Commercial application of carbon

So far, there are no commercial applications of carbon onions due to the small amounts of material produced as well as for the problems in assuring a homoge-... 

Forests of Vertically Aligned Nanotubes, 465 Horizontally Aligned SWNT, 467 Yams of Nanotubes, 468 Commercial Applications of Carbon Nanostructures, 469... 

Unlike ECF, direct fluorination does not alter the carbon backbone preparation of isomerically pure acids is possible (18). Both direct fluorination and ECF permit a great variety of stmctures to be made, but each method is better at certain types of stmctures than the other. Ether acids are produced in good yields, by direct fluorination (17), while ECF of ether-containing acids is fair to poor depending on the substrate. Despite much industrial interest, the costs and hazards of handling fluorine gas have prevented commercial application of this process. 

Kimock, F. M. and Knapp, B. J., Commercial Applications of Ion Beam Deposited Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) Coatings," Surf. Coat. Technol, Vol. 56,1993,pp. 273-279. 

Other options such as carbon nanotubes and conformable materials are being researched for hydrogen storage [43,44]. These are funded through the DOE hydrogen storage program however, the commercial applicability of these options are at least 10 years away. 

In the 19th century, various carbons were studied for their ability to decolorize solutions and adsorb compounds from gases and vapors. Commercial applications of activated carbon began early in the 20th century. Solutions containing phenols, acetic acid, herbicides, dyes, chlorophenols, cyanide and chromium have been successfully treated by carbon adsorption ( ). 

Blue gas, or blue-water gas, so-called because of the color of the flame upon burning (10), was discovered in 1780 when steam was passed over incandescent carbon (qv), and the blue-water gas process was developed over the period 1859—1875. Successful commercial application of the process came about in 1875 with the introduction of the carburetted gas jet. The heating value of the gas was low, ca 10.2 MJ/m3 (275 Btu/ft3), and on occasion oil was added to the gas to enhance the heating value. The new product was given the name carburetted water gas and the technique satisfied part of the original aim by adding luminosity to gas lights (10). 

Finally, it should be mentioned that there is one important commercial application of the organic halide carbonylation. This is in the rhodium and methyl iodide-catalyzed conversion of methanol and carbon monoxide into acetic acid (25). The mechanism of the reaction appears to involve the oxidative addition of methyl iodide to the rhodium(I) catalyst followed by CO insertion and hydrolysis ... 

The design of the first commercial modules has allowed the commercial application of membrane contactors for some specific operations. This is the case of the Membrana-Charlotte Company (USA) that developed the LiquiCel modules, equipped with polypropylene hollow fibers, for the water deoxygenation for the semiconductor industry. LiquiCel modules have been also applied to the bubble-free carbonation of Pepsi, in the bottling plant of West Virginia [18], and to the concentrations of fruit and vegetable juices in an osmotic distillation pilot plant at Melbourne [19]. Other commercial applications of LiquiCel are the dissolved-gases removal from water, the decarbonation and nitrogenation in breweries, and the ammonia removal from wastewater [20]. 

Mild hydrogenation of lubricating-oil fractions can also be used to improve the color, odor, acid value, carbon residue, and sulfur content and to lessen the tendency to emulsify. A commercial application of such a... 

In recent years a simplifying attempt to overcome this complexity was to analyze carbon by TPD and to integrate the total CO and CO2 emission and to correlate the results with sample pretreatment and chemical reactivity [33]. The limited validity of such an approach is apparent. As is illustrated below, the chemically complex surfaces which are not described by such crude correlations are those with the highest catalytic activity. In applications of carbons as catalyst support it is immediately apparent that the details of the car-bon-to-metal interaction depend crucially on such details of surface chemistry. This explains the enormous number of carbon supports commercially used (several thousands). A systematic effort to understand these relationships on the basis of modern analytical capabilities is still missing. 

In studies running parallel to carbonization with catalysts, Mochida et al. (78, 81) studied the separation of parent feedstocks into benzene-soluble (BS) and benzene-insoluble fractions(BI) and attempted co-carbonization of blends of these fractions. In addition, certain fractions were hydrogenated or alkylated and these alkylated fractions themselves hydrogenated. Mochida et al. (78-81) were looking for Compatibility between fractions, that is the ability of a blend of fractions to carbonize to a needle-coke. The commercial application of good compatibility could involve the use of low percentage additions of an active fraction (component) to produce a good needle-coke. 

While the application of enzymes and proline as catalysts for the (commercial) formation of carbon-carbon bonds is relatively new, transition metal catalysts are well established for the industrial synthesis of carbon-carbon bonds. Although in themselves not always perfectly green, transition metal catalysts often allow the replacement of multi-step and stoichiometric reaction sequences with one single catalytic step. Thus, the overall amount of waste generated and energy used is reduced drastically [61-64]. 

A number of commercial applications of MCs have been already successfully realized. A bubble-free membrane-based carbonation line, using Liqui-Cel equipment, is in operation by Pepsi in West Virginia since 1993. MCs are also used in beer production the CO2 removal stage is followed by nondispersive nitrogenation to obtain a dense foam head. Another important field of application of MC is the production of ultrapure water for semiconductor manufacturing. 

The earliest commercial application of coacervation was for the development of carbonless carbon copy paper by the National Cash Register Company in the late 1950s. More recently, the field of polymer coacervation has developed steadily so that a more refined and complete classification of coacervation systems can be proposed here (Table 1). Other classification schemes and related principles of coacervation for microencapsulation are available in the literature with illustrated examples. " ... 

Although employed, at one time, primarily as a war gas, phosgene is now an important chemical intermediate for the synthesis of a large number of commercial materials. Worldwide, it is used mainly in the manufacture of isocyanates (for urethane polymers and organic intermediates), polycarbonates (for speciality polymers), and monomeric carbonates and chloroformates (largely for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and pest control chemicals). The established large-scale, commercial applications of phosgene are summarized in Fig. 4.7. 

Farbood and Willis(68) in a recent patent application disclosed a process for production of optically active alpha-hydroxy decanoic acid (gamma-decalactone) by growing Yarrowia lipolytica on castor oil as a sole source of carbon. This is a good example of a commercial application of a volatile chemical produced by a microorganism. Yields of up to 6 grams per liter culture media were obtained making this a promising industrial fermentation. 

The use of critical fluids for the extraction and refining of components in natural products has now been facilitated for over 30 years. Early success in the decaffeination of coffee beans and isolation of specific fractions from hops for flavoring beer, using either supercritical carbon or liquid carbon dioxide, are but two examples of the commercial application of this versatile technology. Critical fluid technology, a term that will be used here to embrace an array of fluids under pressure, has seen new and varied applications which include the areas of engineering-scale processing, analytical, and materials modification. 

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