100 



LIFE: ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN 



ber of useful and valuable organic compounds are now being 

 catalytically produced, some in immense quantities. For example, 

 the 1944 catalytic output of phthalic anhydride, used in making 

 plastics, was over 62,000 tons. In 1936 about 250 tons of nickel 

 were sold in the United States for catalytic use, about two-thirds 



Figure 13. Projection of Phthalocyanine along the b axis, which makes an angle 

 of 44.2 degrees with the molecular plane (/. M. Robertson). From paper in "Colloid 

 Chemistry," Vol. 5, by J. Alexander, Reinhold Publishing Corp., N. Y.) 



having been used for hardening vegetable oils by catalytic hydro- 

 genation to produce a huge tonnage of the well-known edible fats, 

 which, like lard, are nonfluid at room temperature. 



To illustrate the magnitude and importance of catalytic processes in 

 the petroleum industry, consider in outline the recently perfected 

 "fluid-catalyst" cracking process, devised by long and expensive co- 

 operative research undertaken by large petroleum refiners, and now 

 operating in about 30 plants (Fig. 12). 



