. PAPERS
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STAPP-INDDSTRY COLLABORATIVE REPORT QuWbOU
The increased wage of natural gas as a domestic and industrial fuel has given new stature to the manufacture of oil gas to w e aa an inhchangeable, peak-shaving, and emergency fuel. In many areas where natural gas is already in w, oil- and coal-gaa generating equipment has been converted to produce gas with a heating value of approximately 1000 B.t.u. per cubic foot. The Portland Gas and Coke Co. has manufactured oil gas continuously since 1906 and currently has installed plant capacity to produce Sn,ooO,ooO cubic feet of oil gas daily. Heating value of the present gas made is 570 B.t.u. per cubic foot, but gas comparable to natural gas in calorilic content can he produced by alterations in exi8ting equipment. Unique in the way of equipment m two gas generators, 27 feet in diameter and 45 feet high, constructed of welded steel plate and containing 51,000 checker-brick each. In these geneatom, fuel oil, barged from California, is a t o m i d with stesm and vaporized as it passes downward thmugh the checkerwork, which has been preheated to between 18W0and 2oooo F. In addition to pioneering in high B.t.u. oil gas mearch, Portland Cas and Coke Co. is unusual in that it simultsneously producea chemical coproducts of gasification that account for 35% of the total operat ing income. Crude by-products include lampblack, tar, and light oils. The tam are proceased into creo-, sotea, soft and hard pitch, road tars, and crude naphthalene, and the light oils are refined into benzene, toluene, xylene, and solvent naphtha.
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OIL GAS MANUFACTURE Q. P.ll d W. A. y.uuI
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SYMPOSIIIM OU DEVELOPMENTS u1 IPICKEL
~ h seventeen k papers presented in this symposium commemorate the discovary of nickel by the Sw& metallurgist Axel. F d r & Cromtedt, in 1751 and @e development of ita .mea in industry since that time. Reviews of the applications of isotopic techniques to problems in nickel chemistry,the industrial application^ of electrochemid reactions of nickel, the'corrosion-resistingpmpertiea of nickel alloy8 and applimtiona of t h w alloys, and methods of'metallu&d ansly& for nickel are included. The concept of reaidual valenaies and the binding potanti& of thee valencia are used in one paper to ratiodize the properties of nickel and its d o y s as cataly8ta. Other papers include an investigation of the propertia of catalysts for the reaction of hydrocarbons with steam, and revieks of nickel catalysts in the hydrogenationof fats and oila and in the hydrogenation of aldol-me of the 8 t e p ,in the synthesis of butadiene from natural gas. A pmcess to reduce corrosion of &urning equipment is deacribd-xganic sulfur ~ ~ m p o u nind coal ~ gas are oxidized by contact with a nickel subsulfidecat&&. Demriptionsof the use of nickel compounds in wtylene and carbon monoxide chemistry and of nickel compoundsaa 8ou~oeaof catalyst raw materialn are included in the section on nickel catalysts. Reports on nickel oxides and d a b s in C ~ I U ~ ~ Cnickel. S, sslts of dithiocarbamates in compounding elastomers, and nickel coordination compounds of azo dyes conclude the eymposium. NICKEL
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SYMPOSIUM ON QMIPICATION OP SOLID
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combustion and gasification reaction studiesare reported in SIX papers from an extensive program on the theoretical aspecta of gaeirying solid fuels which was organized in an e5ort to expand the basic data available for use in process d e n calculations. Kinetic studia of g d c a t i o n reactions include a eeriea on the chemical reaction of artificialgraphite with oxygen and carbon dioxide; another on the effects of carbon humoff (a new variable in gasification kinetios), preseure, gas composition, and high temperature pretreatment on gasification rates for the char-shm syatem; and a report on the mechanism of the reveree shift reaction, ueing a standard shift catalyst at lW0 F., 930
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 44, No. 5
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which provided the data for a rate equation for,dhe reactk4t.C &the Britiah Coal Utilieation Board ..&m is apmciated with the secondary have established that the blue glow that at temperaturesfrom 800" to I0GUo,C. oxidation of coal and this reaction is im An evaluation of the performance of a eeries of vortex reactors for the gasificationof pulverizedcoal indimtea that best results are obtained in these reactors when part of the oxygen is admitted with the cod. Thia work WBB aimed at more e5ciWt production of synthesis gas for use in the Bureau of Mine8 synthetic liquid fuels program. The &ect of o p e r a t i variables for '&cation under pressure% of 20 to 30 atmw pheres may be determined by we of a method of simplfied calculationsbased on the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur balances and on the equilibrium constants of the gasificstion reactions. GASIFICATION ..... ................................................................ 1w O g l l E I A L PAP-
BiluminoE. corl structure Dnrii the past 25 years a great deal of physical and chemical evidencehas accumulated pointing to the predominantly cyclic structure of bituminous co&; the p m n t pap& reviews this evidence. Considerationof the atomic carbon-hydrogen ratios in the coal aeries, as well as the nature of the products obtained in degradationsby molecular distillation up M 525"C., solvent action i t ?51°to 40O0C., hydrogenation at 300' to 400' C., and oxidation at 100" to 270' C., leads to the conclusjon that coal is predominantly cyclic in character. Evidence that the yield of cyclic products is related to the temperatup at which the degradation process is carried out is lacking. Correlationshave, however, bean found hetween "rank" and yield of cyclic compounds. There is little evidence to support the older view that ,acycliccompounds ture tars and that the aromatic compounds in high tempekture tar result fro
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EVIDENCE FOR THE c v c L i c STRUCTURE OF BITUMINOUS CMLB E. C. Bnru(L
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