Dr. BOYD. That is correct, that is true of almost all our minerals. Mr. BECKWORTH. And become increasingly so as the years come and go, probably?

Dr. BOYD. Yes; up to probably a plateau. Where you get down to a level of having to produce sulfur from gypsum, you will have reached the point that will last a long, long time at that level.

Mr. BECKWORTH. This is perhaps not very pertinent, but I recall not many months ago this committee was dealing with some legislation in regard to the Office of Technical Services, which is in the Department of Commerce. That office is supposed to have information that was obtained from foreign countries of a technical nature that in some instances is helpful. I do not suppose there is any information that would be helpful to you, or has that been explored?

Dr. BOYD. Yes; we always have access to that technical information. Mr. BECKWORTH. Did you find anything helpful in the way of sulfur production?

Dr. BOYD. I do not specifically know myself, but I am sure our technologists have run across that. We have gone through virtually tons of that material.

Mr. BECKWORTH. That is what I had in mind. I repeat this may not be too pertinent, but I wish you would give us the benefit of any information that you may have obtained from that Department that has been helpful in the sulfur production.

Dr. BOYD. All right, sir; I shall be happy to do that. (The information is as follows:)

Perhaps 100 German documents bibliofilmed by FIAT (Field Information Agency, Technical) in the offices of various German companies and individuals who dealt with sulfur and its compounds were available for a time at the Office of Technical Services and later deposited in the Library of Congress. Photostatic copies of the unpublished material are in the Bureau of Mines foreign document file at the library of the College Park, Md., Mining Experiment Station. Some of this information was also digested and summarized in English by specialists sent to Germany by TIIC (Technical Industrial Intelligence Committee, Joint Chiefs of Staff, United States) or by BIOS (British Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee) which summaries were also filed by Office of Technical Services for photostatic reproduction when the supply of original prints maintained by Joint Chiefs of Staff had been exhausted.

Germany has had a sulfur supply problem much longer than the United States has and therefore measures taken by the Germans in both the World Wars are of very immediate interest in the United States. Recovery of hydrogen sulfide from coke-oven gas has long been practiced in Germany. Conversion of hydrogen sulfide into brimstone by the Claus process is more widely practiced there than in the United States. Manufacture of sulfuric acid from calcium sulfate substituted for calcium carbonate in cement kilns, making sulfuric acid as a byproduct in the manufacture of cement, was practiced in Germany (and in England) during both wars and has been sufficiently developed that it may continue in one or both countries as a peacetime venture. The German experience during World War II with substitutions for the formerly imported Spanish pyrites were also of interest and to be found only in such records.

Whether as much use has been made of such facilities as should have been done is hard to say. The German language barrier did not exist among the higher-level metallurgists of the Bureau of Mines who had to consult the above literature. No translations exist in our files except for papers of critical value on sulfur. Not all of the really pertinent literature has been put into English. Mr. BECKWORTH. With reference to Alaska, I do not suppose you know whether it has been explored for sulfur.

Dr. BOYD. Alaska has not been fully explored at all, but there are known to be large deposits of sulfides or metalic materials containing sulfur in Alaska.

Mr. BECKWORTH. You do not know of any large domes such as we have in Texas that have been found there?

Dr. BOYD. Not particularly to be found there; the geologic conditions are different.

Mr. BECKWORTH. Other than the dome, what is the next best and cheapest method to procure sulfur?

Dr. BOYD. From the pyrites or iron sulfides. Those deposits are known of very large size.

Mr. BECKWORTH. You feel that that is a very favorable source at this time?

Dr. BOYD. Yes, sir. It will rapidly grow as a source of our sulfur. The technology in recovering sulfur from pyrites has been improved in recent months in this country. That will be much better than the process used heretofore in Europe; much cheaper.

Mr. BECKWORTH. Since you have mentioned it, would you mind briefly explaining what it is?

Dr. BoYD. This process is a patented process. I have not seen it in operation myself. It is what is known as a fluosolids system where you grind the material fine and pass hot gases over it in suspension so that the hot gases get very quickly to the particles and break the sulfur loose from the iron. Sulfur is taken off as a gas and condensed and the iron is recovered as a sintered byproduct and used in the steel industry, as an iron-ore equivalent. It is as simple as that.

