Named Processes in Chemical Technology Encyclopedic Dictionary by Alan E. Comyns

The purpose of this dictionary is to provide concise descriptions of those processes in chemical technology that are known by special names that are not self-explanatory.

The chemical industry is notoriously difficult to define. In addition to its obvious role as a producer of “chemicals” such as sulfuric acid, it may be said to embrace all those industries in which chemical processes are conducted. There is no generally agreed list of such industries, but obvious ones include extractive metallurgy, plastics, paper, ceramics, sewage treatment, and now even electronics. It is this broad spectrum of “chemical technology” that is addressed in this book.

It thus includes the gigantic Bessemer process for making steel and the microscopic Manasevit process for applying circuits to silicon chips. The only deliberate omission is food chemistry. The aim has been to include all those processes that are known by special names, of whatever origin.

Of course, only a minority of industrial chemical processes are distinguished by the possession of special names, so this book does not include all of even the more important processes. Overviews of the industry are provided by other books, notably the Kirk-Othmer and Ullmann encyclopedias.

Many named processes are included in such works, but only a fraction of the names in the present compilation are to be found in them...