PATENTS

      1488.  ------.  [I. G. FARBENINDUSTRIE, A. G.]  [Production of High-Molecular-Weight Alcohols.]  German Patent Appl. I 74,465, OZ 14,033, filed Mar. 2. 1943 (Cl. IV d-12 o).  FIAT Reel 169. frames 8,514-8,517; PB 25,613; Meyer Transl. PC-S-IV, Wax Oxidation, vol. 3, chap. 55, 1949, p. 47.

            High molecular weight alcohols are produced from the fatty acid residues or the high boiling fractions and residues of the distillation of synthetic fatty acids obtained by the oxidation of paraffin by dissolving the starting material in a solvent, which is not easily altered by hydrogenation, such as alcohols of medium chain lengths of 4-10 C atoms, freeing the solution of inorganic impurities, and then treating with H2 in the presence of fixed catalysts and at elevated temperature and pressure (230º-270º and 100-500 atm.).  Suitable catalysts consist of Cu-Cr promoted by additions of Zn, Ba, and precipitated on silica gel, kieselguhr, or alumina.  Different types of alcohol mixtures are obtained, depending upon the nature of the raw material.