SOME PROBLEMS IN THE CHEMIZATION OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY

V. B. BURAN

(Recommended by the scientific-methodological seminar of the Department of Industrial Economics and Enterprise Organization)

The chemization of the national economy, representing one of the main directions of scientific and technological progress, is characterized by the planned introduction into the national economy of chemical products and chemical methods of production with the aim of intensifying production processes, creating an inorganic raw-material base for branches of the national economy, strengthening the country’s food base, rational and comprehensive use of raw materials, and evening out the level of economic development of the country’s regions.

The broad introduction of chemical materials and methods into the national economy imposes special requirements on the energy base. The specific consumption of electric power in the chemical electrothermal industry per ton of product is 1000–10000 kWh, while 5–6 thousand kWh of electric power are consumed to obtain one ton of phosphoric acid. In the cost structure of chemical-industry output, not counting expenditures on consumed chemical products, 20% of all costs fall on products and industrial services of the fuel-and-power branches [3]. In the cost structure of nitrogen-fertilizer production, the share of fuel-and-power costs is 30–35%; in the production of phosphatic fertilizers by electrothermal sublimation of phosphorus, it is 10–14%. In addition, chemical processing methods using high temperatures, pressures, vacuum, and deep cold are possible only with a high level of technical equipment of production processes with apparatus; this requires a high level of mechanization and automation ensuring the optimal conduct of technological processes.

Consequently, alongside the expansion of the field of application of chemical materials and methods, a condition for the chemization of the national economy is comprehensive electrification, mechanization, and automation of the branch’s production processes and, on this basis, the steady growth of the volume of chemical production.

During the seven-year plan (1959–1965), the output of chemical products increased almost 2.5-fold, with average annual growth rates 1.5 times higher than in industry as a whole. The accelerated growth rates of chemical production were ensured by large capital investments. Over the seven years, more than 9 billion rubles were directed into chemistry, i.e., 2.3 times more than during the preceding forty years. At present, two-thirds of the fixed assets of the chemical industry

represented by new plants or radically reconstructed enterprises and shops, which produce more than 60% of the total output of chemical products. The technical re-equipment of the chemical industry made it possible in 1965, compared with 1959, to increase the output of mineral fertilizers twofold, chemical plant-protection agents fourfold, plastics 3.2-fold, and so on.

In the decisions of the Twenty-Third Congress of the CPSU, a major role is assigned to the chemical industry in increasing the rate of growth of social production, in accelerating scientific and technical progress, and in raising the efficiency of social production. By 1970 the output of chemical products will almost double compared with 1965. The production of mineral fertilizers will increase twofold, chemical plant-protection agents 2.3-fold, and household chemical goods 2.5–3-fold. In this five-year period as well, accelerated rates of development in chemistry will be maintained. The average annual rates of growth of chemical output will be 1.8 times higher than for industry as a whole.

The intensive development of chemistry in the period 1959–1965 made it possible to reduce the lag of this branch in the USSR in comparison with the level of development of other branches. Nevertheless, proportionality has not yet been achieved. Research by the Scientific Research Institute of Technical and Economic Studies in the Chemical Industry has established that, even under conditions of proportional development of chemistry and other branches of industry, the tendency will remain for the preferential growth of the production of chemical agents for crop farming and livestock raising in comparison with the growth of agricultural production [4].

The achievement of proportional development of chemistry in the national economy contributes to the solution of a number of economic tasks, which may be considered using the example of the development of the mineral-fertilizer industry in Western Siberia.

Mineral fertilizers are a kind of “instrument of labor” in agriculture, the use of which sharply intensifies agricultural production. Each hour spent on the production of mineral fertilizers saves 25 hours of agricultural labor in agriculture; and through the use of mineral fertilizers, chemical plant-protection agents, and mineral feed additives, under the conditions of 1970 the saving of labor in the national economy is equivalent to a saving of 6.3 million persons’ labor [5].

In 1964, in the West Siberian economic region, an average of 2 kg of fertilizers in terms of nutrient substance was applied per 1 ha of arable land, i.e., the need for mineral fertilizers was satisfied by less than 10%. This circumstance could not but affect the fact that, while possessing 16.5% of the sown areas under grain crops in the Russian Federation, the economic region produced only 10.5% of the republic’s gross grain harvest. If in the coming years the yield of agricultural crops is not raised, then, in accordance with calculations that have been made, by 1980 the marketable output of wheat in the region will be reduced by half, and in thermophilic vegetables and fodder the economic region will experience a shortage. This may have an unfavorable influence on the economic development of other regions of the country, where conditions for producing agricultural output are worse than in Western Siberia. The most important measure for preserving the high marketability of agriculture in Western Siberia is to increase yields through the chemicalization of agriculture, with a steady improvement in the culture of farming.

