I/EC A TECHNICAL MEMO FROM THE QUAKER OATS COMPANY
®
ON
QO FURFURAL
The spot light is on QO furfural chemicals these days as more and more chemists turn their investi gations toward our QO furfural, furfuryl alcohol and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol. "Big wheel" in this array is QO Furfural. On paper it looks like this . . . HC-
HC
V
•CH
C-CHO
And, upon further investigation, any chemist worth his sheepskin will soon discover that the possible applications for this unique prod uct go on practically ad infinitum. Here, at The Quaker Oats Com pany, we work with furfural every day and think we know it well. But even we are constantly surprised at the variety of ways imaginative industries are using this versatile basic chemical for new products and improved processes. FUTURE
All signs point to an even brighter future. QO Furfural offers so much promise in so many fields, your investigation is almost cer tain to prove profitable.
AREA OF POTENTIAL
So, who should be interested in QO furfural? YOU should . . . if you're refining petroleum or petrochemicals. Furfural is an effective and economical selec tive solvent and an excellent extractive distillation agent for hydrocarbons. if you're looking for a chemical intermediate for making open chain compounds. if you need a reactive solvent and dispersant for resins. if you want a resin former that achieves optimum flow-cure properties.
We assume, if you've read this far, that you have more than a pass ing interest in QO furfural. If so, let us send you our bulletin 203-A. It's packed with physical data you're sure to find interesting and profitable.
The QuakerOatsCompany CHEMICALS DIVISION
The Quaker Oafs (pm party
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BJEHBl 32 A
337V The Merchandise Mart, Chicago 5 4 , Illinois Room 537V, 120 Wall Street, N e w York 5 , New York Room 437V, 48 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., Portland 1 4 , Oregon In the United Kingdom: Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., Billingham, England In Europe: Quaker Oats-Graanproducten N. V., Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Quaker Oats (France) S. Α., 3, Rue Pillet-Will, Paris IX, France; A / S " O t a , " Copenhagen, S. Denmark In Australia: Swift &. Company, Ltd., Sydney In Japan: F. Kanematsu & Company, Ltd., Tokyo
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
REPORTS
rubber companies have put their products through extensive physical tests, a n d for all practical purposes the synthetics are interchangeable with n a t u r a l rubber. In fact, the polyisoprenes m a y turn out to be a n improvement over na ture. Unlike natural rubber, molec ular weight can be varied, a n d other groups could be added to the isoprenc chain to get specific properties. Also, the synthetic product doesn't have the nonrubber impurities found in natural crude rubber. A New Industry Getting commercial amounts of high purity isoprene at a reasonable cost is the next big hurdle the r u b b e r companies must face in their syn thetic n a t u r a l r u b b e r programs. I n light of the big potential for the new polymers, a whole new industry m a y need to be created to supply isoprene monomer. Isoprene m o n o m e r for making «Vpolyisoprene faces some stiff re quirements. Even small amounts of impurities like unsaturated hydro carbons, amines, ethers, or oxygen will upset the reaction. O n top of this, cost must be in line, probably 20 cents per pound or less. At present, Enjay makes commercial isoprene by steam cracking hydro carbons. Phillips is chief supplier to the r u b b e r companies via ex tensive purification of the Enjay product. But nobody, it seems, is in a position today to turn out the large amounts t h a t commercial produc tion of polyisoprene would require. T h u s , both the oil companies a n d the r u b b e r firms are brushing u p on their isoprene chemistry to be ready for the time when polyisoprene goes commercial. An interesting sidelight on the isoprene monomer situation is brought u p by Goodyear. Isoprene might be able to compete with butadiene in SBR rubber m a n u facture. Goodyear mentions that m u c h of the work during the govern ment synthetic rubber program showed that emulsion polymers of isoprene and butadiene perform about equally well. Thus, if low cost isoprene is developed for poly isoprene manufacture, it might also be used to make other types of syn thetic rubbers. L. W .
