3042.     ---------------.  [SCHEER, W.]  [Franz Fischer and the Chemistry of Coal.]  Glückauf, vol. 80, 1944, pp. 76-78.

        Chronological survey of Fischer’s work as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut für Kohlenforschung.  The first results of the research by Fischer and Tropsch on oil synthesis from water gas were attained in 1922 when Synthol, a mixture of hydrocarbons, acid-containing compounds, and lower alcohols, was produced by conducting the CO+H₂ mixture over alkalized Fe catalyst at 100-150 atm. pressure and 400°-450°.  It was later discovered that by using a Zn-Cr oxide catalyst MeOH could be produced.  Further tests, largely by varying the catalyst, led in 1926 to the Kogasin synthesis, by which the same synthesis gas, under normal pressure and temperature around 200°, was converted into saturated hydrocarbons of the paraffin series ranging from CH₄ to high molecular paraffins.  In conjunction with Koch, Meyer, and Roelen, this process was so far perfected that in 1934 the Ruhrchemie A.-G. established it on a commercial scale.  Experiments were continued to raise the yield of solid paraffins, and, in 1936, Fischer and Pichler developed the medium-pressure synthesis with the Co catalyst at 10 atm. pressure.  A year later the use of an Fe catalyst was established.  The next development was the use of the Ru catalyst and the production of still higher paraffins.  The high versatility of the Fischer synthesis was next revealed by the discovery that, under specific conditions, the formation of unbranched paraffins could be curtailed and the production of branched hydrocarbons promoted.  These hydrocarbons as produced by the so-called isosynthesis are distinguished by their high antiknock value.  Thus, the final development by Fischer before his retirement in October 1943, went far to correct a serious disadvantage positively connected with the original benzine synthesis process, that of a low-octane fuel.

        -----------.  See abs. 2044.

        SCHEFFER, F. E. C.  See abs. 2243, 2244, 2245, 2246, 2247.