N16
CFC Substitutes -
1992; he was given fifty million yen as an
a New Range of
extra prize. The award, sponsored
Products
Science A massive programme
for the substitu-
and Technology
Japan, was established
by the
Foundation
of
to recognize
out-
tion of CFCs by the year 2000 has been
standing contributions
initiated
Professor
Ertl was cited for his accom-
plishments
in the field of surface elemen-
on a worldwide
direction
scale under the
of the United Nations, involving
scientists,
politicians
This involves chemical
and
industrialists.
a unique challenge
for the
to surface science.
tary reactions at the surfaces of heterogeneous catalysts.
industry.
Elf Atochem, the world’s second largest producer
of CFCs, has invested heavily in
the research and production
of substitutes.
This effort is already approaching French
francs
and will
reach
2 billion 3 billion
French francs by the end of the conversion process, This work has resulted in the development
of new fluorinated
compounds,
HFAs, meeting the objectives the environment
of safety and
as well as best satisfying
the needs of the consumer.
These pro-
ducts permit the maintenance
of the quality
of our daily lives: e.g. refrigerators,
air con-
ditioning, energy efficiency thanks to insulating foams, appliances
and reliability
due to solvents.
a press-release massive
investments
where new production are scheduled 1992. The mt/year
of electronic According
Elf Atochem at
to
has made Pierre-Benite
sites for substitutes
to go on stream by mid-
plants
will
produce
40,000
of HCFC 141 b and HCFC 142b
and 8000 mt/year
Catalysis Society of Japan Awards
of HCFC 134a. More-
Yoshihiko
Moro-oka,
Research Laboratory
Professor
at the
of Resources Utiliza-
tion at Tokyo Institute of Technology, received
a Chemical
Society
has
of Japan
Award for 1992. The award was established to recognize
his outstanding
con-
tributions to the study of the activation dioxygen
and of catalytic
oxidation
of
reac-
tions. It was given in particular as recognition of his work on catalytic oxidation
reac-
tions with molecular oxygen and their reaction
mechanisms,
organometallic
proaches to Cl-chemistry tion of oxygenates,
and the preparation
and reactions of dioxygen vant to biological
ap-
for the produccomplexes
rele-
systems,
Syuichi Kagawa,
Professor
in the De-
partment of Industrial Chemistry
of Naga-
over, a 40 million Ibs/year HCFC 134a plant
saki University,
and Makoto Misono,
will be built to come on stream by 1995 in
fessor
Department
the USA.
Chemistry of the University of Tokyo, have
in the
Pro-
of Synthetic
also been given Catalysis Society of Japan Awards
for 1992. Professor
cited as having contributed Japan Prize to Gerhard Ertl
the characteristic oxygen
Professor Haber-lnstitut
Gerhard der
Max
Ertl of the Planck
Fritz-
Gesell-
schaft, has been given the Japan Prize for applied catalysis A: General
species
chemical
Kagawa
properties
of surface
and their application
reactions.
Professor
cited as having contributed
is
to the study of in
Misono
is
to the study of
metal oxide catalysts, and the relationship Volume 87 No. 2 -
19 August 1992
N17
between
their acid-base
characters
and
ping petroleum processes
catalytic activities.
Professor
refining and petrochemical
and related
catalysts.
Li’s supervision,
Under
many
hydro-
treating catalysts have been developed
I. MATSUURA
in
recent years, of which eight have been put Changes
into commercial
in Personnel at the State
hydrotreating
Key Laboratory of Catalysis (China)
use. Among them, a new
catalyst, RN-l, was awarded
the “Golden Prize” by the Chinese Patent 1991 saw a change personnel
in the executive
of the State Key Laboratory
of
Catalysis (SKLC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
(CAS) which is affiliated with
the Dalian Institute of Chemical (DICP). The CAS appointed
Physics
Professor Xu
Yide as the Director of the SKLC. Professor Xu nominated
Office and the World Intellectual Organization present
group
Molecular
Property
in 1989. Professor leader
Li is at
of the Catalyst
Sieve Section
&
of the Refining
Society of the Chinese Petroleum Society. E. MIN
Professor Xiong Guoxing as Examples of Catalytic Distillation
the Deputy Director and this was approved by the DICP. The term of office of the First Academic Committee
of the SKLC also expired
1991. The Second Academic nominated
Committee,
by the SKLC and appointed
the CAS, took Committee
office in December.
is composed
in by The
of eighteen mem-
bers and includes four members
of CAS:
Min Enze, Cai Qirui, Peng Xiaoyi and Guo Xiexian. The first meeting of this Committee was held from 20th to 22nd December 1991 in Dalian. At the above meeting, Professor Guo Xiexian was elected Chairman and Professors Xie Youchang
and Xin Qin
were elected Vice-Chairmen.
MTBE Synthesis In a recent European patent application (466-954-Al),
L.A. Smith, Jr. describes
reactions in a reaction-distillation
column.
The catalyst system comprises
a plurality
of closed off pockets containing
a particu-
late catalytic
material. Specifically,
vention relates to the separation kenes from a feed stream mixture
of an iso-alkene
sponding
normal
the inof iso-al-
containing The invention
can be viewed as a method for preparing MTBE by contacting
a mixture of isobu-
fixed bed cation exchange within a cloth supported
Professor Li Dadong was promoted
last
winter from Vice President to President of the Chinese
Research
leum Processing
(RIPP). RIPP, founded in
1956, is a comprehensive ization
Institute of Petroresearch organ-
under the auspices
Petrochemical
of the China
Corporation
(SINOPEC).
One major research field of RIPP is develoapplied catalysis A: General
a
and the corre-
alkene.
tylene and n-butene with methanol Other Personal News from China
a
catalyst system for carrying out chemical
side a distillation
column.
can be characterized paring
isobutylene
over a
resin contained by wire mesh inAlternatively,
it
as a method of preby contacting
MTBE
with the same catalyst resin in the packina. The cloth is made of cotton,
linen, fibre-
glass or Teflon. In the prior art, the control of temperature avoided
was a problem
which
by this catalytic distillation
Volume 87 No. 2 -
is
proce-
19 August 1992