101.    AUDIBERT, E.  [Manufacture of Synthetic Liquid Fuels From Mixtures of Carbon and Hydrogen.]  Chim. et ind., vol. 13, 1925, pp. 186-194; Brennstoff-Chem., vol. 6, 1925, p. 244; Fuel, vol. 5, 1926, pp. 170-177; Chem. Abs., vol. 19, 1925, p. 1487.

                  The results obtained and conclusions drawn by Fischer and Tropsch in the preparation of Synthol (see abs. 1014 and 1015) have in the main been confirmed by work carried out by the Société Nationale de Recherches sur le Traitement des Combustibles, and interesting results were obtained by using suboxides as catalyzers.  These are defined as oxides that cannot be isolated as such because they oxidize spontaneously in air, for example, CrO, V₂O, VO, MoO, WO, U₂O₃, Pb₂O, BiO, etc.  They must be prepared directly in the catalyst chamber by reduction of a higher oxide in the presence of a secondary catalyzer consisting of a reduced metal, which must be either inert toward CO (for example Cu) or easily eliminated after reduction of the principal catalyzer (for example, Ni, removed as Ni carbonyl at 60°-80°).  When a 2:1 mixture of H₂ and CO under a pressure of 200 atm. is passed over the catalyzer there is no reaction below 225°; between 225° and 275°-300° (the upper limit depending on the nature of the catalyzer) practically pure MeOH is formed in 8-10% yield according to CO+2H₂=MeOH, not over 2% CO₂ according to CO+H₂O=CO₂+H₂ and traces of CH₄; above 300° H₂O, CH₂, MeOH and other organic compounds are formed.