Union Carbide case

Having now some notion of how a patent specification should be drawn, let us apply our knowledge to an actual patent. The patent I wish to discuss—Jones, Kennedy, and Rotermund (9) — issued on June 9, 1936, originally to Union Carbide Carbon Corp. An examination of the reports reveals that this patent has the distinction of being the last one to have been sustained by the U. S. Supreme Court. To be sure, since the Union Carbide case, the high court has taken a number of patent cases for consideration, but save for the so-called A P case (/), in which the patent was held void, none required consideration of the issues of validity and infringment. 

Nucleophilic Substitution Route. Commercial synthesis of poly(arylethersulfone)s is accompHshed almost exclusively via the nucleophilic substitution polycondensation route. This synthesis route, discovered at Union Carbide in the early 1960s (3,4), involves reaction of the bisphenol of choice with 4,4 -dichlorodiphenylsulfone in a dipolar aprotic solvent in the presence of an alkaUbase. Examples of dipolar aprotic solvents include A/-methyl-2-pyrrohdinone (NMP), dimethyl acetamide (DMAc), sulfolane, and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Examples of suitable bases are sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, and potassium carbonate. In the case of polysulfone (PSE) synthesis, the reaction is a two-step process in which the dialkah metal salt of bisphenol A (1) is first formed in situ from bisphenol A [80-05-7] by reaction with the base (eg, two molar equivalents of NaOH),... 

HDetect Financial Risks. In addition to physical injuries, a company may be injured by the perception of injury that result in law suits, drop in stock price, and reduction in sales. A detailed analysis (2) will as.scss vulnerability but it docs not directly address the perception factor. A case in point is TMI-2 which complied with 10 CFRIOO, had no injuries and no deaths, but the company was driven to near-bankruptcy. Similarly with Bhopal and Union Carbide, although there were deaths. ... 

When water-miscible ionic liquids are used as solvents, and when the products are partly or totally soluble in these ionic liquids, the addition of polar solvents, such as water, in a separation step after the reaction can make the ionic liquid more hydrophilic and facilitate the separation of the products from the ionic liquid/water mixture (Table 5.3-2, case e). This concept has been developed by Union Carbide for the hydroformylation of higher alkenes catalyzed by Rh-sulfonated phosphine ligand in the N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP)/water system. Thanks to the presence of NMP, the reaction is performed in one homogeneous phase. After the reaction. 

Analytical Procedures. The extraction procedure used for solution studies was based on the method supplied by Union Carbide Corporation ( ), and was reported In previous work ( ). Samples were analyzed using a Microtek GC with a Tracer NP detector as described by Lemley and Zhong ( ). Conditions used for the various pesticides analyzed and the retention times obtained are detailed In Table I. In all cases a 4 foot x 4 mm I.D. glass column packed with 1.5% SP-2250/1.95% SP-2401 on 100/120 mesh Supelcoport was used. A glass Injector was used for the analysis of carbofuran and 3-hydroxycarbofuran. Procedures were varied slightly for analysis of methomyl. The first three Inches of the column were packed with 1.5% OV-17 on 100/120 mesh Supelcoport, and a glass Injector was used without glass wool at the end. 

One of the most notorious cases of industrial disaster took place in 1984 in Bhopal, India. A plant with a license from the Union Carbide company was making methyl isocyanate (MIC), CH3NCO, which is an intermediate for the manufacture of pesticides. MIC boils at 39 °C, and the vapor density is heavier than air and very toxic by inhalation and skin absorption. The maximum allowable air concentration is 0.02 ppm by volume over 8 h. MIC also reacts with water and produces heat, which must be removed to prevent boiling over. On that day in 1984, the cooling system failed during... 

In the case of polyglycols of high molecular weight, some manufacturers attach numbers to their trade names, eg, the Union Carbide Co uses such names as Caibowax 1340, Carbowax 4000 etc for their solid polyethyleneglycols. The Dow Chemical Co calls their products Polyglycol 400, E600, 1200 and E4000... 

