COMMENT ON TECHNICAL PAPERS DEALING WITH OXIDATION OF PARAFFIN WAX

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00926A006700150001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 23, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 21, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

DEC 1951 D1 4D
-pONHHDENTIAL.
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CONYE)ENTIAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
:OUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Comment on Technical, Pa, :a.`rs Dealing
with Oxidation of refit WWx
DATE ACQUIRED
(BY SOURCE)
DATE (or INFO.)
HIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES. WITHIN THE MEANING OF TITLE IS. SECTIONS 797
AND 754. OF THE U.S. CODE. AS AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR REVE.
LATION OF ITS CONTENTS TO OR RECEIPT BY AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON 19
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X'Y A,
C I ION OF F
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NO. OF PAGES, 5
NO. OF ENCLS.
SUPP. TO
REPORT NO.
R, D RM IDIZED PARAMIN - A O Drabk to and
.k ,. The Journal of Applied Chemistry .,of the
USSR (Vol 23, 1950)
1, This article reports on a study concerning the composition of fatty acids derived
from oxidized paraff'in', wherein a crude oxidized paraffin having an acid, number
of a roxi tely 86 ?5 and oonti.inin . a large quantity of unsaponifiable material,
hydroxr acids and ester derivatives was processed in a manner so as to recover
essentially the straight-chained carboxylic acids from the complex mixture.
Efforts were then made to characterize these fatty acids by molecular weight and
tykeH The, general method of purification of the crude acids involved extraction
with petroleum naphtha or gasoline to remove a precipitate of the materials-which
were rich in ]hydro acids n In addition a zinc chlo:bide solution was used to
further precipitate rdr,?o; r type materials, leaving in solution the so-called
carboxylic =acids. These acids from the naphtha, solution were then saponified
with caustic and treated so as to remove the unsaponifiable matter. The acids
after having been freed of unsaponifiable matter were then converted to the methyl
esters and these esters were subjected to fractional distillation.
2. The fractionated esters were then saponified with alcoholic alkali over a water
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chlo is accid, one s,. l`tant acids were extracted with ether. The ether extracts
were washed with water and, desiccated. The acids recovered after the solvent had
been driven off were subjected to further investigation which involved, det m na
Lion of boiling range and the acid number. Carbon and hydrogen analysis were
made on thee acid fractions, and an effort was made to compare the recovered
materials with the known structures of the common carboxylic acids.
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3 it waW, roucluded that the ca boo y'i;i,cc acids recovered from this oxidized paraffin
r>:~ a ? e robasic and r e ssed a normal. structure. Acids were isolated
from the fr .cticm.Q ranging in molecular size from about Cn7 to Cz23
o Regarding t~ si n,i,;fican ce of this woork. I feel that it should be pointed out
that all of the procedures rreutic, med in. this particular paper are well, known to
those fani,l,iex with the oxidate can of p raff'itnn waxes and the refining of the
crude oxidates a They do not represent new or novel methods of refining or separ?a-
tion of the ani.d o ether the m thods and the techniques used in this work have
been reported p .wi.o 1 in bcotb. the Germ s and. literature in some detail and
also in some of the ol;ier Soviet literature o
5. As one ex.empie of the, publi.oatai on of a very similar tyre of work at earlier
T
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88
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(193
date,, reference is made to Fantzen~, et. al. Fette U Seife .9 y 3
report covers the composition of the fatty acids from the oxidation.pr?oduct from
Fischer, ?0atsch, in 'e+rhtch, the analysis of the hydrocarbon is given~,folloowed by an
expl nat:ton. of the processing 'hich also involved the formation of the meti::nyl
ester and the fractionation of thae methyl esters o The compoosiition of the fatty
acids derived, iherefram are in relative agreement with., that presented in, this
;paper and the produrU' rarglrg from about 7, X1 9 G to fraction s having molecular
weights ;hi er than '1 3302 ? There are other- investigators who do not agree
that the a ci.ds present in, oxidized paraffin are as simple in structure as Drebkin
and. goloveidhik ,M :m c;lud.e_
The work described in this paper is of the nature that requires considerable amount
of relatively tedious 1. ,bor^ato;n:^, i.,nnrrestigationa however,, it does not represent any
significant ad'nc% in, the knawl&,Ue of the composition of wax acids or iimproa je-
ment in the processing of acids from oxidized waxes
ION Of P P.P W DI TIL,IATE - A G Drabkin and. Z V Soloveichik -
o use l piety Chemistry qrf. the USSR
(Vol 23, 1950)
'hae work report,, io t,t.i* paap~;' covers investigation of the oxidation ch$a, ^acA,
teristics of a ;it,=r- of solid. paraffin and mineral oil. This fraction would
co eopond in r fi,oneyy ter' ai r olo,g, r to a crude vax di ti.ll,ate a . The material
used in this work consisted of some 30% solid paraffin with the remainder of 1o he
material being oil In the Introduction to this pager it is indicated in a
brief? sentence that the~L.y.',~BR has tnter^"est inyt-t'hpe preparation of consistent
greases tlusii the oxidized Inf4`AI:9C ss a a fat substitute. It further points out
that paraffin wa was the most sp ,:i,table starting material developed to date and
that this work was involved, in attempt,;i to utilize tlhe oxidized oily waxes which
wouldo of course, be in greater supply and lower in cost than the oxidized refined
paraffin way.. The actual, nxtdati,on studies described do not represent any novel
oxidation mmthao s or procedures They are those which are commonly used in the
