Mittasch

Bosch and co-workers devised laboratory reactors to operate at high pressure and temperature in a recycle mode. These test reactors had the essential characteristics of potential industrial reactors and were used by Mittasch and co-workers to screen some 20,000 samples as candidate catalysts. The results led to the identification of an iron-containing mineral that is similar to today s industrial catalysts. The researchers recognized the need for porous catalytic materials and materials with more than one component, today identified as the support, the catalyticaHy active component, and the promoter. Today s technology for catalyst testing has become more efficient because much of the test equipment is automated, and the analysis of products and catalysts is much faster and more accurate. 

A. Mittasch, K r e Geschichte derKataljse in Praxis und Theorie, J. Springer-Vedag, Berlin, Germany, 1939. 

A. Mittasch and E. Thies, on Davj undDtfbereiner bis Deacon, ein Ha/bes Jahrhundert Gren ldchenkataljse, Vedag Chemie, Berlin, Germany, 1932. 

Manometric Stability Tests. Based on press measurements developed by gases formed on decompn of ex pis. Am on this group of tests are (1) Brame s Method, (2) Chiaraviglio and Corbino Method, (3) Desmaroux Method, (4) Dupre s-Vacuum Test, (5) Farmer s Vacuum Stability Test, (6) Haid, Becker Dittmar Test, (7) Meerscheidt-Hullassem s Test, (8) Mittasch s Method, (9) Obermuller s Method, and (10) Talliani Test... 

Mittasch Stability Test for Nitrocellulose. A test based on the measurement of press developed on decompn of NC. The app may be considered a very complicated modification of devices originated by Abel (Ref 4, p 241) and Hess (Refs 1 4). Abel heated NC samples in vac and detd the press increase. Hess believed that on heating NC in a closed vessel contg air, connected to a Hg manometer, it would be possible to achieve conditions more closely resembling those in storage in closed magazines. Neither of these methods found any practical application... 

Mittasch, recognizing the fact that decompn of NC in Hess app was abnormally high because the gases under press excercised an autocatalytic action, constructed an app in which NC, heated to 70° under atm press, was connected to a manometer. Thus, any vol changes because of gas formation were automatically registered. As Mittasch s.app was very complicated and costly, it did not find practical application except in Engl, where it was used in modified form for... 

The catalyst was reformulated by Alwin Mittasch, who synthesized some 2500 different catalysts and performed more than 6500 tests. They arrived at a triply promoted catalyst consisting of a fused iron catalyst, with AI2O3 and CaO as structural promoters and potassium as an electronic promoter. The process was first commercialized by BASF, with the first plant located in Oppau in Germany producing 30 tons per day in 1913. The plant initially produced ammonium sulfate fertilizer, but when the First World War broke out it was redesigned to produce nitrates for ammunition. The plant was expanded and in 1915 it produced the equivalent of 230 tons ammonium per day. 

The development of ammonia synthesis represents a landmark in chemical engineering, as it was the start of large-scale, continuous high-pressure operation in flow reactors, and in catalysis, because the numerous tests of Mittasch provided a systematic overview of the catalytic activity of many substances. 

Pier-Mittasch A high-pressure, catalytic process for making methanol from carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Developed by M. Pier and A. Mittasch at BASF in the 1920s. 

Research at I.G. Farben at that time was conducted in five large research laboratories.Inorganic chemistry was the primary research area at Bitterfeld under L. Pistor, while pigments and pharmaceuticals were studied at Leverkusen under C. Duisberg and at Hoechst under E. Schmidt. Research of ammoniacal fertilizers was conducted at Oppau under A. Mittasch. The fifth laboratory was the central laboratory in Ludwigschafen, headed by Meyer. 

One day in Ludwigschafen, the great scientist Mittasch asked me, What are you doing I said I was measuring viscosity. Why he asked. I told him that we desired to determine the molecular weight of a polymer. 

Karl Bosch (1874-1940) and Alwin Mittasch (1869-1953) of Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik eliminated the nitrate shortage that occurred after the British sea blockade effectively cut off the nitrate supply from Chile. By May of 1915, they had successfully developed at their Oppau Plant an industrial-scale process for oxidizing ammonia. Their process converted the large quantities of synthetic ammonia produced by the Haber process to nitric acid and other nitrates that were essential for fertilizers and explosives. (10)... 

Bosch, Karl. Chemisches Zentralblatt 1913, 2, 195 German Patents 249,447, July 23, 1912 and 254,437, December 3, 1912 Chemical Age 1921, 29451-45 The Industrial Chemist 1934, 10, 90-94 "Nobel Lectures, Chemistry, 1922-1941" Elsevier Publish ing Company New York, 1966 pp 195-235 Mittasch, Alwin. 

Geschichte der Airanoniaksynthese" Verlag Chemie Weinheim, 1951 pp 93-1]6 Mittasch, Alwin and Frankenburger, W. 

Louis Schmerling and V. N. Ipatieff Early Studies of Multicomponent Catalysts Alwin Mittasch... 

In 1913, methanol was identified by A. Mittasch at the BASF Company [1] as a byproduct in the synthesis of ammonia. Subsequently, in 1923, the first industrial unit went on stream to convert syngas, in the presence of significant amounts... 

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