S. K.—The Russian Synthetic Rubber from Alcohol. A Survey of the Chemistry and Technology of the Lebedev Process for Producing Sodium-Butadiene Polymers

Abstract The question of producing synthetic rubber industrially was raised in Russia as early as 1918, and was fostered principally by the quest of the U.S.S.R. for economic independence. Having recognized that 1,3-butadiene is one of the simplest organic compounds capable of being polymerized to a rubberlike substance, the Russian Government provided funds for research in two directions: (1) To investigate the possibility of obtaining butadiene from a mixture of ethyl alcohol and acetaldehyde, according to the method suggested by Ostromislensky in 1915, for which purpose a pilot plant was erected in Moscow at the Bogatyr Rubber Company. (2) To continue work started in 1915 by B. V. Buizov in the laboratory of the Leningrad Treugolnik Rubber Plant, using petroleum products as a source of butadiene. By 1922 the Moscow plant had proved that Ostromislensky's process had no industrial future, for it yielded only 5 to 6 per cent of butadiene instead of the 15 to 18 per cent originally expected. The experimental station operated by Buizov had likewise met with little success by 1925. Early in 1926, therefore, the Superior Economic Council of the U.S.S.R. announced an open competition for the best industrial method of producing synthetic rubber, setting January 1, 1928 as the deadline. The qualifying conditions were rather exacting. They specified that the synthetic rubber should be neither inferior in quality to, nor substantially different in price from, natural rubber. Aside from a detailed description of the process and a two-kilogram sample of the synthetic product, the competition called for plans of a complete factory layout for its manufacture.