PRODUCTION lite is marketing the product as a combination of 30 parts Bisphenol A to 100 parts of N-hydroxyethyldiethylenetriarnine to offer satisfactory curing and other physical properties. While full pharmacological data on the phenolic modified amine are not available, Bakelite officials feel that toxicity and sensitivity properties will not differ markedly from data of N-hydroxyethyldiethylenetriaxxune. Commercialization of epoxide products in little more than five years has reached an annual production level of 3 0 to 3 5 rnillion pounds, with many industry people talking of topping the 100-million-pound mark by 1960. Coatings account for the major application of epoxies today, but observers point out that the big push to come is in noncoating applications, which will probably surpass the ever-increasing epoxy coating field in the not-too-distant future. They say that this type of product, long needed, will certainly help remove one of the obstacles to full development.
Cracking Down Phillips Petroleum researchers reported to the Division of Petroleum Chemistry significant improvements in catalytic cracking characteristics at mild hydrotreating conditions and at pressures down as low as 500 p.s.i.g.
change in the process. Plants have been designed to treat gases containing as little as 65% hydrogen. There is no Kellogg's low-temperature reason w h y lower concentrations can't process makes 9 9 . 9 + % be handled in a similar manner, Pahydrogen for less than 8 lazzo told the Petroleum Division. The new process is der ned for cents per thousand cubic feet gases at 320 p.s.i.a., but ga available at lower or higher pressures can also H K I l K f i A T ^ ^ ^ $800,000 refiner- be treated in the same type unit. Refinery gases, Palazzo says, may contain besides hydrocarbons, other impurities such as nitrogen, carbon di1 ^ ^ ^ ^ » ^ & ^ ^ ^ ^ covery unit, says oxide, carbon monoxide, and acetylene. D. F . Palazzo of Any nitrogen or carbon monoxide in M. W . Kellogg. And the plant will the feed will pass through with the produce 99.9+% hydrogen for 7.7 hydrogen. But the quantity of nitrocents per thousand cubic feet. gen normally encountered in reformer "Our new process," h e states, "is gases is small, and should not present essentially a combination low-tempera- a problem in most cases, since all it ture condensation and absorption proc- will do is slightly decrease the partial ess in which most of the impurities are pressure. condensed out during refrigeration." If carbon monoxide cannot be tolThe rest are removed in an absorber- erated, the gas must be treated by some stripper system that uses liquid pro- standard process, such as absorption pane for absorption and a portion of in a cuprous salt solution. Treatment the product for stripping. Propane, for gases containing carbon dioxide and says Palazzo, is ideally suited for this acetylene will depend on their concenjob and for all practical purposes adds trations, which in some cases may inno impurity to the product gas. (This volve pretreatment by caustic absorpis different from nitrogen wash which tion. introduces nitrogen into the product.) For the most part Kellogg's plant is Makeup propane is added only to instrumented to run completely autocompensate for a small quantity lost in matically. A 10 million-cubic-foot-perthe stripper. And makeup can usually day unit can be housed in a cold box b e obtained b y fractionating a portion 9 feet wide by 15 feet long, consisting of the hydrocarbons condensed from of two parts—the exchanger section and the reformer off-gas. This makes the the tower section. Equipment and plant a self-contained unit. piping are made of aluminum and alloy sto€i5, xxCtisevA m a. stcCx casing. This Feed conditions may be varied consid- plant will produce hydrogen of any erably without making any significant purity for hydrogenation purposes, says
Low-Cost Hydrogen
For about
ics can
4816
C&Efl O C 1 .
I,
195 6
Palazzo, and it can be adapted for production of ammonia synthesis gas. But to make the latter modification, it is necessary to manufacture a pure nitrogen stream to blend with the hydrogen.
Gasoline from Shale? Catalytic hydrogenation at cracking temperatures offers possibility of producing gasoline in high yields
Properties
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ t e ^ ^ ^ M oils prevent good
yields
U. S. Bureau of Mines. Unless subjected to thermal cracking during retorting, these oils:
• Contain little or no gasoline fraction. • Have high pour points and viscosities compared with good petroleum crudes. • Have gravities in the range of about 17° to 22° API. • Contain nearly 1% sulfur and 2% nitrogen. • Have carbon-hydrogen weight ratios of 7.0 to 7.5. "And even thermal craclcing produces gasoline fractions with low octane numbers, high sulfur and nitrogen contents,
