Named Processes in Chemical Technology Third Edition
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ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARY OF NAMED PROCESSESUses Educational IN CHEMICALFor TECHNOLOGY THIRD EDITION http://sites.google.com/site/irdadeh/ ,09126599985,[email protected], Center Data © 2007 by TaylorData & Francis Center Group, LLC ,09126599985,[email protected], For Educational Uses ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARY OF NAMED PROCESSES IN CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY THIRD EDITION Alan E. Comyns Boca Raton London New York CRC Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2007 by TaylorData & Francis Center Group, LLC ,09126599985,[email protected], For Educational Uses CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2007 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Government works Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number-10: 0-8493-9163-6 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-8493-9163-7 (Hardcover) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material is quoted with permission, and sources are indicated. A wide variety of references are listed. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or for the consequences of their use. No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any informa- tion storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copyright.com (http:// www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC) 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For orga- nizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Comyns, Alan E. Encyclopedic dictionary of named processes in chemical technology / author/editor, Alan E. Comyns. -- 3rd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8493-9163-7 (alk. paper) 1. Chemical processes--Dictionaries. I. Title. II. Title: Named processes in chemical technology. TP155.7.C664 2007 660’.28103--dc22 2006102488 Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com © 2007 by TaylorData & Francis Center Group, LLC ,09126599985,[email protected], For Educational Uses Dedication Dedicated to the generations of industrial chemists and engineers whose ingenuity has given us the materials of civilization. © 2007 by TaylorData & Francis Center Group, LLC ,09126599985,[email protected], For Educational Uses Foreword It is both a pleasure and a privilege to have been invited to write the Foreword to a book of such importance as Dr. Comyns’ dictionary of named processes in the chemical industry. For many years, chemists have had access to books with titles like Named Reactions in Organic Chemistry. Here the busy student or researcher can discover immediately the nature of the Wurtz reaction, the Cannizzaro reaction, and such curiosities as the Hell-Volhard-Zelinsky reaction. Until the first edition of the present book appeared in 1993, no such literary assistance was available to the multitudes who labored in the chemical industry. Six years later, a second edition took into account the many novelties that had appeared in that short period. Now a third edition is expanded still further, particularly by inclusion of many biological processes that industry now uses. This book is encyclopedic in scope as well as in name, covering a vast range of industrial practice. No single industrial chemist could possibly be familiar with more than a small fraction of the processes named; when a new one suddenly appears on the horizon, help is immediately available on these pages. I very much hope that all companies involved in chemical technology will ensure it finds a place in their libraries. Although few people borrow dictionaries for leisure reading (even dictionaries as good as this one), its natural home will be the reference section, so that it is instantly available on demand. There is, however, another reason for commending this book. Many of the names given to industrial chemical processes arise from their history. Some (such as Ayers) denote the names of their inventors; others (such as Hercules-BP) display the names of firms that originated or at least operated the process; others (such as hydrocracking) drop more than a hint of the principal reagent involved; others (such as PRI-SC) are acronyms constructed from initials of words in a phrase. However, others (such as CAMERE) are made from bits of different words and yet others (such as Merseburg) could mean anything at all. It happens to be the case that the history of the chemical industry, woefully neglected for decades, is just now coming back into fashion. This welcome development can be considerably assisted by the present work, where some historical detail often is included. Naturally, historians would have liked more (they always do). But there is sufficient detail to whet the appetites of workers in chemical technology to learn something further of the fascinating stories of their predecessors. This book can be dipped into with pleasure again and again. I warmly recommend it to anyone interested in the chemical industry — past, present, or future. Colin A. Russell Emeritus Professor of History of Science and Technology, The Open University Research Scholar affiliated to the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge © 2007 by TaylorData & Francis Center Group, LLC ,09126599985,[email protected], For Educational Uses Acknowledgments I should like to thank my wife Daphne, without whose patience during the last 18 years these three editions could never have been produced. I should like to thank also the following people for their various contributions: Mr. Reg Adams (Artikol) Dr. Robert Coffee (ex ICI) Dr. Lorenzo Costa (Novara Technology) Mr. Stanley Erisman (Perstorp Formax) Dr. Martin Fakley (U4RIC) Mr. Martin Gravett (ORT) Professor Bill Griffith (Imperial College) Dr. Karl Harrison (Oxford University) Mr. Les Kane (Hydrocarbon Processing) Dr. John T. Kopfle (MIDREX Technologies) Mr. Robert Lentz (UOP) Dr. Don McIntyre (Dalton Publishing) Mr. Sidney Nelson Jr. (Sorbent Technologies Corp.) Professor Magdi Ragheb (University of Illinois) Mr. Chris Ravenscroft (MIDREX Technologies) Dr. Keith Simons (KS Associates) Dr. Alan Tully (ex Kodak) Dr. Mike Wood (Davy Process Technology) © 2007 by TaylorData & Francis Center Group, LLC ,09126599985,[email protected], For Educational Uses Introduction The purpose of this dictionary is to provide concise descriptions of those processes in chemical technology that are known by special names that are not self-explanatory. The chemical industry is notoriously difficult to define. In addition to its obvious role as a producer of “chemicals” such as sulfuric acid, it may be said to embrace all those industries in which chemical processes are conducted. There is no generally agreed list of such industries, but obvious ones include extractive metallurgy, plastics, paper, ceramics, sewage treatment, and now even electronics. It is this broad spectrum of “chemical technology” that is addressed in this book. It thus includes the gigantic Bessemer process for making steel and the microscopic Manasevit process for applying circuits to silicon chips. The only deliberate omission is food chemistry. The aim has been to include all those processes that are known by special names, of whatever origin. Of course, only a minority of industrial chemical processes are distinguished by the possession of special names, so this book does not include all of even the more important processes. Overviews of the industry are provided by other books, notably the Kirk-Othmer and Ullmann encyclopedias. Many named processes are included in such works, but only a fraction of the names in the present compilation are to be found in them. The names show a heterogeneous etymology, their origins including inventors, companies, institutions, places, acronyms, abbreviations, and obvious corruptions of the chemical nomenclature. Derivations of the names, where known, are indicated in square brackets [ ]. The names of chemicals used in the entries are the traditional names commonly used in industry today; systematic names have yet to replace many common names and may never do so. Criteria for selection of names for inclusion are inevitably subjective, but the intention has been to include all named processes in current commercial use anywhere in the world, and those that have been or are being piloted on a substantial scale. Obsolete processes that have been or might have been important in the past are included, too. The coverage is primarily of English names, but some foreign names are included.