2567.     PARIS, A.  [Mild Oxidation of Methane Under Pressure.]  chim. et ind., Special No., April 1934, pp. 411-420; Brennstoff-Chem., vol. 15, 1934, p. 413; Chem. Abs., vol. 28, 1934, p. 5806.

        Investigation into the optimum conditions for formation of MeOH and CH2O when working in a closed cycle.  The possibility of isolating appreciable quantities of the principal oxidation product of CH4 (MeOH) by raising the total pressure while at the same time remaining far enough from the limits of inflammability of CH4-O2 mixtures, seems to be due only tot he selective increase in the rate of the reaction CH4+0.5 O2=CH3OH, relative to all the other reactions possible.  This possibility is still further increased, and for the same reason but to a much greater extent, by increasing the ratio of CH4 pressure to O2 pressure.  Temperature has but a very slight effect on the yields, the optimum detected at 450° being due to the fact that oxidation of MeOH starts long before that of CH4 and that toward 500° it proceeds at an increasingly rapid rate.  Industrial application can be conceived only by utilizing intensive circulation to compensate the low conversion resulting from the necessarily small O2 content of the mixture.