PATENT

2982. -----.[RUHRCHEMIE, A.G.] [Method of Producing Valuable Wax Acids.]  German Patent Appl. --, R 646, filed Dec. 2, 1942. TOM Reel 36, bag 3,454, item 36, 7 pp.; Meyer Transl. PC-S-IV, Wax Oxidation, vol. 1, chap.13, 1948, p.33.

In producing valuable wax acids by the oxidation of synthetic hard paraffins obtained by the reduction of CO with H₂, the neutralization of the oxidation products obtained, the extraction of the paraffin hydrocarbons present therein, and finally the decomposition of the separated soaps, the oxidation of the hard paraffin takes place with chromic acid or with nitrous gases n the presence of nitrosyl H₂SO₄.  This is followed by neutralization with concentrated caustic potash and extraction with a synthetic hydrocarbon fraction, or preferably with a heptane fraction, b. < the softening point of the neutralized reaction product, and finally by a treatment with mineral acid.  The advantages of the described method are that, by only a single extraction, high-molecular wax acids can be obtained that are virtually completely free from unsaponificable constituents, contain almost no byproducts, and present a composition and a purity that are not obtainable from the products of paraffin-air oxidation in this molecular range.