At high pressures and high temperatures, simplicity in design, versatility, and safety are the important equipment factors
N i n e t y - s i x Pages of Extremes. Chemi-
cal processing at high temperatures and pressures has been spurred greatly since World War 11. The mechanical designs and techniques which formed the basis for a large part of the high pressure work done in this country was developed during and after the first World War in the Government’s Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory. Most of the industrial operations for years were confined to the manufacture of ammonia, methanol, and a few other products. Extreme condition techniques have come into their own through a combination of additional research, the release of trade secrets, and the developments of alloys and design of equipment which have made possible commercial use of the research results.
Urethane rubber from a polyether glycol, made under the Du Pont trademark Adiprene, is much tougher than the commercial diene hydrocarbon polymers which i t resembles. Soluble only in certain polar solvents, it i s not much more hygroscopic than the conventional hydrocarbon polymers and i s stable in storage. It can be cured with diisocyanates. Physical properties of vulcanizates are good, and processing can be done on conventional rubber equipment , Effect o f changing liquid density on liquid temperature is usually neglected in liquid flow problems, but Toor o f Carnegie Tech presents results showing that i f the pressure gradient in a flowing liquid i s large the expansion o f the liquid may cause a change in temperature profile significant enough to lead to errors.
I&EC has in the past published individual articles dealing with various aspects of high pressure-high temperature work, both in the laboratory and in the plant. An excellent example of detailed equipment and process description can be found in the article “Ammonia a t 1000 Atmospheres” [IND.ENG. CHEM. 44, 754-64 (1952)]. This is the first time, however, that so much emphasis has been placed on the subject. Ten articles on design and selection of equipment, and four articles on processes carried under extreme conditions, appear in the first 96 pages of I&EC this month. As a special feature, manufacturers of high temperature-high pressure equipment were surveyed and a special article on the process equipment presently available has been written by I&EC’s editorial staff, with the able assistance of C. M. Sliepcevich, chairman of the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Oklahoma.
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Interested in costs? Annual review of chemical cost and profitability estimation by Weaver of Atlas Powder Co. appears on page 934, 825
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