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Phillips Sulfole® mercaptans are the regulators you want for added control of your rubber or plas tics polymerization process. Phillips pioneered the use of these mercaptans, proven performers in SBR, ABS, and acrylic processing. Our rigid quality con trol insures product integrity batch after batch, our vast feedstocks assure continuous supply. Specify Phillips Sulfole mercaptans. For more information, write: Specialty Chemicals, 14C4 Phillips Building, Bartlesville, Oklahoma 74004. Or call: 918 661-4872. PHILLIPS
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C&EN Nov. 3, 1980
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Lignol unit in tandem to an ethanolfrom-cellulose plant. If this can be done, the prospect is that for every gallon of ethanol from newsprint, there also would be 1 lb of phenol and 0.7 lb of benzene. Asked whether there might be any interest by paper companies in using the Lignol process to convert kraft lignin, several pulping engineers agree that as long as there is a surplus of lignin available, the process might be attractive. Most lignin now finds use as a fuel in the paper mills and is highly valued for this purpose, but the value as a chemical feedstock may be higher in most places. D
Aluminum-air fuel cell tested at Livermore The recent successful tests at Law rence Livermore National Laboratory of an aluminum-air power cell for automobiles (C&EN, Oct. 20, page 32) could lead to a prototype vehicle in 1989 if the research schedule set by the Department of Energy moves along as anticipated. The schedule calls for building a refuelable cell next year, a multicell test module in 1982, and a 60-cell prototype auto battery in 1985. The tests, described recently at an Electrochemical Society meeting in Miami, were carried out on a single auto-sized test cell containing a rec tangular aluminum alloy plate 16 inches by 10 inches by V^inch thick. In operation, air and water are pumped through the cell and combine with the aluminum, producing elec tricity and a recyclable reaction product hydrargillite [Al(OH)3]. A crystallizer forms and collects the reaction product so it doesn't clog up the cell. The aluminum is used up gradually and uniformly in the oper ation. To refuel, a new aluminum plate is added. According to LLNL research chemist John F. Cooper, who along with electrical engineer Ervin Behrin manages DOE metal-air battery research efforts centered at the lab oratory, 60 of the cells connected to gether into a 970-lb battery ulti mately could power a full-perfor mance, five-passenger vehicle. It could travel 300 miles nonstop at 55 mph, 10 times the range of a car powered by the same weight of to day's lead-acid batteries. A vehicle would carry about 6 gal of water—enough to go about 250 to 300 miles without stopping. Then tap water would be added and the reac tion product removed for recycling. Aluminum alloy plates would be added—a 15- to 30-minute job—only
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory research chemist John Cooper works on aluminum-air fuel cell being developed to power electric vehicles
every 1000 to 3000 miles, depending on the thickness of the plates used. As with other electric vehicles, the aluminum-air powered vehicle can't compete with a gasoline-powered automobile in cost and performance, Cooper says. But the operating cost is expected to be competitive with liquid synfuels—equivalent to gasoline at $2.00 to $3.00 per gal. Parts of the new aluminum-air system are being developed by four industrial subcontractors working with LLNL. Continental Group Inc. has contracted with Lockheed Missiles & Space Co., Palo Alto, Calif., to design and build the large
refuelable cell to be tested in the near future. Diamond Shamrock's electrolytic systems division, Chardon, Ohio, is developing a durable air cathode on which air is reduced to hydroxide ion before reacting with the aluminum. Reynolds Metals, Richmond, is developing a range of aluminum alloys suitable for economic production and operation within the power cell (so far, alloys with 0.05% gallium and less than 0.04% iron work best). And Aluminum Co. of America, Alcoa-Center, Pa., is developing the crystallizer to separate hydrargillite from the battery fluid. •
Fluidized bed improves formaldehyde process A group of investigators at the Istituto di Chimica Industrial del Politecnico in Milan, Italy, is developing a new process for the oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde. Unlike the commercial processes now in use, the new process will employ a fluidized catalyst bed. It also is expected to offer some advantages over present technology. Many processes have been used for commercial air oxidation of methanol. One is over silver catalysts to yield formalin (37% aqueous solution). Another employs iron molybdate catalysts with excess molybdenum trioxide. The molybdate process operates in a fixed bed at temperatures of about 300°C. A problem has been segregation of the M0O3 in catalyst pellets at the higher temperatures where reaction rates are more attractive. The proclivity of fixed catalyst beds to develop hot spots frequently decreases the active lifetime of the bed and presents some problems in reactor control. The favored alternative to fixed bed operation is a fluidized bed of catalyst particles. This eliminates hot
spots, offers generally better temperature control throughout the bed, and permits continuous operation—a matter of considerable commercial importance. But the conventional Fe2(Mo04)3-Mo03 catalysts usually used in the fixed bed processes cannot be used in fluid beds. The catalysts lack the mechanical strength to avoid severe attrition. Considerable experimentation at the Milan institute has resulted in an acceptable catalyst composed of Fe203-MoO(3 deposited on microspheroidal silica. Although there are yet no actual plant operating data with which to estimate the attrition of these catalyst spheres in commercial use, accelerated testing in the laboratory indicates that the particles are more than adequately strong. The effectiveness of the catalyst was tested in a laboratory bed with electrical heaters. The fluidizing gas consisted of mixtures of methanol and air or methanol, oxygen, and air. At virtually total methanol conversion (98%), the catalyst selectivity for formaldehyde varied from 90 to 98%, depending on the weight fraction of
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