How was glycerine/glycerol produced & shipped during World War II?

[cefinkjr]

In planning (imagineering) a small shelf layout that would represent part of a port in 1943, fish processing was suggested as a possible industry.  But was fish processing a busy industry during the war?  When I went to the internet, I learned:

• Glycerine (or glycerol if you prefer) was a scarce commodity (weren't they all?) and, until 1949, was made mostly from animal fat ... including fish oil.
• Glycerine was needed for the war effort because it was a major ingredient in explosives like nitroglycerine.
• Glycerine was also used in making cordite, a propellant for artillery  and tank shells.  (Did the navy use cordite?  The army did as recently as 50 years ago; I burned more than my share of cordite.) 
• Glycerine was produced by rendering animal fat and essentially distilling the animal fat to a thick, oily liquid.
• Calcium oxide, a dry chemical, was also mentioned as being used in purifying glycerine.

This was all very interesting but I'd like to know some details about the process in 1943 that would affect my modeling and, just as important, operating my port.

1. Most importantly, was glycerine produced in sufficient volumes to be shipped by rail?  If most was shipped by truck, I'm in the market for another industry and the rest of these questions are moot.
2. Did the production of glycerine consume all of the fish or was it only a byproduct?  In other words, could my model fishery ship food products AND glycerine?
3. Can anybody give me a clue as to how dry chemicals like calcium oxide would have been shipped in 1943?  For that matter, can one of you chemists suggest how much calcium oxide would have been used to produce a given amount of glycerine?
4. Since glycerine production was essentially a matter of heating the fish oil, some fuel would have been needed.  Since my port is on the east coast, would hoppers or gondolas of coal be too much of a stretch?

[Colorado Ray]

Can't help you with the glycerin question, but calcium oxide is commonly know as quicklime and had (and still does have) a multitude of industrial uses.  In 1943 it would have been shipped in sacks in boxcars.  In more modern times it's shipped in sacks (small quantities), super sacks, or in bulk in covered hoppers.

Ray

[cefinkjr]

Colorado Ray

Can't help you with the glycerin question, but calcium oxide is commonly know as quicklime and had (and still does have) a multitude of industrial uses.  In 1943 it would have been shipped in sacks in boxcars.  In more modern times it's shipped in sacks (small quantities), super sacks, or in bulk in covered hoppers.

Ray

 

Thanks, Ray.  That's good information.  For some reason, I had assumed 55 gal drums.  Drums or sacks wouldn't matter as far as the kind of cars used but would make a difference in detailing a platform.

["JaBear"]

Gidday Chuck, I would suggest that fish was too valuable as a food source; fish were in short supply, and expensive, in the UK during WW2 though I can’t say for sure if the situation was the same in the US.

On page 30 on this link there are photos of a grease recovery plant during WW2 that culminates in a photo on page 36 of the recovered grease being loaded into a railroad tank car to go and get processed into glycerine.

http://www.ciesin.org/jamaicabay/stakeholder/JamaicaBay_NewYorksConflictedBackyard_102608.pdf

I’m afraid that’s as far as I’ve got.

Cheers, the Bear.

[dehusman]

I rather doubt that a fishery would produce glycerine.  It might produce fish oil and then ship that to a factory that made glycerine.  Same with animal fat from a rendering plant.  They shipped tallow to plants that made chemicals from them.  I know the packing plants shipped tank cars of "inedible animal tallow" to other plants that rendered the oils out of it.  More than likely the fish processing plant would produce fish oils from the waste material left after canning (guts skin, bones) and then the material left after that would become fish meal for fertilizer, etc.

I would think the food, cosmetic, medical and industrial uses of glycerine would far outwiegh its use in explosives.

[DS4-4-1000]

Calcium Oxide may have been shipped in bags but more likely it was simply dumped as a powder into the boxcar and shoveled out by the customer.  Shipping powders and granulated products that way was common well into the 1950's. 

[Atlantic and Hibernia]

There is also a detailed description of the grease recovery process in:

“What Do You Do With the Garbage? New York City’s Progressive Era Sanitary Reforms and Their Impact on the Waste Management Infrastructure in Jamaica Bay”

The URL is https://lihj.cc.stonybrook.edu/

 

Lastly, there is an abandoned fish oil processing factory in New Jersey:

https://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/tuckerton-fish-factory.4232/

Good Hunting!

Kevin

 

[dknelson]

Chuck, my 1937 Car Builder's Cyclopedia has a photo (page 343) of a DuPont lagged and jacketed ICC-104 type tank car for transporting glycerine.  Capacity 8000 gallons.  The car had heater coils outside the tank (but inside the shell so they cannot be seen from the exterior).  The car looks like a fairlly standard "chemical" type of tank car with the platform and railings around the dome.  DUPX 2656.  The car is two tone but the photo is of course black and white.

Dave Nelson

[cefinkjr]

dehusman

I would think the food, cosmetic, medical and industrial uses of glycerine would far outwiegh its use in explosives.

This reminds me of the lumberjack who bragged about cutting down the Sahara Forest.  When somebody pointed out that the Sahara is a desert, he replied, "Sure, now."  

I'm modeling 1943 and explosives then took precedence over all cosmetics and many foods.  I also wonder if the medical and other industrial uses had been discovered yet.

[cefinkjr]

dknelson

Chuck, my 1937 Car Builder's Cyclopedia has a photo (page 343) of a DuPont lagged and jacketed ICC-104 type tank car for transporting glycerine.  Capacity 8000 gallons.  The car had heater coils outside the tank (but inside the shell so they cannot be seen from the exterior).  The car looks like a fairlly standard "chemical" type of tank car with the platform and railings around the dome.  DUPX 2656.  The car is two tone but the photo is of course black and white.

Dave Nelson

Yikes!  I have a 1940 Car Builder's Cyclopedia.  So why didn't I look there first?  

That's really embarrassing because I worked for duPont at one time.  Excuse #2,436: I worked in Textile Fibers; not explosives (whatever that department was called).

[charlie9]

I think that department was called "The Merchants of Death",  or was that Nobel?

Charlie