BROMINE FROM THE SEA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1925, Page 16

BROMINE FROM THE SEA.

RETRIEVING A VALUABLE

CHEMICAL.

Unique in industrial history is an American sea-going chemical factory, which by an entirely new process is expected to extract 100,0001b of bromine monthly from the waters of the ocean. Should it answer expectations—and the originators of the project have no doubt whatever that it will—the equipping of a fleet of bromine ships will follow, together with the creation of other floating chemical industries, for the recovery from the sea of various valuable constituents (says the "Daily Chronicle"). Tbe 4300-ton steamship Ethyl, in.which the factory had been installed, was purchased by the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation from the United States Shipping Board at a price below what land on the seashore could be purchased for a similar purpose. Among other advantages of the float- I ing works the energy required for pumping this inexhaustible supply of seawater | 18 reduced to a minimum by placing the machinery below the waterline; the effluent is readily dispersed by the waves, and therefore its disposal and the dissipation of fumes incidental to the process,. both prolific sources of trouble on land,' present- no difficulty whatever. The Ethyl's equipment will enable her to draw aboard 7000 gallons of water a minute. . Heretofore bromine, so valuable in commerce, has been recovered laboriously from mineral springs and from the potash deposits of Germany. The fact that the supply is being rapidly depleted, principally through the rapid development of ethyl gasoline in motor car operation, inspired the present venture.