January, 1945
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
This Month for the sugar bowl is our dominant theme this month as A we present eight articles in a symposium devoted to the production of sugars from wood. OPE
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n introduction by G. E. Hilbert shows that the necessity for making sugars from wood is real because of the drain on wheat, which was an emergency substitute for corn.
fl rior t o the First World War there were in successful operation two plants for the conversion of wood. They continued functioning after the war, according to Sherrard and Kressman. fl rincipal factor in the development of the method in the United States has been the Office of Production Research and Development, as W. L. Faith reviews. ields of sugar from various woods is the subject of a paper from the U. S. Forest Products Laboratory. The authors used sulfuric acid for hydrolysis and found that softwoods would give greater yields of fermentable sugar. Hardwoods gave the same yields of sugar but they were not so readily convertible. Also included is a study on the utilization of chips, left over from the solvent extraction of turpentine. ever the type to accept the economics laid down by the seeming best processes, the chemist investigates new sources. This time it is agricultural residues. See Dunning and Lathrop.
C dibles possible from the wood do not stop with sugar, and Peterson, Snell, and Frazier tell of the production of fodder yeast. Thirty to thirty-five per cent of the sugar is converted into yeast.
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ood saccharificationwith a rotarydigester re-examines anold technique in the light of new accomplishments and knowledge in the digester art. The earliest work on wood hydrolysis, say the authors, was carried out in rotary digesters. The present method of using the stationary type may be aided by this study. About 50 to 60 gallons of alcohol per ton of wood are possible if experimental results are indicative. esteryear saw no particular reason to worry about by-products from saccharification, but because we are beginning to evolve a n industry, Hasche’s study is important.
&? xperimental work by Saeman on the decomposition of sugars in dilute acid at high temperature shows that, for best efficiency in wood conversion, this factor may be discounted.
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n empirical equation previously published has been found to give agreement with new data on the liquid-vapor equilibrium of methane-ethylene-isobutane systems.
& eactions in fertilizers containing ammonium nitrate and organic materials may cause a fire, but only because acids are present. Proper washing or treatment of the fertilizer with ammonia will prevent the conflagration and make for greater tolerance of organic material. This is shown in the paper by Davis and Hardesty.
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Anthraquinone is a valuable impregnating agent for papers to be used for insulating purposes. McLean and Hill, of Bell Telephone Laboratories, say t h a t this compound will prevent the formation of brown carbonization spots in paper, and will also diminish corrosion of the electrodes and instability of leakage current. Polypentaerythritol drying oils are a substitute for nonexistent Tungoil according t o Burrell, of Heyden Chemical Corporation. It was the ready acceptance of the coating trade of compounds that contained “penta” that encouraged the manufacture of this compound on a tonnage scale. Sulfuric acid containing a small amount of Calgon will be more beneficial for the regeneration of cation exchange materials than the sulfuric acid used alone, say Atteberry and Herr, of Resinous Products and Chemical Company, in an article bearing the intriguing title, “Useful Life of a Molecularly Dehydrated Phosphate in Sulfuric Acid”. Strangely enough, mortality sets in a t 28 hours. After that, it’s no use.
Next Month
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AGENTSwill be a feature of the February issue. These papers are the product of a symposium on the subject held by the Division of Medicinal Chemistry during the recent North Jersey Meeting of the AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY. The articles will range from the early history and clinical uses of the well known compounds, to the pioneering research which will give us the new and better sympathomimetic agents of tomorrow. Dishwashing is a chore hated by many men. I suppose women hate i t also, when they do the dishes, but that must be infrequently, because, from the number of complaints involved, i t is certain that men are the chief (?) dishwashers of the Nation. Therefore you may want to file a paper t h a t we are publishing next month for that day of liberation when mechanical dishwashing machines relieve the men of the country from their postprandial drudgery; as the Navy found out, there are problems involved in the use of these gadgets also. Mostly the paper concerns the most efficient compounds for use in machines, and from the Navy comes a report on 36 dishwashing compounds tested for performance, composition, and other significant properties. For three years the censor has been holding up an article we are printing next month. Finally cleared and given a clean bill of health as far aa educating our enemies is concerned, we are glad to speed it through a t this time, for it is very important. Next month will see adiscourse into the mysteries of why gamma alumina is the dehydrating form of the alumina family. This compound has become of great importance t o process industries aa a catalyst and catalyst support in addition to its huge use as a drying agent. YMPATHOMIMETIC