Some of the fibers in each batch were aged in humid air, in deionized (DI) water, or in silane solution. All of the aging was carried out at 35°C for 30 days. A commercial (Blue-M) controlled atmosphere chamber held the relative humidity (RH) at 70% and the temperature at 34°C. The silane solutions were prepared by adding the requisite amount (1% by volume) of unhydrolyzed y-APS (A-1100 Union Carbide) to triply distilled water or to acetic acid solution. A hydrolysis time of approximately 8 h was allowed prior to adding fibers to the solution. This yielded solutions at pH 10 and pH 4, respectively. The fibers were suspended in Nalgene containers, where the glass surface area-to-solution volume ratio was fixed at 50 cm1. In all cases, the fibers were dried in air at 75°C and the solutions were analyzed for their Si, Al, Ca, and B contents. Table 1 presents the results of these solution analyses. 

The experiments were carried out in a small flow type fixed bed reactor which has been described in a recent publication (9) along with the methods of analysis by capillary gas-liquid chromatography. Results are reported that were gained with all pure n-alkanes ranging from n-hexane to n-dodecane. Feed hydrocarbons were delivered from Fluka, Buchs, Switzerland (purum). Purity exceeded 99. 5 wt. -% in any case. The Pt/Ca-Y-zeolite catalyst (0. 5 wt. -% Pt, SK 200, Union Carbide, Linde Division volume of catalyst bed 2 cm3 particle size 0. 2 - 0. 3 mm) was calcined in a dried stream of Ng and activated in a dried stream of at atmospheric pressure prior to use. The mass of dry catalyst was 1.0 g. The total pressure and molar ratio hydrogen n-alkane were kept constant at 39 bar and 17 1, respectively, whereas the reaction temperatures and space velocities were varied. 

Union Carbide (95, 96) developed chromium catalysts that need activation by aluminum alkyls, but which have the advantage that molecular weight can be controlled with hydrogen, as in the case of the titanium-based catalysts. To prepare the catalysts, organosilanols are combined with chromium trioxide to afford silylchromate. The silylchromate is then deposited on a silica support and activated with an aluminum alkyl (see Fig. 13). 

This work expresses only the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the opinions or practices either of Union Carbide Corporation or any other single company. Unpublished case histories used to illustrate the text were in most cases kindly supplied by peers from other companies and are used without either reference or identification of the company involved this should not imply that the accounts are undocumented. The book should be used in conjunction with published guidelines and recommended practices such as NFPA 77 and references [1-7]. 

Scientists do not usually get deeply involved in the intricacies of patent coverage, but it was essential in the case of the A and X zeolites because they involved concepts and science totally new to Union Carbide patent lawyers. During 1952 and 1953 I spent probably 20% of my time on patent matters. 

The instant advantage which both shareholders and raiders drew from these operations was obvious. But their consequence was, sooner or later, to destabilize the enterprises concerned, when these did not disappear altogether. The most spectacular case was Union Carbide, coveted in 1985 by the real estate developer S. Hayman, who had already taken over GAF Corporation. 

The Bhopal plant of Union Carbide was built originally 1.5 miles from the nearest housing (see below under Case Histories ). Over time, a residential area grew up next to the plant. This demonstrates the need to prevent hazardous plants from being located close to residential areas and to prevent residential areas from being established near such plants.4 If possible, the cost of a plant should include an adequate buffer zone unless other... 

M. STERN (Union Carbide) You noted, as we have also from our work, that exchange rates on passive metals are much smaller than similar exchange reactions on active metals. You point out that the passive layer in many cases has the properties of a semiconductor. What type of experiments could be carried out to determine whether a layer exhibits semiconductivity ... 

An examination of the causes of the Bhopal disaster clearly indicates that the accident would not have occurred if all necessary precautions had been taken in the maintenance and operation of the Union Carbide Pesticide Plant. This required continued and apt maintenance, regular inspection by independent authorities, sufficiently well-trained staff, and location of the plant far away from residential areas and not just within 1 km of the railway station and within 3 km of two major hospitals, as was the case in Bhopal. 

The graphite used was of two forms HOPG chips (kindly provided by A. W. Moore, Carbon Products Division, Union Carbide) were filed by hand into powder SP-1 graphite (Union Carbide) was used as supplied. Although the SP-1 crystallites were of considerably smaller particle size, they interacted somewhat more slowly than the fragmented HOPG in all cases. All graphite samples were baked at 500° under vacuum and were pretreated with F2 (300 torr) for four hours. Silicon tetrafluoride and fluorine were used as obtained from The Matheson Company, East Rutherford, N. J. Phosphorus pentafluoride (also from The Matheson Company) was purified by trap-to-trap distillation and checked for purity by infrared spectroscopy. 

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