Reaction engineering acid synthesis

Carbon monoxide, CO, is produced when carbon or organic compounds burn in a limited supply of air, as happens in cigarettes and badly tuned automobile engines. It is produced commercially as synthesis gas by the re-forming reaction (Section 14.3). Carbon monoxide is the formal anhydride of formic acid, HCOOH, and the gas can be produced in the laboratory by the dehydration of formic acid with hot, concentrated sulfuric acid ... 

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this research by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Tony Liu and Chris Maxwell thank the Student Work Experience Program at Queen s University for financial support during the summer of 2005. We acknowledge Farhad Nowrouzi for synthesis of a precursor to 4-chlorophenyl -4-pentenoic acid and for preliminary measurements of the e.e. for the reaction of 14- Br+ with some l,co-alkenols and alkenoic acids. 

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