oxidation of petroleum frart:t, ns and the results are somewhat as would be expected
with the role of the ,nera1 oi,l, being about what has been ascribed to it in
numerous other publicatio e
In general, the oily vaxes o;onntai,niing high percentages of oil, oxidize with more
difficulty and at a slr rate than do, the refined paraffin waxes. These oily
waxes also result in dark. colored products high in hydroxy acid content and h.ig't:;
in niph ha insoluble acid contents. The findings in this paper do not diffe
from the previously indicated properties of the oxidates from oily waxes. It is
pointed out that by purification procedures on the distillate that increased oxi-
dation rates can be obtain .d. This has' been well known for some time The
Germans have pointed vat that ac1d, treating with, sulfuric acid or the treatment
with alx mina s chlor,id- increased the susceptibility of the oily waxes to oxidation
This particular paper does not give any data on the use of these oxidized oily
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waxes or oxidized vax distillates for use in grease king. However., in checking
into this matter fta.rther I have located a reference which indicates that the
Soviets are actively engaged in attempting to prepare satisfactory greases from
the soaps of the oxidized paraffin waxes. The following is a reference to one
such effort on their part. 11,efe nce Oxidized. Paraffin a Baw N .terial for
the Production of calcium Sera Greases by V K Tsyskoskie a Azerbaidzhanskoe
Nef .a~za A 9 i:~P_ ~,y'J-.Tht.s :per indicated that a seater staailized.
calcium grease has been prepared from an oxidized paraffin wax. Their tests on
this grease indicated it, to be. in. -their opinion., roughly equivalent to water
stabilized calcium soar, greases prepared, from natural fats. However, In reviewing
the tests on, these grosses it was evident that a larger amount of water of stabi-
lization was used in each case with the petroleum oxidate type greases In the
range of -three to four per ceut whereas something in the range of one to two per
cent uld normaUy be used with the conventional fatty material. Further the
soap content or the amount, of oxidized paraffin wax required (26.5%) was approxi-
mately twice that of the natural fat which would have been normally,used to make
a grease of equivalent consistency. From the performance tests give;, in the
paper it was not possible to as~,e:rtaia the exact quality of the greases which.
had been prepared from the oxidized fractions., however,, claims were made, that
these greases did exhibit satisfactory performance characteristic in plant and
automotive equipment.
9. it would appear that even though the properties of the grease described here may
not be fully equivalent to a conventional grease prepared from a natural fat,,
the Soviets may be capable, of making usable greases from the oxidized petroleum
fractions. In the event that the economics within the Soviet Union permitted
such an action it apparently would be within their capability to utilize oxidized,
paraffin wax as a source of fatty material for use in greases. It would not be
expected that the substitution of the oxidized wax fractions could be made in
all gr4aasee particularly some of the specialty greases and it would not
necessarily follow that the quality of the greases from the oxidized wax would
be fully equivr lent in all a spects to the quality obtained with the wide variety
of natural fats Lch Are used in grease raking a However, from our knowledge of
greases from a rtf, petroleum fractions s it would be expected that the Soviets
would be capable of i%kt greieses which would be usable in a relatively large
number of a,ppl,i ; tionns
10. The article by Iabkin and Solov'eichik does not contain any particularly outstand-
i disclosures. It %14 be interesting to obtain additional information on the
extent and degas a to 1ch tha Soviets are conducting work on the utilization of
oxidized factions for game iii i,,s as this could conceivably represent a large
savrin In their natural fats itch in turn would increase fat availability for
edible materials, and of err critical applications.
TUB NIGH TMODATURE I
lION OF PAWFIN WPI '' A K Plies and A I Bylrovrets
om the Organic Chemistryow;atorx, of the Odessa Technological Institute
of the Food. and, friger?ation Industry a. The Journal of Applied.
he*mist of the USSR, (Vol 24, 1951)
11. This paper reports on what appears to be relatively preliminary experiments an
the hig' to ratare, oxidation of paraffin wax with the primary objective being
the reduction in ldation time required without &. degradation in quality of
the oxidate.
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the nature of the oxidatee is givexa with regard to their physical and chemical
properties. Farther., it is to be expected that at the low neutralization num-
bers repbi ed an in this paper,, that is in the order of 2 to 20 or 30, that only
a small amount, of hydroaxy acids would be formed in the low temperature process
also u A commercial operation involv:ixag oxidation to only 20 neutralization
number would not normally be a tt ra t ve due to the small amount of paraffin
converted to acids. Nowever, if this oxidation were continued and., in, fact
re-cycled thror~ this appa ?atus, so that contact time was increased suffi-
ciently to raise the neutralization nuuber to a value of, for example, 80 to
100, it would be expected that the amount of hydroxy acids would increase even
at low temperatures oxidations. In using the high temperatures involved here,
there is a possibility that the rate at which the hydroxy acids increase with
regard to neutralization number right be greater than at the lower temperatures
It is interesting to note here, however, that the Soviet Union apparently is
continuing to work with some vigor on various phases of oxidation work and
attempting to imppro the existing oxidation procedures as well as developing
various utilizations for the oxidates
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