Mr. BECKWORTH. It is an old process, is it not?

Dr. BOYD. The machines for doing it were developed recently, in the last 2 or 3 years, really were made effective.

Mr. BECKWORTH. How old would you say the process is, in some form?

Dr. BOYD. I would hate to guess, sir. The Chinese used a primitive form.

Mr. BECKWORTH. You mentioned that it is a patented process. Dr. BOYD. The machines for carrying out that same kind of process have been patented just recently.

Mr. BECKWORTH. Who owns the patent?

Dr. BoYD. The Dorr Co.

Mr. BECKWORTH. I wonder if the control there is such that it is difficult to utilize that process and very expensive? For example, an independent businessman wants to use it, would have to pay how much?

Dr. BOYD. They would be very happy to sell it to them. They make the machines only. Other machines may be used.

Mr. BECKWORTH. Do you regard as reasonable that which is charged or have you ever looked into it?

Dr. BOYD. I have not looked into it. They do not use the machines themselves. They only make them for sale. They would be out to sell them.

Mr. BECKWORTH. You have named the primary source that is desirable and the second. What is the third in order of desirability? Dr. BOYD. I would say the third would be possibly the sour oil gases and the recovery from the metallurgical plants in the petroleum industry and those general industrial processes. It is hard to actually assign priority to them. They would be more or less in a group.

Mr. BECKWORTH. Your primary limiting factor there would be

what?

Dr. BOYD. Quantities available against the cost of equipment to extract them. They become an economic factor then. Some of these plants do not put out enough gas to warrant the construction of the expensive equipment to recover it. It just depends on what size operations you have.

Mr. BECKWORTH. Thank you, Dr. Boyd.

Dr. BOYD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

(The following material was submitted for the record by Dr. Boyd :)

TABLE 1.-Salient statistics of the sulfur industry in the United States, 1935–39 (average) and 1947–50, in long tons

1 1935-39 (average): Mine shipments; 1947-50: Apparent shipments to consumers.

2 Mine stocks only.

3 Data not available. In 1939, 4,307 long tons were produced.

4 Data not available. In 1939, 13,000 long tons were recovered.

TABLE 2.-Production of sulfur and sulfur-containing raw materials by producers in the United States in 1949-50, in long tons

TABLE 3.-Sulfur ore (10–70 percent S) produced1 and shipped for agricultural use in the United States, 1946–50, in long tons

1 1946-48: California, Colorado, Nevada, and Texas; 1949-50: California, Colorado (1949 only), Nevada, and Wyoming.

TABLE 4.-Sulfur produced and shipped in the United States, 1946-50

TABLE 5.-Sulfur produced in Texas in 1950, by companies, in long tons

TABLE 6.-Apparent consumption of sulfur in the United States, 1946–50, in

TABLE 7.-Byproduct sulfuric acid (basis, 100 percent) produced at copper, zinc, and lead plants in the United States, 1946–50, in short tons

TABLE 8.-Sulfur consumed in the United States, 1948-50, by uses, in long tons

TABLE 9.-Pyrites (ores and concentrates) produced in the United States,

(Intrabureau Report, Oil-Shale Demonstration Branch, Rifle, Colo., June 1, 1951, Report No. 7, Planning and Evaluation Section)

INTRODUCTION

An estimate of the tonnage of sulfur which could be recovered from a commercial oil-shale plant was requested by J. D. Doherty in a letter to Boyd Guthrie dated May 25, 1951. This report, prepared in compliance with Mr. Doherty's request, presents the findings of a study of sulfur recovery from oil shale.

SULFUR AS A BYPRODUCT OF OIL-SHALE PROCESSING

1

Work at the Laramie Station indicates Mahogany ledge shale to contain 0.63 weight percent sulfur principally as organic and pyritic sulfur. Upon retorting by the Fischer assay method 70 to 75 percent of the sulfur is retained in the ash, 20 percent shows up in the gas, with the remaining 10 percent in the oil.

1 Frost, I. C., and Stanfield, K. E., Primary Sulfur Constituents of Raw Colorado Oil Shale and Their Distribution in Modified Fischer Assay Products, Intrabureau Report, OSRD 44, Petroleum and Oil-Shale Experiment Station, Laramie, Wyo., December 1950.