3565.     VINCENT, J. W.  Aspects of the Synthetic Fatty Acid and Synthetic Fat Industries in Germany.  Chem. Trade Jour., vol. 119, 1946, pp. 635-637; Petrol. Times, vol. 51, 1947, p. 283; BIOS Final Rept. 805, 1946, 99 pp.; PB 49,196.

        During the war Germany operated 3 synthetic fatty acid plants; Witten (Ruhr), now in the British zone with intake capacity 40,000 tons per yr.; Oppau (Ludwigshafen), now in the French zone, 20,000 tons; and at Heydebrech, now in the Russian zone, 20,000 tons.  A 4^th plant, 12,000 tons, also was completed toward the end of the war at Leuna, now in Russian zone, but was not operated during the war.  There was a synthetic fat plant at Witten.  The raw material was Fischer-Tropsch gatsch b. 320°-450° C. or paraffin from hydrogenation of brown coal.  A report of Mersol and Mersolate manufacture is given.  I. G. Farbenindustrie’s Mersol plants were located at Leuna (Merseburg), 50,000 tons, and Wolfen, 35,000 tons, both now in the Russian zone.  The Witten plant owned by the Deutsche Fettsäurewerke, and the Oppau plant owned by I. G. Farbenindustrie have recently been operated, Witten, 20,000 tons, Oppau, 10,000 tons, with full capacity promised in 6 months.  The Oppau plant is being repaired in anticipation of an offer from the Russian zone of 500-1,000 tons per month of brown-coal hydrogenation wax from Saxony.  the Trade and Industries Division of the British Military Government is considering repair of Krupp and Victor Fischer-Tropsch plants to provide gatsch for the Witten plant.  It is proposed to use the Ruhrchemie Fe catalyst and to examine the possibility of cracking the high-melting-point gatsch.  As a result of laboratory work, Witten has reported favorably upon use of a rather oily slack wax from spindle oil refining at the Deurag-Neurag refinery at Misburg (near Hanover) and unfavorably upon a similar sample from neutral oil refining.  Oppau has reported favorable results with these 2 slack waxes.  Based on German data, costs for operating similar plants in the United Kingdom have been worked out.  The figures are ₤96 10 s. 2 d. (Oppau) and ₤91 0 s. 4 d. (Witten) per metric ton of mixed fatty acids, which compare unfavorably with current market values.  The cost of imported wax accounts for nearly 2/3 of this cost, however.  The synthetic-fat plant is in operation, 350 tons per mo.  Estimated costs of production in England was ₤205 4s l d. per ton.  The Oxo plant at Oberhausen has been 90% repaired.  The usual feed stock for the mersol plants was mepasin or hydrogenated Fischer-Tropsch kogasin with b. p. 230°-320° C., though Witten also operated at times on heavy Fischer-Tropsch fractions.  The hostapon process at Leuna is in direct production of alkyl sulfonic acids by sulf-oxidation of mepasin using SO₂ and O₂, the reaction being promoted either by ultraviolet light or by the use of acetic anhydride as catalyst.  The I. G. Farbenindustrie chemists favored acetic anhydride.

        VITTIKH, M. V.  See abs. 2658.