Acetone from wood

The pentose sugars, as well as the hexoses, are utilized by acetone-and butyl alcohol-producing organisms. Partansky and Henry reported the production of butanol and acetone from wood sugars. This work was continued in the laboratory of W. H. Peterson of the University of Wisconsin. Tables VIII and IX summarize their findings with two organisms. 

Figure 6.5 Manufacture of acetone from wood. Mixtures of higher ketones are produced if the calcium acetate contains other fatty acid salts. Acetaldehyde will also be formed if any calcium formate is present...

Commercial acetic acid is manufactured fiom pyroligneous acid obtained in the destructive distillation of wood. The latter is neutralised with lime, and separated by distillation from wood-spirit and acetone. The crude calcium acetate, which has a dark colour, is then distilled with the requisite quantity of concentrated hydrochloric acid. Anhydrous or glacial acetic acid is obtained by distilling fused sodium acetate with concentrated sulphuric acid. 

Methyl Acetone. Commercial product .a water-white, anhydr liq, consisting of various mixts of acet (45 to 65%), methyl acetate (20 to 30%) and methanol (20 to 40%). Density about 0.83g/cc, boiling range 50 to 70°, flash p near 0°F. Miscible with hydrocarbons, oils and w. Obtained as a by-product in the manuf of acet and methanol from wood distn, representing fractions which cannot be economically sepd. The mixt can be used as such, being an excellent solv and plasticizer for NC and other cellulose esters, such as the acetate. It also dissolves rubber, gums, resins, lacquers, paint and varnish Refs 1) T.H, Durrans, Solvents , Van-Nostrand, NY (1938), 122 2) CondChemDict... 

Figure 2. Degradation (O) of -metltylated aqueous acetone spruce wood extract ( ) in presence of concentrated extracellular P, chrysosporium culture fluid at pH 3.0 containing 0.05 gL protein with 0.2 mM H2O2 during 1 h at 37 C. Sephadex LH20/DMF elution profiles adapted and redrawn from reference 13.

In Britain, the manufacture of cordite had commenced in 1889 in the royal gunpowder factory at Waltham Abbey. The acetone, which was critical to the process, was made from the distillate collected from wood that was heated to a high temperature. The best wood for this purpose came from the forests of continental Europe, and it was therefore unavailable to the British after the start of World War i. But in 1915 a chance meeting solved this problem. C.P. Scott of The Manchester Guardian introduced David Lloyd George, the Minister of Munitions, to one Chaim Weizmann. 

SHELLAC. A secretion or excretion of the lac insect, Coccus lacca, found in the forests of Assam and Siam. Freed from wood it is called seed lac." It is soluble in alkaline solutions such as ammonia, sodium borate, sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide, and also in various organic chemicals. When dissolved in acetone or alcohol, shellac yields the familiar shellac varnish of superior gloss and hardness. Orange shellac is bleached with sodium hypochlorite solution to form white shellac. See also Paints and Coatings. 

Acetals such as dimethoxypropane and diethoxypropane with hydrogen chloride in dioxane extract lignin from wood much more rapidly than methanol, acetone, or water. When the extraction is performed in a Soxhlet extractor, unusually high yields of lignin are obtained. 

Charcoal was a valued commodity in antiquity. The ancient Egyptians used the volatile product of hardwood distillation, pyroligneous acid, for embalming. Before synthetic organic chemistry became well established, destructive hardwood distillation provided several important industrial chemicals, among these were acetone, acetic acid, and methanol (still often referred to as wood alcohol). Charcoal is a fine, smokeless fuel, prized for its smokeless nature and used extensively for outdoor cooking. Acetone was originally made by the dry distillation of calcium acetate made from wood-derived acetic acid, but better, cheaper sources are also available. 

Acetate is also derived from wood pulp, is treated in acetone, and then is extruded through a spinneret into a stream of warm air. In triacetate the hydroxyl groups of the cellulose molecules are completely replaced by acetyl groups, which further alter the properties of the fiber, giving it fewer cellulose characteristics. It has a higher resistance to microorganisms than viscose and has been used to impart easy-care properties to fabrics (Cowan and Jungerman 1962). 

Many other chemicals can be obtained from both yeast and bacteria fermentation of sugars and pulp mill effluents. Potential fermentation products from wood hydrolysates include acetone, organic acids (acetic, butyric, lactic), glycerol, butanediol, and others.42... 

