Sulphur-iron world

When the Fe2+/Fe3+ system is included, the thioester hypothesis, with its roots in sulphur chemistry, shows clear links with the iron-sulphur world of Wachtershauser s chemoautotrophic biogenesis model (see Sect. 7.3). 

Wachtershauser, G. 1992. Groundworks for an evolutionary biochemistry The iron-sulphur world. Prog. Biophys. Mol. Biol. 58 85-201. 

Wachtershauser, G. Groundworks for an evolutionary biochemistry the iron-sulphur world. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 58 (1992), 85-201. 

In the USA, 150,000 t benzene were used in 1976 for the production of chlorobenzene [27]. It is assumed in western Europe that 500,000 t benzene will have been used in 1979 as initial product for chloro- and nitrobenzene [3]. Based on these figures, the annual world production of chlorinated benzenes can be estimated at 600,000-800,000 t. Direct chlorination of benzene with chlorine gas is effected on a continuous basis in the presence of catalysts, such as aluminium, mercury, iron, sulphur chlorides or molybdenum chloride [32, 36, 43], following which the mixture is separated and purified by washing, chemical treatment and distillation operations. Chlorobenzene is used mainly for the production of phenol, chloronit-robenzenes, DDT, and as a solvent, o-dichlorobenzene is a solvent, whereas p-dichlorobenzene is used as an intermediate or (in addition to naphthalene) as a mothproofing agent [292]. 

However, there are also biogenesis models which do not require phosphate, such as the inorganic hypothesis of the origin of life proposed by Cairns-Smith (see Sect. 7.1), the thioester world proposed by de Duve (see Sect. 7.4) or the sulphur-iron world suggested by Wachtershauser (see Sect. 7.3). The RNA world (see Chap. 6), however, cannot exist without phosphate. 

The thioester world postulated by de Duve should in fact be called the sulphur-iron world , since iron ions are essential for the redox processes occurring in such a thioester world, de Duve (1991, 1996) asks a question which is vital for the whole of prebiotic chemistry where did the redox equivalents necessary for the construction of biomolecules on the primeval Earth come from This question becomes largely irrelevant if the strongly reducing atmosphere postulated by Miller/Urey and... 

Up to World War 1 most industrial countries experienced a rapid increase in the production of sulphuric acid. This was a basic input product for the manufacture of traditional industries (such as textiles, iron and steel), as well as the newer heavy chemicals (oil refining, artificial fertilisers, and explosives) and the emerging fine chemicals (such as synthetic dyes). The strongest reasons for the early rise of this industry in Spain are the abundance of raw materials (sea salt and pyrites) and the existence of a consumer industry (textiles). The development of the acid industry was, however, difficult and slow in the previous century. The story of the pioneer enterprise, Cros, founded by a native of southern France in the surroundings of Barcelona in the... 

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