Weizmann fermentation process

Between 1914 and 1918, solvent and general chemical production had been geared to the needs of war. At war s end, the chemical surpluses included, in addition to phenol and cellulose acetate, the acetone and butanol from the Weizmann fermentation process and chlorine from poison gas production. The latter, made by electrolysis of sodium chloride solution, became the basis of the British chlorinated solvents industry. Here the outstanding firm was Albright Wilson, which began manufacture of carbon tetrachloride in 1925. Cleaning and degreasing processes led to production of trichloroethylene, for which demand increased dramatically between 1928 and 1936. The principal manufacturer was Weston Co., later taken over by ICl. 

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. 

The butanols and their methyl and ethyl ethers have several advantages as oxygenates over methanol and ethanol in gasoline blends. Their energy contents are closer to those of gasoline the compatibility and miscibility problems with petroleum fuels are nil excessive vapor pressure and volatility problems do not occur and they are water tolerant and can be transported in gasoline blends by pipeline without danger of phase separation due to moisture absorption. Fermentation processes (Weizmann process) have been developed for simultaneous production of 1-butanol, 2-propanol, acetone, and ethanol from... 

Weizmann knew that his fermentation process yielded chemical compounds containing three and four carbon atoms and predicted that the same process could produce the substances on which modem petrochemical industries are based. He often enunciated the need for countries (especially those poor in natural oil) to replace a petroleum-based chemical industry with one based on fermentation. 

The Balfour Declaration (1917), the first formal international recognition of Zionism, was, to some extent, a culmination of Weizmann s scientific and political efforts. His fermentation process, which contributed to the Allies victory in World War I, was not a direct cause of the declaration but was certainly an indirect one. 

The ABE fermentation process was first developed by C. Weizmann at Manchester University in 1912. Commercial production quickly spread to the United States and then worldwide during the First and Second World Wars first to produce acetone for ammunitions and then later to produce butanol for paint lacquers. The fermentation process fell out of favor in the United States and Europe in the 1950s when renewable solvents could no longer compete with their synthetic equivalents on price. Some production, via fermentation, continued in China, Russia, and South Africa until the early 1980s [54]. 

Almost his first words were Well, Dr. Weizmann, we need thirty thousand tons of acetone. Can you make it I was so terrified by this lordly request that I almost turned tail I answered So far I have succeeded in making a few hundred cubic centimeters of acetone at a time by the fermentation process. I do my work in a laboratory. 1 am not a technician, I am only a research chemist. But, if I were somehow able to produce a ton of acetone, I would be able to multiply that by any factor you chose. . .. I was given carte blanche by Mr. Churchill and the department, and I took upon myself a task which was to tax all my energies for the next two years. 

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... 

Weizmann process A fermentation process used to produce acetone, butanol, and ethanol using the acid-resistant bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum. The bacteria derived from soil and cereals is able to convert whey, sugar, and starch. The process was developed by Russian-born chemist Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) and was used in the UK in the First World War for the production of acetone, which was used in the production of cordite. He became a UK citizen in 1910 and then the first president of Israel in 1949. The process is also known as the ABE fermentation. 

Microorganisms have also been developed to produce alternative products, such as lactic acid [65], propane-1,3-diol [67], 3-hydroxypropionic acid [68], butane-2,3-diol [69] and numerous other intermediates. For instance, bacteria such as the Clostridium acetobutylicum ferment free sugars to C4 oxygenates such as butyric acid or butanol. They form the C4 oxygenates by Aldol condensation of the acetaldehyde intermediates. The Weizmann process exploits this property to ferment starch feedstock anaerobically at 37 °C to produce a mixture of w-butanol, acetone and ethanol in a volume ratio of 70 25 5 [3],... 

The C4 aldol intermediate of the Weizmann process is also key in the aerobic fermentation of sugars to poly(3-hydroxybutyric acid) or PHB (-0[-CH(CH3)-CH2-COO - [70]. This natural and biodegradable polymer is produced inside microorganisms, e.g., Ralstonia eutropha. A complex processing is required to extract and purify the polymer granules from the microorganism. 

Weizmann discovered a process to produce butyl alcohol and acetone from the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum in 1914. With England s urgent demand for acetone, Winston Churchill (1874-1965) enlisted Weizmann to develop the Weizmann process for acetone production on an industrial scale. Large industrial plants were established in Canada, India, and the United States to provide the allies with acetone for munitions. Weizmann, who is considered the father of industrial fermentation, obtained significant status from his war contributions and used this to further his political mission of establishing a Jewish homeland. Weizmann was a leader of the Zionist movement and campaigned aggressively until the nation of Israel was established in 1948. He was the first president of Israel. 

One of the most fascinating stories of the coatings industry involves the production of acetone, butanol, and ethanol by the Weizmann process (11. 12). Because the main objective was to produce acetone for explosives, the butanol piled up until it was found that butyl acetate was an excellent solvent for the new nitrocellulose lacquers. Commercial Solvents Corporation (of Maryland) was formed in 1919 to take over the fermentation plants operating at Terre Haute to make butanol and derivatives. The availability of butyl alcohol and the acetate was of major aid in the success of nitrocellulose lacquers in new automobile paints that permitted a reduction in the time required for painting automobiles from 23 days in 1920 to a matter of about 12 h in 1940 (13). 

An illustration of the use of the direct fermentation method is described in British Patent 4845 (1915) by C. Weizmann. In this process acetone and butyl alcohol was produced from carbohydrate material as maize, rice, wheat, oats, rye, dari, and potatoes. A culture of bacteria obtained from soil, cereals as maize, rice, flax, was used. This organism is resistant to 90-100 degrees C. for 1-2 minutes, and liquefies gelatin. It is supposed to be B. granulobaoter pectinovorium. The method used in preparing the culture was the inoculation of sterile maize mash with maize meal heated to 90-100° C. for 1-2 minutes. The mixture was allowed to ferment at about 37° C. A pronounced odor of butyl alcohol was considered the indication of the active existence of the organism desired. 

Weizmann s discovery was a bacillus and a process. The bacillus was Clostridium acetobutylicum Weizmann, informally called B-Y ( bacillus-Weizmann ), an anerobic organism that decomposes starch. He was trying to develop a process for making synthetic rubber when he found it, on an ear of corn. He thought he could make synthetic rubber from isoamyl alcohol, which is a minor byproduct of alcoholic fermentation. He went looking for a bacillus—millions of species and subspecies live in the soil and on plants—that converted starch to isoamyl alcohol more efficiently than known strains. In the course of this investigation I found a bacterium which produced considerable amounts of a liquid smelling very much like... 

That creature of serendipity was B-Y. Mixed with a mash of cooked com it fermented the mash into a solution of water and three solvents—one part ethyl alcohol, three parts acetone, six parts butyl alcohol (butanol). The three solvents could then be separated by straightforward distillation. Weizmann tried developing a process for making synthetic rubber from butanol and succeeded. In the meantime, in the years just prior to the beginning of the war, the price of natural rubber fell and the clamor for synthetic rubber stilled. 

Weizmann had cultured B-Y primarily for its butanol. He happened one day to tell the chief research chemist of the Scottish branch of the Nobel explosives company about his fermentation research. The man was impressed. You know, he said to Weizmann, you may have the key to a very important situation in your hands. A major industrial explosion prevented Nobel from developing the process, but the company let the British government know. 

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