toronto, 136 University of Waterloo, 202 Wellcome Research Laboratories, 262... 

Biological Sciences Research Center, Shell Agricultural Chemical Company,... 

Lehigh University, 469 Merck and Company, Inc., 469 Monsanto Agricultural Company, 195,300 Nippon Soda Company Ltd., 340 Nova Pharmaceutical Corporation, 469 Pennsylvania State University, 400 Rohm and Haas Company, 322,478 SOCAR AG, 226,506 Salutar, Inc., 527 Sandoz Crop Protection, 352 Shell Agricultural Chemical Conpany, 371 Universidad de Antioquia, 469 The Upjohn Company, 422 U.S. Department of Agriculture, 32,10, 247,255,269,278,413,491... 

Shell Chemical Co., Agricultural Chemicals Division, New York, N. Y. 

Shell Chemical Co., Agricultural Chemical Division, "Manual of Methods for the Determination of Pesticide Chemical Residues in Agricultural Products, Animal Products, and Soil, 1961. 

Analyses performed by Agricultural Chemical Laboratory, Shell Development Corp., Modesto, Calif. (13). 

Next came acquisitions, funded in part by the divestitures, that reinforced the learning base in the paths that the firm had long followed. In films and fibers it purchased Exxon s carbon fiber business in 1984, Exxon s film composites activities in 1985, and Hercules s olefin fiber carpets in 1989. Later, in 1992, it traded its acrylic assets to ICI for the latter s nylon business, plus 41 million. In paints and finishes Du Pont obtained Ford s North American automotive paint division in 1986, followed by a joint venture with ICI to expand the same market in Europe, and one with Kami Paint to do so in Japan and East Asia. In agricultural chemicals it acquired Shell s agricultural chemicals division in 1986, and later in 1992 collaborated with Shell to develop specialized insecticides. For Du Pont, sustaining its technical and functional capabilities in long-established paths in which it was a competitive leader remained a basic strategy. ... 

The corporate paths of learning of two other prewar first movers—Shell and Phillips—were similar to that of Jersey Standard and defined the boundaries of these enterprises in a comparable manner. A third prewar first mover, Standard Oil of California, followed a somewhat different path by expanding its earlier move into agricultural chemicals. In the following brief reviews, 1 make no attempt to list the end-products these companies delivered to the market. 

The initial entry of the oil and gas companies came in the 1920s when four competitors—Socal, Shell, Jersey Standard, and Phillips—began to produce chemicals. The first two commercialized agricultural chemicals. The other two, Jersey Standard and Phillips, concentrated on commercializing petroleum-based gasoline. However, it was the totally unpredictable and extraordinary demand of World War II that created the petroleum side of the polymer/petrochemical revolution. The four companies that had created their learning bases in the 1930s became the first movers in this new industry. 

There are many potential outlets for these kinds of product, viz. cross-linking agents, speciality (co)monomers, and starting materials in the preparation of various a,cu-disubstituted intermediates for the production of aroma chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural chemicals. The first commercial plant, operating under the name FEAST (Further Exploitation of Advanced Shell Technology), was opened in 1987 in Berre I Etang (France) and has a capacity of 3000 tons per year (Short 1987). 

Meanwhile, Standard Oil of California, lacking Shell s technological capability, developed agricultural and horticultural insecticides through the acquisition in 1931 of the California Spray Chemical Corporation. In the 1930s Standard Oil of California began producing by-products, primarily naph-thalic acids and derivatives. ... 

Rutgers University, 42 Saitama University, 224 Shell Research, Ltd., 320 Sumitomo Chemical Company, Ltd., 224 U.S. Department of Agriculture, 118,364 Universitat Konstanz, Federal Republic of Germany, 407... 

The preparation and characterization of the VR and ESR liquid rubbers and of the two-phase epoxy thermosets were described in detail previously (3-6). DGEBA is a solid epoxy resin (Epon 825) from Shell Chemical Company. ESO and ELO are commercial products from Atochem. Samples of VO and crambe oil were obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. All other reagents and solvents were purchased from Aldrich Chemical Co. and Fisher Scientific Co. and used without additional purification. 

Use of D-D (approximately 35 percent 1,2-D) was subsequently suspended by the Del Norte County agricultural commissioner. Shell Chemical Company has since withdrawn D-D from the California market. 

---