RESEARCH WORK AT THE OKA CHEMICAL PLANT IN DZERZHINSK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A003000020007-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 19, 2009
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: February 25, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2009/03/19: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA003000020007-9
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
This Document contains information affecting the Na-
tional Defense of the United States, within the mean-
ing of Title 18, Sections 793 and 794, of the U.S. Code, as
amended. Its transmission or revelation of its contents
to or receipt by an unauthorized person is prohibited
by law. The reproduction of this form is prohibited.
SECRET/CONTROL--US OFFICIALS ONLY
USSR (Gorkiy Oblast)
Research Work at the OKA Chemical
Plant in Dzerzhinsk
DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
REPORT
DATE DISTR. 25 February 1951+
NO. OF PAGES 3
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
REFERENCES
THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
1. After their arrival at Dzerzhinsk (N 56-159 E,43-4) in July 1948, the six
German specialists working at the Office for Special Technical Tasks of the
OKA, Chemical Plant at Dzerzhinsk were first engaged in completing the study
on propane oxydation which had been worked on at the Karpov Institute in
Moscow from November 191+6 until June 191+8 and which was almost complete.
From the fall of 1918 until October 1950, mainly research work in the field
of jet and rocket fuel followed, beginning with the preparatory synthesis of
acetonin and studies on the possibilities of its application. as rocket fuel;
the production and testing of trithiaceton; the testing of mixtures of ace-
tonin, sulphur, aniline, and cracking gasoline; and the determination of
hypergolic qualities of organic sulphur combinations, i. e.,their aptitude
to self-inflammability with one oxygen carrier. The Office for Special
Technical Tasks at the same time successfully produced triethylamine and
other amines on the basis of halogencarbohydrates and was experimenting on
the production of rocket fuel from alkali-naphthalene compounds and on the
use of furf?uryl alcohol as rocket fuel. Since 191+9, some of the German
specialists were engaged in research work on inhibitors, i. e.1materials
scheduled to prevent the corrosive effect of nitric acid on rocket motors.
Since the fall of 1950, the acetonin synthesis was tested in a pressure de-
vice by the Technical Laboratory of the OKA Chemical Plant. These experiments
were not yet completed in May 1951. Since October 1950, the German specialists
of the Office for Special Technical Tasks, except one who was working in the
field of rocket fuels,,were engaged in other tasks including the working out
of a procedure for the production of 'methacryl nitril by the Rulon Plant,
which was near the OKA Plant, or temporarily assisting Soviet chemists
of the plant in studies on desulphurating Biphenyl thiourea.
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lai connection with the research work on hypergoli.c rocket fuels, a number
of organic sulphur compounds, in addition to the various amines, were ex-
amined on their-ignition ability with nitric acid. This work included
experiments with ethyl mercaptane and ethylene dimercaptnee Ethyl mercaptane
was produced on a commercial scale at the Yava Plant, located east of the
O1 Plant, and, according to Bobyshev (fnu), head of the Office for Special
Technical Tasks of the OIL plant, was used as an odor additive to natural gas
which was supplied from Saratov (N 50_4, E 46-Q2) to Moscow vii Dzerzhinsk by
pipe lines. Examination showed that ethyl mercaptane and ethylene dimercaptane,
both alone and mixed with am'in.o-gasoline, had no special ignition aptitude with
nitric acid. The am fta-gasoline. mixtures used for this purpose. contained. approx-
imately.:40 per. cent of acetonin, 10 per cent of mercaptane, and 50 per cent
of cracking gasoline of boiling fractions between 50 and 200 degrees centigrade.
The acetonin used was identified as 2.2.4,6.6. pentamethyl. pyrimidine and
1.2.5.6. tetrahydropyrimidine with C9R18N2 - 2 H2O (sic), Trit ,o abetaldehyde,
trithio acetone, and thialdine were the only canes of the various organic
sulphur compounds and sulphuramine compounds found to have good proper Les as to
ignition aptitude. For instance, a mixture of !0 per cent of thialdine and
60 per cent of cracking gasoline was a very suitable hypergolic mixture which,
however, was given little attention by the Soviet specialists. The com-
pounds produced of acetonin with carbon disulfide or elementary sulphur
both alone and mixed with gasoline-aniline showed suitable ignition delays.
