GB403096A - The preparation of a naturally occurring enzyme and its application to industrial arts - Google Patents

Abstract

An enzyme obtained from blood is used to accelerate reactions in which carbonic acid and carbonates are involved. As examples, the enzyme is employed in accelerating the liberation of carbonic acid from the reaction of weak acid solutions such as a mixture of alkali and KH2PO4 on sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid and sodium acetate mixture on calcium carbonate, in accelerating the uptake of CO2 in the ammonia-soda process where the concentration of alkali and brine are insufficient to affect the action of the enzyme, as when the full concentration of brine is not developed until after the uptake of CO2 and in the manufacture of ammonium carbamate, carbonate and bicarbonate, in the further treatment of ammonium carbonate in the synthetic ammonia industry to produce ammonium sulphate by reaction with calcium sulphate, in the conversion of sodium and calcium carbonates into bicarbonates, the manufacture of potassium carbonate from magnesium carbonate and potassium chloride, and finally, in the determination of end-points in volumetric determinations in which it is required to determine the proportions of carbonate and bicarbonate in alkali manufacture for the control of the process and the estimation of CO2 in water. Graphs illustrating the acceleration of reactions by enzyme, are provided.ALSO:An enzyme which catalyzes reactions in which carbonic acid or carbonates are involved, is obtained by centrifuging slaughterhouse blood, separating the red corpuscles, washing these by centrifuging with isotonic saline if desired, precipitating the haemoglobin with chloroform and removing this, when the remaining supernatant liquid contains 50--60 per cent of the total enzyme and separating the latter as a crude or pure solid product by evaporation, preceded, if desired by ultrafiltration. The product may also be obtained purer by including a treatment with tricalcium phosphate or Willstätters C-g alumina cream as adsorbent to the ultrafiltrate. The enzyme may be used to accelerate the liberation of carbon dioxide in reactions in which weak acids react with carbonates etc. as in the action of a weak acid solution of KH2PO4 and caustic soda on sodium bicarbonate, and acetic acid and sodium acetate mixture on calcium carbonate, and to accelerate the uptake of carbon dioxide as in the ammonia-soda process, where the concentration of alkali and brine is low enough not to injure the enzyme, in the manufacture of ammonium carbamate carbonate and bicarbonate, and in the treatment of ammonium carbonate in the synthetic ammonia industry, and conversion of the latter to sulphate in the conversion of carbonates into bicarbonates, and lastly in the hastening of end-point determinations in the control of commercial processes such as the determination of the proportions of carbonate and dicarbonate in mixtures of the two and with alkali and the determination of CO2 in water.