CHEMISTRY AND
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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
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I/EC
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JANUARY 1957
P l a y i n g T a g With C a t C r a c k e r s . When lagging with radioactive isotopes came along, refiners were quick to sense its possibilities. Today the petroleum field is the biggest indus trial user of these tagging agents. Lots of work has gone into catalytic cracking in the past 20 years, but tracer techniques are being used to give some answers to problems whose solu tions had to wait for these tools. Since good things often come in threes, we offer a package from Shell Development. O n e portion gives new information about catalyst flow patterns, another measures loss of a catalyst, and the third provides answers to problems in regeneration.
If Ethylbenzene Is α Major Component of C8 aromatics from your catalytic cracking, you will be interested in still another Shell study—dealkylation of ethylbenzene over microspheroidal catalyst. A fluidized fixed bed was used ; cracking to benzene and ethylene is the major reaction.
F l u i d i z a t i o n w i t h a n Iron A n g l e . T h e same type of outdoor construction that petro leum refineries have used so successfully with fluid cat crackers, and the fluidized solids technique, are recommended as a method of upgrading low-grade iron ores to premium grade feed for blast—and open hearth—furnaces. Here are some economics using both coal and gas as fuel, a description of a proposed commercial plant, and estimates for capital cost.
Simple Solution to Waste Problem. A big factor in the economics (if a new manufacturing method for methylstyrene is what to do with used mercury-containing sulfuric acid. Hydrolysis and stripping of this waste catalyst with superheated steam result in recovery of enough hydrocarbon to pay for the treatment, and the 6 6 % sulfuric left can be used for fertilizer manufacture.
D o w n t o t h e G r o u n d F l o o r . W your wife tells you there are floor waxes and then there are floor waxes, don't put it down as a silly remark. Big difference between selfpolishing waxes that don't give the same polish is in the development of water resistance. Commercial Solvents' workers who weren't satisfied with present theories show it's not only the volatility of the amine emulsifiers, but also other physical and chemical properties of these amines, that play a big part.
Water- and Alkali-Soluble Cellulose Derivatives are a long way from petrochemicals and floor wax, but this issue of I & E C has more than three dozen pages worth of information on these products—items with dozens of present and potential uses.
R E S E A R C H
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D E V E L O P M E N T
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D E S I G N
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E N G I N E E R I N G
VOL. 49, NO. 1
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M A R K E T I N G
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JANUARY 1957
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