Dec., 1922
T H E JO-URNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
any difficulty be used in my hypercompression process for the synthesis of ammonia. This process has been developed and put into practice in the works of the Grande Paroisse, near Montereau, where a n apparatus for the production of 500 cu. m. of hydrogen per hour is in operation, feeding a unit for 5 tons of ammonia per day. The carbon monoxide containing all the nitrogen of the water gas, it should be noted, is d k h a r g e d a t a percentage which may easily be raised to 85. The hydrogen efficiency is therefore excellent. The carbon monoxide may be utilized either for the manufacture of various chemical products or for driving the internal combustion motors of the installation. The process which I have outlined requires the compression of the gases to degrees varying with the size of the apparatus from 15 to 30 atmospheres. The first figure applios to apparatus of a capacity of 2000 cu. m. of hydrogen per hour. This process necessitates the command of a relatively high motive power, and one might draw attention to the advantages offered by processes based upon the catalysis of CO into CO1, such as are, for instance, employed in the Haber process. I have, therefore, studied and tried this process only with a view of its ulterior application to a particularly interesting case-that of the coke-oven furnaces, in which the presence of a considerable portion of methane renders catalytic processes inoperative. The complexity of the gas mixtures we have to deal with in this case and the diversity of the freezing points of the constituents might make us fear that we should have to meet serious difficulties in the working of this process. As a matter of fact, however, a n apparatus has already been constructed for this purpose and has, after very short trials, been put successfully to service in the BBthune mines. The essential cause of the success is the very high reciprocal solubility of the diverse condensable constituents. This first apparatus has a productive capacity of 350 cu. m. of hydrogen per hour, and it is operating with a compression of about 25 atmospheres. An installation for the utilization of the hydrogen produced by means of this apparatus in the manufacture of ammonia by the application of hyper-compression has already been erected and is actually being put in working order. I hope that this installation will be the point of departure for a much more important installation in which I intend to make use of apparatus for the production of 2000 cu. m. of hydrogen per hour. One of the essential reasons that make me count upon a development of this process in the coke-oven industry lies in the multiple indirect advantages which the process promises. On the one hand, since the gases to be treated must already be compressed for the extraction of the hydrogen, we are naturally led to effect the stripping of the gas of its benzene likewise under compression. All the benzene, which a t present escapes when the process is carried out a t atmospheric pressures, will then easily be retained; that will constitute a gain which in certain cases may come up to 1kilogram of benzene per ton of coke. This improved recovery will, moreover, be attained by means of an infinitely reduced amount of solvent and of heat energy, and at much diminished losses of solvent. The recovery will be effected in absorption and distillation apparatus of comparatively very small dimensions. On the other hand, the ethylene, this precious gas the percentage of which in furnace gases is too low for its successful extraction a t atmospheric pressure, may easily be collected to a large extent in the course of the operations. For it will be condensed almost alone in the preliminary cold-exchanger of the apparatus, and it can be extracted as a 40 or 50 per cent mixture which will very readily be
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utilizable, either for the manufacture of alcohol or for use in autogenous welding or similar apparatus. To give an idea of the possible importance of this by-product, I may state that, supposing the furnace gas is treated to contain 1.5 per cent of ethylene and that it can all be extracted-that would correspond to our obtaining 200 liters of alcohol per ton of ammonia in addition to other products. Finally, I should remark that, from the calorific standpoint, hydrogen must be regarded as the very worst of all combustible gases. One cubic meter of hydrogen represents only about 2600 calories (lower calorific power) against the 3000 calories of carbon monoxide and the 10,000 of methane. When we, therefore, extract the hydrogen from coke-oven gases, we, in fact, enrich the gases in a true sense, and it is a considerable enrichment which they undergo, since they become fit for uses for which they would otherwise be unsuitable. When the gas is to be distributed, it will be free of every trace of the condensable impurities that cause so much mischief in our actual gas distribution systems; when it is to be utilized as industrial gas, it will enable us to obtain extremely high temperatures and to combine, under specially interesting conditions, the production of nitric oxide by the Hausaer process with the synthesis of ammonia. These are the principal advantages of the process which I have the honor to describe before you. I should like to emphasize that one of the characteristic essential features of the process is the extreme smallness of the necessary apparatus. An apparatus for 1000 cu. m. of hydrogen per hour requires a sheaf of liquefaction tubes 40 cm. in diameter and 3 m. in height.
Lectures at Naval Academy The lectures by members of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY before the Naval Academy a t Annapolis, Md., have again been arranged for 1922-1923. The officers of the Navy have expressed most cordial appreciation of the efforts which the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY has been making to see that they are supplied annually with instructive chemical information from some of its prominent members. The lectures given for the present year are as follows: OCTOBE$R 21 AT 11 A.M.--“The Role Played by Cellulose in the Late War,” by Prof. Harold Hibbert, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. NOVEMBER18 AT 11 A M . - - “ T ~ ~Economic Independence of the United States,” by Dr. Edwin E. Slosson, Head of Science Service, 1115 Connecticut Ave., Washington, D. C. DECEMBER9 AT 11 A.M.-“Nitrogen Fixation and Its Relation t o the Production of Food and Explosives,” by Prof. A. H. White, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. JANUARY 13 AT 11 A.M.-“Chemistry as a Key to International Relations,” by Mr. H. E. Howe, Editor of The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 810 Eighteenth St., Washington, D. C. JANUARY 27 AT 11 A.M.-“Use of Chemical Agents in Warfare,” by Major E. J. Atkisson, Edgewood Arsenal, Edgewood, Md. FSERUARY 17 AT 11 A M -“Helium, I t s History, Properties, and Use in Aeronautics,” by Dr. R . B. Moore, Chief Chemist, Bureau of Mines, Washington, D. C. MARCH17 AT 10.30 A.M.--“The Chemical Control of Gaseous Detonation with Particular Reference t o the Internal Combustion Engine,” by Mr. Thomas Midgley, Jr., General Motors Research Corporation, Dayton, Ohio.
Platinum Theft During the past summer platinum thieves twice visited the State University of Iowa. On the first occasion two platinum crucibles with their covers were stolen from the physical laboratory, and on the second a desk in the analytical laboratory was broken open and several crucibles and their covers taken. A further unsuccessful attempt was made between November 4 and 6, 1922, when a desk was forced open and an effort made to open the safe in the storeroom. The university has not yet succeeded in tracking down the thieves.
