CHEMIST FINDS NEW TREASURES IN COAL PRODUCTS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6802, 4 January 1929, Page 12

CHEMIST FINDS NEW TREASURES IN COAL PRODUCTS

PROCESSES MEAN CHEAPER BASE FOR DYE STTJFFSj

NEW YORK. Two new chemical processes which' will enable the dyo industry to unlock huge stores of raw material contained in coke and coal tar have been developed by Dr. A. O. Jaeger, Pittsburgh chemist. The processes, it is said, by the American Chemical Society, will produce a cheaper base for important dyestuffs, which is expected to have a “profound influence” upon the industry. The research involved what is described as one of the most baffling problems in the coal tar distillation industry. Both processes embrace the purification of anthracene, which is oxidized in order to procure anthraquinone, which, in turn, is a basic material in the manufacture of most vat dyes. Despite the immense production of coke and coal tar in the United States, all efforts to use these as domestic sources of anthracene had failed of economic success, the Chemical Society declares. This, it is added, has been a serious handicap in domestic dye manufacture, especially in the making of from Which Turkey red, orange, violet and other colours are produced. Dr. Jaeger, who is the technical director of the Selden Company of Pittsburgh, accomplished the two processes by what is technically known as catalysis, or the speeding up of a chemical reaction by tho introduction of an extra chemical which itself appears to remain unchanged. One of the processes involves the use of furfural, a new chemical developed from cornstalks, sawdust and agricultural wastes. Dr. Jaeger found that crude anthracene is soluble in furfural. He uses furfural hot, and, upon cooling, anthracene 85 per cent, pure crystallises out at the first crystallisation. This is sufficiently pure to permit air oxidation to procure anthraquinonc. The second process directly oxidizes the impurities in the anthracene. This method is said to be of particular economic importance because it permits oxidation of anthraceno to obtain anthraquinone in the same apparatus. The American Chemical (Society, in its announcement, emphasises that important progress in the development of new processes will result, from further experiments with catalyetie reactions. They hold also that the development of now uses for furfural, for which the Nation’s annual crops are an almost' inexhaustible source, may form the basis of a branch of the American chemical industry, comparable in importance to the coal-tar industry in Germany. ,-