Review Lecture: Novel organic chemical processes

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review some recent developments in industrial organic chemistry which have led, or seem likely to lead, to the establishment of new industrial processes for the production of bulk organic chemical products. The significance of some of the new and cheap, or potentially cheap, intermediates produced in such processes is pointed out in a few selected cases. In this review I shall concentrate on major new processes leading to large-scale organic chemical production. This invariably means continuous processes using as raw materials either petroleum hydrocarbons, including natural gas, or their cracked products. Because many important organic chemicals are oxygenated compounds, it is quite natural that the reaction of hydrocarbons with oxygen or air should have become quantitatively the most important area of industrial organic chemistry, apart that is from the field of polymerization. Certain processes involving the simultaneous reaction of hydrocarbons with oxygen and with a third reactant (such as hydrogen chloride, ammonia, etc.) have recently become very important industrially and will be reviewed in some detail. The potentialities of reactions involving hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, cheap and readily available raw materials, will also be considered.