They could, however, not be clearly identified. as to their chemical properties
up to May 1951.
3.
Laboratory research work was carried out on sodium naphtal e compounds
based on publications by international specialists on. the addition, of alkali
metals to cyclic hydrocarbons. The reactions tested were especially success-
ful in the presence of polyethers like methylal, trimeth.ylene glycol,di.meth.yl-
ether, glycerol dimethylether, orthoformic aci.d,methyicr ethyl ether, various
ethers of ethylen glycol, dioxane (trimethylene glycol. methylene ether),
and dimethylene petae?ythritol. Suitable diluents were alkyl sulfides that
had no influence on the reaction. Hydrocarbons used i.n.cludeda diphenyl
(phenylbenzen.e), .dinaphthyl, phenant:r?ene, acetnaphthene, anthracene, retene,
andC their alkyl... derixates., It beceme evident that one mole of naphthalene
added one as well as two gm-atoms of sodium. The formulas were:
1 gui-atom Na
or 2 gm.-atoms Na
monosodium naphthalene
disodi.um naphthalene
Monosodium naphthalene was green in solution, was conductive,and was
believed to exist as an atom group with free valences. Mixed with. water
or ethyl alcohol, it was decomposed to. dihydronaphthalene,while it formed
d hydronaphth:alene dicarbonic acid with carbonic acid. Potassium and
lithium reacted like sodium. No information was available as to whether the
OKAY Plant mainly used monosodium naphthalene or d.isodium.-naphthalene.
The sodium compounds were dissolved in gasoline or, if necessary, were
still more diluted. The sodium percentage in relation. to the entire
gasoline solution was not allowed to be less than one per cent,as otherwise
the ignition aptitude of the solution decreased considerably. These
solutions had the disadvantage that they could be preserved only for a
few days because of the constant presence of traces of water. The
ignition delay of a solution containing one per cent of sodium was good.
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4. Large series of experiments on catalytic hydrogenization. of furfu.ral were
conducted in an effort to obtain. furfuryl alcohol, with furfural being
hydrogenized in the gas phasis at normal atmospheric pressure with
hydrogen by means of various catalysts. These catalysts were produced at
the Office for Special Technical Tasks, and the experiments were finally
executed with a copper chromium catalyst in a small technical installation
erected for this purpose. Catalysts containing cobalt or copper-
aluminum _, could also be used, with liesel Buhr serving as catalysts support.
The process pursued for preliminary experiments involved a quantity of 100
liters of distilled furfural together with a catalyst of four kg
containing 75 per cent of cobalt, and 1.5 of sodium carbonate. This wa.s heated
in a tubular reactor to between 80 and 100 degrees centigrade and was=exposed
to a pressure up to '50 atmospheres. Five . to, 30 cubic meters of hydrogen at,
20 degrees centigrade and one.atmosphere were added per hour. After cooling,
and being filtered and distilled, the reaction mixture yielded approximately
99, per cent of ' fs.rfuryl alcohol. The experiments made at the experimental
plant were as follows
HC - CH 0 H2
HC C - C Cu - Cr-
contact
HC C .-, C:H'.2O:H;
Q
This method required that only the aldehyde group be reduced and that the double
bonds be preserved as far as possible. The theoretical values were approximately
reached in the experiments. Furfuryl alcohol proved suitable as rocket fuel.
Up to 30 per cent of furfuryl alcohol, for
instance, was added to a mixture of aceton.in., aniline, and, xylidine, giving
a product which was characterized by especially high stability as compared
with many other mixtures tested as rocket fuels which dissociated. or became
useless in a short time.
5. As soon as they had reached a certain development stage, all materials
developed in the Office for Special Technical Tasks with the assistance
of German specialists, as well as the pertinent synthesis m.ethods,were for-
warded to Plant No. 94 in Moscow. There they were tested as to their
technical properties. The German specialists, whose activity, even though they
worked at the Plant in. Dzerzhinak, was directed by Plant No. 94, never
heard anvthina of the test results and of what became of their findings.
Dr. Fritz Andreas also was one of the German. chemists
who worked on sodium-naphthalEn e compounds at the OKA Plant,
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Approved For Release 2009/03/19: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA003000020007-9