The Chemical World This Week RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY
JULY
1, 1 9 6 3
CONCENTRATES
• Some details of ο West German process for acetone and methyl ethyl ketone and a British molecular sieve process for separating n-paraffins from hydrocarbon mixtures were made public at the 6th World Petroleum Congress in Frankfurt. Commercial processes for making acetone by oxidation of propylene and MEK by oxidation of butène using palladium(II) chloride catalyst have been worked out by Farbwerke Hoechst and Wacker Chemie. The two processes are an extension of and are analogous to the Wacker route to acetaldehyde by direct oxidation of ethylene (C&EN, April 17, 1961, page 52). Yields are 92 to 94% for acetone, 85 to 88% for MEK. The processes involve oxidation of the olefin in an aqueous solution of PdCl2 and CuCl2 to the corresponding earbonyls. Main differences in the processes are reaction rate and type and amount of by-products. Reaction rate falls with lengthening carbon chain. All three processes can be handled either in a single-stage oxidation with oxygen or a two-stage oxidation with air. The two-stage scheme is generally favored since it allows a less concentrated olefin feed. In British Petroleum's molecular sieve process/ η-paraffins in the Ci0 to C18 range (or cuts within this range) at purities close to 99% and extrac tion efficiencies in the 80 to 90% range can be obtained from a vaporized gas oil feed. The process, announced about nine months ago but not detailed, joins Universal Oil Products' Molex and Linde's Isosiv processes. These also use molecular sieves. The BP process cycle consists of three basic operations. First, η-paraffins are selectively absorbed by the sieves. Next, a nitro gen purge clears the bed of nonnormals. Then n-pentane displaces the normals. BP figures sieve life will be at least two years. The firm is now building a 30,000 metric ton-per-year unit at its Dinslaken, West Germany, refinery. Start-up will be in about a year. The product will be used for making detergents, among other things. • A three-in-one Sabin live, oral polio virus vaccine has been licensed by the Public Health Service. The vaccine will be produced and sold by Lederle Laboratories, Pearl River, N.Y. The vaccine is the first trivalent oral polio virus vac cine to be licensed in the U.S. although such vac cines have been in regular use in Great Britain and Canada. The trivalent vaccine is designed to give simultaneous immunity to all three known types of polio. PHS describes the vaccine as a
balanced combination of the three oral monova lent vaccines, the amount of each strain used is based on the characteristics of the virus strains and their combined action. • Molecular motions in polymers and paraffin hydrocarbons and a new approach to "mag netic bottles" for controlling thermonuclear reac tions were among the highlights of the American Physical Society Meeting in Buffalo, N.Y. Low Frequency molecular motions in polyethyl ene and in a series of normal paraffin hydro carbons (G6Hi4 to C32He6) have been studied by a technique involving inelastic scattering of neu trons by scientists at Brookhaven National Lab oratory, Upton, N.Y. Martin Berger of Esso Research and Engineering Co., Linden, N.J., in collaboration with Brookhaven's Dr. H. R. Ban ner, Dr. H. Boutin, and Dr. G. J. Safford, find that low energy (less than 5,2 m.e.v.) neutrons gain energy when scattered from a polymer of hydrocarbon sample because of the sample's molecular motions. Measuring the energy dis tributions of the scattered neutrons allows détermination of the spectra of molecular motions in the frequency region from 800 to 30 cm.- 1 , they say. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance have been used to study molecular motions in the past, but the studies haven't given much information about low frequency motions, they note. The four scientists hope to extend the neutron inelastic scattering technique to more complex polymers. A new kind of magnetic bottle designed to control thermonuclear reactions has been developed by Dr. Tihiro Ohkawa and co-workers of General Dynamics' General Atomic Division, San Diego, Calif. Hot plasma (ionized gas) injected into the bottle (interlocking multipole fields of magnetic force) will not escape through the field forming the opposite wall because its field is convex to the plasma's and bounces the plasma back toward the center of the confinement area. The multipole concept was developed by Dr. Ohkawa and Dr. Donald W. Kerst at General Atomies fusion laboratories. Dr. Kerst is now at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Working with Dr. Ohkawa were Dr. A. A. Schupp and Dr. H. G. Voorhies, also of General Dynamics, and Dr. W. C. Duesterhoeft, Jr., University of Texas, Austin, under a program established in cooperation with the Texas Atomic Energy Research Foundation. JULY 1, 1963 C&EN
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