Chemists detail catalysis work with C systems
JOSEPH HAGGIN · Chemical & Engineering News · 1984
Chemists at Monsanto have succeeded in unraveling some of the complex catalysis of several C 1 systems that are simultaneously of great fundamental interest and commercial importance. Two reaction systems of current interest are carbonylation of methanol and hydrocarboxylation of olefins. Methanol carbonylation was the essence of the highly successful process for making acetic acid that Monsanto pursued in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Olefin hydrocarboxylation is of similar importance, and both systems have a number of catalytic features in common. Present interest in Q chemistry usually is attributed to the effects of the Arab oil embargo of 1973. There isn't much doubt that the embargo sharply focused general attention on the previously neglected virtues of carbon monoxide as a feedstock. It also yielded a number of premature programs that have lost much of their appeal in the cold light of economic reality. What doesn't seem to be generally appreciated is that industrial interest in ...