Imperial Chemical Industries and

The basic process for manufacture of acetone cyanohydrin was developed in the 1930s by Imperial Chemical Industries and has been improved over the years by the producing companies. 

Howden An early flue-gas desulfurization process using a lime or chalk slurry in wooden grid-packed towers. The calcium sulfate/sulfite waste product was intended for use in cement manufacture, but this was never commercialized. The key to the process was the use of a large excess of calcium sulfate in suspension in the scrubbing circuit, which minimized the deposition of scale on the equipment. The process was developed by Imperial Chemical Industries and James Howden Company in the 1930s and operated for several years at power stations at Fulham, London, and Tir John, South Wales, being finally abandoned during World War II. British Patents 420,539 433,039. 

A recent study indicates that if the Wacker process proves to be substantially cheaper than the acetylene route, no more vinyl acetate plants will be built in the United States, based on the latter process (38). Table XV gives estimated production costs for manufacturing vinyl acetate. Several companies are building or have already built plants to manufacture vinyl acetate from ethylene. These include Distillers Co., Ltd., British Celanese, Imperial Chemical Industries, and Celanese Corp., to name only a few. 

In the earlier vapor phase process, a mixture consisting of ammonia and adipic acid in a volumetric ratio of 20/1 was sent between 300 and 350 C to a catalyst bed based on phosphoric acid and boron. The thermal decomposition which occurred upon the vaporization of adipic acid limited the dinitrile molar selectivity to 80 per cent. The new liquid phase process, developed by IC1 (Imperial Chemical Industries) and Monsanto, operates in the molten acid between 200 and 300°C. in the presence of phosphoric acid. The selectivity to adiponitrile, purified by distillation and recrystallization, is 90 molar per cent. 

For its part, the U.S. State Department designed a diplomatic campaign to counteract the influence over the European Union (EU) of such powerful companies as Imperial Chemical Industries and France s Atochem, while cultivating discreet support behind the EU communal curtain from Belgium, Denmark, and Germany. At the same time, we sent diplomatic and scientific teams to try to persuade the other two major producers—Japan and the Soviet Union—as well as developing nations to support strong controls. 

These two—Imperial Chemical Industries and the LG, Far-benindustrie—might almost be called nationalized chemical industries of their respective countries beside them a representative American firm such as Du Pont de Nemours ir Co, despite its growth last year, is a mere pigmy (5),... 

The WLN was applied to indexing the Chemical Structure Index (CSI) at the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) [13] and the Ituiex Chemicus Registry System (ICRS) as well as the Crossbow System of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICl). With the introduction of connection tables in the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) in 1965 and the advent of molecular editors in the 1970s, which directly produced connection tables, the WLN lost its importance. 

Auckland Regional Authority converted two M.A.N. buses to use a cetane improver and methanol and South Africa investigated the use of methanol with a proprietary cetane improver. Eour Renault buses were converted in Tours, Erance to operate on ethanol and a cetane improver, Avocet, manufactured by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). The results of these demonstrations were also technically successfiil slightly better fuel economy was obtained on an energy basis and durabiUty issues were much less than the earlier tests using dedicated engines. 

Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) operated a coal hydrogenation plant at a pressure of 20 MPa (2900 psi) and a temperature of 400—500°C to produce Hquid hydrocarbon fuel from 1935 to the outbreak of World War II. As many as 12 such plants operated in Germany during World War II to make the country less dependent on petroleum from natural sources but the process was discontinued when hostihties ceased (see Coal conversion PROCESSES,liquefaction). Currentiy the Fisher-Tropsch process is being used at the Sasol plants in South Africa to convert synthesis gas into largely ahphatic hydrocarbons at 10—20 MPa and about 400°C to supply 70% of the fuel needed for transportation. 

Manufacture and Processing. Terephthalic acid and dimethyl terephthalate did not become large-volume industrial chemicals until after World War II. Imperial Chemical Industries in the United Kingdom in 1949 and Du Pont in the United States in 1953 commercialized fibers made from poly(ethylene terephthalate). Dimethyl terephthalate and ethylene glycol were the comonomers used by both companies (see Fibers, polyester). 

Esterification ofTerephthalicAcid. Esterification of terephthaUc acid is also used to produce dimethyl terephthalate commercially, although the amount made by this process has declined. Imperial Chemical Industries, Eastman Kodak, Amoco, Toray, Mitsubishi, and Mitsui Petrochemical have all developed processes. Esterification (qv) generally uses a large excess of methanol in a Hquid process at 250—300°C. The reaction proceeds rapidly without a catalyst, but metal catalysts such as zinc, molybdenum, antimony, and tin can be used. Conversion to dimethyl terephthalate is limited by equiHbrium, but yields of 96% have been reported (75,76). 

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