PATENTS

      1414.  ------.  [I. G. FARBENINDUSTRIE, A. G.]  [Process for Obtaining a Hydrogen-Carbon Monoxide Gas Mixture From Hydrocarbons.]  German Patent Appl. I 67,460. OZ 12,258. filed July 19, 1940 (Cl. 26 c).  FIAT Reel 163. frames 2,199-2,202; PB 25,607; TOM Reel 26. item 11. frames 625-628: Meyer Transl. PC-S-II. Fischer-Tropsch. vol. 1. chap. 73. 1948. p. 184.

            H₂-CO mixture is obtained by the incomplete combustion of gaseous hydrocarbons with O₂ or gases containing it in the presence of solid catalysts and steam by thoroughly saturating the raw gas before it comes into contact with the catalyst with vapors of metals of the Fe group.  Example: Coke oven gas is burned with O₂ and steam in a furnace filled with a Ni-Mg catalyst.  Into the furnace are introduced steadily 4 gm. per hr. of Fe in the form of Fe carbonyl, which vaporizes at once.  At a temperature of 990º at the exit of the furnace, a mixture of H₂ and CO is obtained containing only 0.25% of CH₄.  By operating in this fashion the furnace is not stopped even in long periods of operation.