A generalization of the results of scientific research on the application of mineral fertilizers in Western Siberia shows that their broad introduction into agriculture, with an improved cropping structure and the use of a scientific fertilizer system, will make it possible by 1970 to bring grain production in the region up to 17.7 million tons, and by 1980 to 28 million tons. The profitability level of fertilizer application will be 80–100% and more.

Chemization ensures savings in social labor through the comprehensive use of raw materials. The comprehensive use of raw materials presupposes the rational extraction of useful components and operation without waste. “The progress of chemistry,” wrote K. Marx, “also teaches how to introduce the excrements (refuse) of the production process and thus creates matter for new capital without the prior expenditure of capital” [1].

Multicomponent raw material subjected to comprehensive processing using chemical methods can be used to obtain various products; in this connection, the most expedient and economically efficient direction of use becomes especially important.

The technical-and-economic indicators of the coke-chemical and nitrogen industries of Western Siberia show the economic efficiency of producing nitrogen fertilizers through the comprehensive processing of coal from coke-oven gas, while directing coke to metallurgical production. Thus, according to data for 1963–1965, the production of one ton of ammonia at the Kemerovo Nitrogen Fertilizer Plant from coke-oven gas cost 45–50% less than from coke at the Novo-Kemerovo Combine and other Siberian enterprises using solid fuel.

An important reserve for the further chemization of agriculture in Western Siberia is the expansion of capacities for the production of nitrogen fertilizers through the use of coke-oven gas resources from the region’s ferrous metallurgy and the replacement of solid fuel used as raw material in ammonia production with natural gas, the potential resources of which in Tomsk Oblast alone are estimated at 2,700 billion cubic meters [6].

The experience of the Novo-Moscow and Lisichansk chemical combines proves the expediency of converting chemical production from metallurgical coke to natural gas. Calculations show that converting the Novo-Kemerovo Chemical Combine to natural gas will make it possible to reduce the cost of ammonia production by approximately one and a half times, and correspondingly that of nitrogen fertilizers by 32–33%. Labor expenditures per ton of ammonia, when it is obtained from natural gas, are reduced almost twofold, which is extremely important for the conditions of Western Siberia, where there is a certain shortage of labor.

Of special interest for the chemization of agriculture in Western Siberia is the creation in this region of phosphate-fertilizer production based on local resources of phosphate raw material. Calculations indicate the economic expediency of jointly using the Belkinskoye and Tamalyk phosphorite deposits for the production of concentrated and compound fertilizers based on thermal phosphoric acid under conditions of a shortage of phosphate raw material (Table 1).

The creation of phosphate-fertilizer production as part of the Kuzbass chemical complex, where the nitrogen industry is developed, provides real prerequisites for organizing the production of compound nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizers.

The chemization of the national economy is closely connected with the problem of equalizing the economic potential of the country’s economic regions. Under socialism there is both the possibility and the necessity of planned, rational allocation of industries in order to achieve the maximum productivity of social labor. Undoubtedly, the discovery of new effective raw-material bases, the availability of rich fuel and energy resources, and the introduction of the achievements of science and technology

Table 1

Technical and economic indicators for the production of electrothermal phosphorus from different types of raw material
(as a percentage of phosphorus from Kara-Tau phosphorites)

will cause the intensive, predominant development of individual regions, but overall the tendency of national-economic development must consist in equalizing the economic levels of all regions while rationally using material and labor resources.

If we compare the economic potential of the western and eastern regions of the Russian Federation in terms of the production of gross output, it turns out that in 1960 the regions of Siberia and the Far East produced 14.5% of the republic’s gross output. For Western Siberia, according to 1961 data, this indicator was 6.7%. During the seven-year plan, the economic potential of the eastern regions increased significantly, which makes it possible in the coming five-year period to concentrate the production of a number of products in these regions on a large scale. By the decisions of the Twenty-Third Congress of the CPSU, it is planned by 1970 to concentrate in the East 65% of all-Union aluminum production, 58% of copper production, 28% of cellulose production, and 28% of electric power.

Taking into account the inexhaustible fuel and energy resources in the East and the considerable deficit in the West of the country, in the current five-year period a strong raw-material base for the chemical industry will be created in Western and Eastern Siberia, which will be an indispensable condition for the further chemization of all branches of the national economy.

References

1. K. Marx. Capital, vol. I, p. 478, 1952.
2. Materials of the XXIII Congress of the CPSU. Politizdat, 1966.
3. Industry in the National-Economic Complex of Economic Regions of the USSR. Moscow, 1964.
4. E. Savinsky. On the regularities of development of the chemical industry. In: All-Union Conference on Economic Problems of the Development of the Chemical Industry and the Chemization of the National Economy. Moscow, 1966.
5. I. Mashinsky. Methods for determining the economy of social labor and the connection with the chemization of branches of material production—In: All-Union Conference on Economic Problems of the Development of the Chemical Industry and the Chemization of the National Economy. Moscow, 1966.
6. Tomsk Oil and Gas—to the Motherland. Newspaper Krasnoe Znamya, Tomsk, June 18, 1966.