The following are the major industrial uses of carbon monoxide:
[1] Fuel gas mixtures
- water gas (44% carbon monoxide)
- blast furnace gas (30% carbon monoxide)
- producer gas (34% carbon monoxide)
- coal gas or illuminating gas (7.4% carbon monoxide)
[2] Chemical manufacturing
- methanol
- formaldehyde
- other alcohols and aldehydes
- ethylene
- acids
- esters
- hydroxy acids
- aryl esters
- carboxylic anhydrides
- amides
- acrylic acid
[3] Recovery of metals from ores
- nickel, cobalt
[4] Production of powdered metals of high purity
[5] Production of special steels
[6] Production of reducing oxides
[7] Powder metallurgy for molding
[8] Research
[9] Teaching
[10] Manufacture of metal carbonyl catalysts used in
- hydrocarbon synthesis
- hydrogenation of fats and oils
Source:
Industrial Accident Prevention Association
Carbon Monoxide in the Workplace
http://www.iapa.ca/pdf/carbon_monoxide_feb2003.pdf
Additional information:
"CO is very important in industry, since it is a precursor to a number
of important organic chemicals. A mixture of CO and H2 is called
synthesis gas, and is used both for the synthesis of methanol and in
the 'hydroformylation reaction', in which a H atom and a formyl group
(HCO) are inserted into the double bond of an alkene to form an
aldehyde. This can be further reduced to an alcohol. Cobalt compounds
are often used as catalysts for this process at temperatures of around
150°C and >200 atmospheres pressure. Several million tonnes of C7-C9
alcohols are produced in this way each year.
Another important commercial process involving CO is the carbonylation
of methanol to give acetic acid using a rhodium catalyst in the
presence of iodide ions."
Imperial College: Carbon Monoxide
http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/mim/environmental/html/co_text.htm
"Carbon Monoxide is used in metallurgy, manufacturing acids, chemical
industry, lasers and laboratory R&D. Carbon Monoxide is also used as a
gas additive in various semiconductor fluorocarbon processes and as a
feed gas for semiconductor dry etching."
Spectra Gases: Carbon Monoxide
http://www.spectra-gases.com/Semiconductor/cocopy2/carbon.htm
"Carbon monoxide (CO) can be used by food manufacturers to retain the
red color of meat or dark fish prior to vacuum packaging or in the
modified atmosphere packaging."
Blackwell Synergy: EFFECT OF HEATING ON RESIDUAL CARBON MONOXIDE
CONTENT IN CO-TREATED TUNA AND MYOGLOBIN
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/j.1745-4514.2004.05303.x/abs/;jsessionid=ko9MtDsXGip8
This is not exactly an industrial use, but it is interesting:
"The ubiquitous carbon monoxide molecule, CO, is used by astronomers
to trace the presence and temperature of molecular gas in everything
from galaxies to circumstellar disks. We would rather try to detect
H2, but sadly H2 has no permanent electric dipole moment because of
its symmetry. Carbon monoxide does have a permanent dipole moment."
University of California - Berkeley: Astro 201 - Radiative Processes
http://astron.berkeley.edu/~echiang/rad/ps3.pdf
My Google search strategy:
Google Web Search: "uses of carbon monoxide"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22uses+of+carbon+monoxide%22
Google Web Search: "carbon monoxide is used"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22carbon+monoxide+is+used%22+
Google Web Search: "carbon monoxide" "industrial uses"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22carbon+monoxide%22+%22industrial+uses%22
I hope this is useful. If anything is unclear or incomplete, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before
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Best regards,
pinkfreud |