Fig. 15. GPC elution curves for cellulose diacetate (CDA) whole polymers, run through a series of columns (silica gel SI-1000, 500, 150, and 50) in acetone at 25°C17>. Solid line CDA synthesized from wood pulp dotted line from cotton liner. GPC curves exhibit multiple peaks...

Methylethyl ketone is present in large quantities in the "acetone oils," which are by-products m the manufacture of a< etonc from wood, and, if this compound is brominated in a way similar to acetone, broimnethyl-ethyl ketone is obtained. When freshly distilled, it is a faintly yellow liquid, insoluble in w r, of 1.43 specific gravity, and boils with some ilet omtiosiiion at I45 C. (293T.), yiehling a vapor 5.2 times heavier than air. 

Properties Crude, yellow to red hquid. A mixture of materials from wood distillation. Crude product contains methanol, acetic acid, acetone, furfural, and various tars and related products. D 1.018-1.030. Miscible with water and alcohol. Use Smoking meats. 

Tannins are polyhydroxyphenols of vegetable origin, which are soluble in water, alcohols, and acetone and can coagulate proteins. They are obtained by extraction from wood, bark, leaves, and fruits. Other components of the extraction solutions are sugars, pectins... 

Recent studies revealed that, in addition to aldehydes in such systems, there may also exist terpenes, ketones, acetone and hexanal [42-44]. This finding has initiated a growing interest for other possible non-formaldehyde based VOC emissions from wood and wood products. 

Definition Mixt. of materials derived from wood distillation, contg. methanol, acetic acid, acetone, furfural, various tars, etc. 

In this period Fischer began to be involved with the substitute foods commission, and other commissions such as the one for fat and oils. One of the most important projects was the production of food by heating straw with caustic soda. In May 1916 about 100,000 tons of straw were used for this process. By-products were methanole and acetone, and Fischer offered them to the Bayer company. He knew, however, that the production of acetone from acetylene was already under way. Fischer also tried to find a substitute for coffee. He offered to use synthetic caffeine and mix it with sliced turnips. He made different trials and offered the result to Bayer. In 1918 he reported to the Bayer company on the production of sugar from wood. Richard Willstatter had tried to develop this process, which the Holzspiritusfabrik in Mannheim scaled up for production. But Fischer was not convinced of the efficiency of this company and, in fact, it did not run well. In the 1920s the Nobel Prize winner Friedrich Bergius improved this process and built up a new factory which remained in operation until after World War II. 

Until World War 1 acetone was manufactured commercially by the dry distillation of calcium acetate from lime and pyroligneous acid (wood distillate) (9). During the war processes for acetic acid from acetylene and by fermentation supplanted the pyroligneous acid (10). In turn these methods were displaced by the process developed for the bacterial fermentation of carbohydrates (cornstarch and molasses) to acetone and alcohols (11). At one time Pubhcker Industries, Commercial Solvents, and National Distillers had combined biofermentation capacity of 22,700 metric tons of acetone per year. Biofermentation became noncompetitive around 1960 because of the economics of scale of the isopropyl alcohol dehydrogenation and cumene hydroperoxide processes. 

Commercial acetone is obtained from the products of the distillation of wood. To purify it, it is shaken with a saturated... 

The use of maleic anhydride as a compatiblizer between wood particles and bisphenol A-based polyesters resins has been investigated (Han etal., 1991). In this study, the MA was added directly to the composition of woody matrix filler and resin rather than by pre-modification of the wood. It was found that composite properties were improved by addition of MA, probably due to esterification of the wood occurring during the kneading process. The modification of sawdust using maleic anhydride has been performed in order to provide a compatible filler for polyester resins (Marcovich etal., 1996). Modification was performed at room temperature using a solution of maleic anhydride in acetone, in some cases catalysed with sulphuric acid. It was claimed that bonding occurred under these mild conditions from IR spectroscopic evidence only. 

The first literature report of a reaction of an isocyanate with wood is that due to Clermont and Bender (1957). In this study, DMF impregnated wood samples 1/8 in thick were suspended above phenylisocyanate liquid in a vessel heated at temperatures from 100 °C to 125 °C for various time intervals. Treated samples were washed with DMF, then water, then acetone, and dried in an oven at 105 °C. ASEs in the range of 60-80 % were reported for these samples. In view of the reactivity of DMF with isocyanates, the lack of an efficient clean-up procedure and the fact that ASE values were calculated from the first water-soak cycle only, this study is of limited value. 

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