Manufacturing of acetone

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. 

The procedure for setting up the equations and assigning suitable values to the split-fraction coefficients is best illustrated by considering a short problem the manufacture of acetone from isopropyl alcohol. 

In a process for the manufacture of acetone, acetone is separated from acetic acid by distillation. The feed to the column is 60 mol per cent acetone, the balance acetic acid. 

Weizmann A process for producing acetone and //-butanol by the fermentation of carbohydrates by bacteria isolated from soil or cereals. Later work has shown that effective bacteria are Clostridium acetobutylicum and Bacillus granulobacter pectinorum. Used in Britain in World War I for the manufacture of acetone, needed for the production of cordite. Subsequently operated by Commercial Solvents Corporation in Terre Haute, IN, and in two plants in Canada. Later abandoned in favor of synthetic processes. Invented by C. Weizmann in the University of Manchester in 1915, based on earlier work at the Pastern Institute by A. Fembach and E. H. Strange (hence the alternative name Fembach-Strange-Weizmann). The money that Weizmann obtained from royalties on this process was used in founding the State of Israel, of which he was the first president. 

Delaney JL, Hughes TW. 1979. Source Assessment Manufacture of Acetone and Phenol from Cumene. Prepared by Monsanto Research Corp., Dayton, OH. EPA-600/2-79-019D. NTIS PB80-150592, 500. 

Isopropyl alcohol org chem (CH3)2CH0H A colorless liquid that boils at 82.4°Q soluble in water, ether, and ethanol used in manufacturing of acetone and its derivatives, of glycerol, and as a solvent. Also known as isopropanol 2-propanol sec-propyl alcohol. T-s3 pro-p3l al-k3,h6l ... 

Phenol has for a long time been a minor source of cyclohexane, more so in Europe chan in the United States. Phenol, a benzene ring with an -OH group attached in place of a hydrogen, is a coproduct of the manufacture of acetone. Ironically, the process starts with benzene, as you can read about in Chapter 7. Only when the demands for acetone and phenol get out of sync and too much phenol is left over after the market clears itself does the phenol route to cyclohexane become an attractive proposition. 

Uses Manufacture of acetone, acetophenone, diisopropylbenzene, a-methylstyrene and phenol, polymerization catalysts constituent of motor fuel, asphalt, and naphtha catalyst for acrylic and polyester-type resins octane booster for gasoline solvent. 

Uses. Manufacture of acetone solvent in skin lotions, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals most commonly available commercially as rubbing alcohol (70% isopropanol)... 

Presently there are two processes that make acetone in large quantities. The feedstock for these is either isopropyl alcohol or cumene. In the last few years there has been a steady trend away from isopropyl alcohol and toward cumene, but isopropyl alcohol should continue as a precursor since manufacture of acetone from only cumene would require a balancing of the market with the co-product phenol from this process. 

A similar single- or two-stage process has been developed for the manufacture of acetone from propene (110-120 °C, 10 atm, PdCl2-CuCl2-HCl catalyst) but on a smaller scale (80 000 t/year) than for acetaldehyde (2 500 000 t/year).405 The yield is ca. 93%. 

On the other hand, methyl ethyl ketone, the primary material in the preparation of this war gas, is easily obtainable even in wartime, for it is a by-product in the manufacture of acetone from pyroligneous acid. The monobromo- derivative of methyl ethyl ketone has similar aggressive properties to bromoacetone and was used by both the French and the Germans in the war of 1914-18,... 

Use Manufacture of acetone, acetic acid, acetates, mordant in dyeing and printing of textiles, stabilizer in resins, additive to calcium soap lubricants, food additive (as antimold agentin bakery goods, sausage casings), corrosion inhibitor. 

Use Manufacture of acetone and its derivatives, manufacture of glycerol and isopropyl acetate, solvent for essential and other oils, alkaloids, gums, resins, etc. latent solvent for cellulose derivatives, coatings solvent, deicing agent for liquid fuels, lacquers, extraction processes, dehydrating agent, preservative, lotions, denaturant. 

The manufacture of acetone by the Weizmann process attained the greatest success at the factory of British Acetones, Toronto, Ttd., in Canada, where an output of nearly 200 long tons a month was reached. 

Mezzadroli, an Italian, describes the use of cultures called B. in-yertenti lattici and B. invertenti acetici in the manufacture of acetone from cane sugar and cane sugar waste. 

Cumene hydroperoxide is used for the manufacture of acetone and phenols for studying the mechanism of NADPH-dependent lipid... 

The acetone to be not more than 0.802 specific gravity at 60° F. When mixed with distilled water it must show no turbidity, and must leave no residue on evaporation at 212° F. On distillation, four-fifths by volume of the quantity taken must distil over at a temperature not exceeding 138° F. The residual matter left after this distillation must not contain, besides acetone, any ingredient that is not a bye-product incidental to the manufacture of acetone. 

The manufacture of acetone shows a different interplay. Its source in the nineteenth century was wood, whose destructive distillation yielded both acetone and methanol (Scheme 6.2). In the United Kingdom the necessary timber was imported from Austria, and that supply was cut off during World War I. Weizmann then developed a fermentation process based on the growth of Clostridium acetobutilicum (then called Bacillus macerans) on starch in the absence of oxygen. This yielded a mixture of acetone, butan-l-ol and ethanol in the ratio 6 3 1 by weight these three... 

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...

Figure 6.6 Manufacture of acetone (1,2 and 3) and butanol (4). The cumene hydroperoxide process (1) and the dehydrogenation of propali-2-ol are more important routes to acetone than the Shell glycerol process (3). The oxo-process for butanol manufacture (4) can be controlled so that butan-l-al is the main product of the hydroformylation of propylene...

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