448 MINERALS YEARBOOK
facture of methanol proceeded rapidly. The German I. G. organization, due
to its experience on synthetic ammonia manufacture, was ahead of other countties
and exported synthetic methanol in 1925, but it was not many years until
methanol was being made commercially in England, France, the United States,
and other countries.
 In 1927 the Du Pont Ammonia Co. at Belle, W.Va., adapted the methanol process
to the removal of carbon monoxide from the watergas hydrogen used in the
ammonia process, thus advantageously combining the manufacture of methanol
and ammonia. In the same year the Commercial Solvents Co. began manufacturing
methanol from the waste fermentation gases (carbon dioxide and hydrogen)
resulting from the butanol fermentation of corn. In 1929 the Union Carbide
Co. began production of synthetic methanol from the waste carbon monoxide
issuing from calcium carbide furnaces.
 The production of synthetic methanol has held up well during the depression
years. Some of the manufacturers also produce from water gas higher alcohols,
such as propanol and isobutanol, the newest addition being dimethyl ether,8'
a liquefied gas boiling at — 24° C., which is being offered for
solvent and other purposes. In 1929 the Pittsburgh Experiment StatiOn of
the United States Bureau of Mines, in its investigation of the fundamentals
of the methanol process, described the conditions under which this substance
was obtained as a byproduct in the manufacture of methanol.82
 Chemical utilization of coke-oven gases.—When synthetic ammonia and
methanol begar~ to attract attention, European coke-oven companies whose
plants customarily are situated at the mines where the market for gas is
limited took advantage of the opportunity to utthze the 50 to 60 percent
of hydrogen in coke-oven gas. The hydrogen is separated by cooling the coke-oven
gas to very low temperatures (— 200° C.), at which all the constituents
but hydrogen become liquid.
 By 1929, nearly 100,000,000 cubic feet per day of coke-oven gas were being
liquefied for the extraction of hydrogen for ammonia synthesis; ~ and today
it is estimated that 40 plants are making synthetic ammonia from coke-oven
gas, largely in European countries.84 Five of these plants combine the manufacture
of ammonia and methanol, while a few have developed procedures for fairly
complete utilization of each of the different constituent gases in the manufacture
of various chemical products. For example, the cokeoven plant of the Bethune
mines in France, in addition to synthetic ammonia, methanol, and the usual
coke-oven byproducts, is manufacturing ethyl alcohol and ether from the ethylene
in coke-oven gas. At the Ougree (Belgium) coke-oven plant a process has been
developed for producing ethyl and isopropyl alcohols, ethers, and acetone
from the unsaturated constituents of coke-oven gases. This company converts
methane to carbon-free carbon monoxide and hydrogen for the production of
synthetic ammonia or methanol, mixing the purified
 8! Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Synthetic Dimethyl Ether; Properties
and Application: News ed., vol. 10, 1932, p. 136.
 S2 Brown, R. L., and Galloway, A. E., Dimethyl Ether: md. and Eng. Chem.,
vol. 21, 1929, pp. 310-313; vol. 22, 1930, pp. 175—176.
 83 Pallmaerts, F. A. F., Synthetic Ammonia Plant at Ostend: md. and Eng.
Chem., vol. 21, 1929, pp.
22—29; also, Proc. 2d Internat. Conf. Bit. Coal, Carnegie Inst. Technol.,
vol. 2, 1928, pp. 178—201. Battig, Rudolph, The Manufacture of Ammonia
by the Mont-Cenis Process: Proc. 2d Internat. Con!. Bit. Coal, vol. 2, 1928,
pp. 202—222. Delorme, Jean, The Processes of Georges Claude for the
Separation of Gas by Liquefaction and the Synthesis of Ammonia: Proc. 2d
Internat. Conf. Bit. Coal, vol. 2, 1928, pp. 223—230. 84 Thau, A.,
The Chemical Utilization of Coke-Oven Gas: Gas World, coking section, vol.
97, 1932, p. 10. Osterrieth, I. W., and Dechamps, Georges, The Production
of Organic Compounds from Coke-Oven Gas; Gas Jour., vol. 201, 1933, pp. 202—206;
Gas World, coking section, vol. 98, 1933, no. 2531, pp. 8—11; Jour.
Inst. of Fuel, vol. 6, 1933, pp. 215-225.