Patent GB-545695-A (GB)
Title: Process and apparatus for synthesis of hydrocarbons, alcohols and formaldehyde
IPC: C07C1/04
Filed: 1940-04-29
Abstract: 545,695. Hydrocarbons and their derivatives. WILLIAMS, K., PRING, P., and LAWRIE, T. A. April 29, 1940, No. 7649. Convention date, April 29, 1939. [Class 2 (iii)] Hydrocarbons and hydroxyl derivatives thereof are synthesized from a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide by passage through a catalyser apparatus which is activated by a high frequency electric field which has frequency of between 6,000,000 and 37,000,000 cycles per second. The preferred voltage is from 60,000 to 100,000. A complete apparatus is described comprising. a plant for the production and purification of the mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen starting from carbonaceous material. This is first distilled, and the liquid products collected and purified as by-products of the invention. The uncondensable gas is purified, and part of it used to provide the power for the entire plant and part of it combined with water gas produced from the residue from the distillation of the original carbonaceous material. The ratio of hydrogen to carbon monoxide is adjusted 4:1, the gases are compressed, and purified before being passed to the main catalyser. The purification is conducted in a small electrically neutral catalyser at a temperature of 250-450‹ C. The catalysts used in the small purifying catalysers and the main synthesizing catalysers may be the same and may comprise zinc chromic acid oxide, reduced copper oxide, zinc oxide, mixtures consisting of copper oxide and zinc oxide, copper oxide, chromium sesquioxide and manganous oxide, copper oxide, zinc oxide, beryllium oxide and chromium sesquioxide, copper oxide, cerium oxide, zinc oxide and manganous oxide, copper oxide, zirconium oxide, beryllium oxi de and cerium oxide. All the catalysts should be prepared by precipitation of the hydroxide from mixed nitrate solutions with a boiling solution of sodium hydroxide. They may also be prepared by the thermal decomposition of unstable copper salts of organic acids. The large synthesizing catalyser which forms the essential feature of the invention (Fig. 4), consists of a steel tube 47, with a non-ferrous lining 48, inside which are two concentric gauze cylinders 49-50, preferably of copper, the volume contained between them being one-third of the total volume of the catalyst chamber. The central electrode 51 forms the positive electrode, the walls of the chamber being the negative electrode. The bottle may be coated with an ionizing agent such as a radio-active element or a rare earth element. The interior of the copper electrode may be electrically heated, if desired. Gas enters through one of the nipples 53 or 154 and leaves by the other. The products which are produced may be either light hydrocarbons or hydroxyl derivatives thereof, according to the pressures which are used, the temperature, the frequency and the voltage. The Specification, as open to inspection under Sect. 91, describes also the oxidation of the methanol produced according to the invention to formaldehyde. For this purpose a catalyser is described through which the methanol is passed together with a stream of air, the preferred catalyst being rolled copper gauze. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.