No general work on the organic derivatives of sulfur trioxide has appeared since the publication of C.M. Suter's basic treatise The Organic Chemistry of Sulfur, which covered the literature through 1941. This book represents an effort to overcome this need The author's approach has been selective, rather than all-inclusive, with the general objective of supplying background information of possible value to the laboratory chemist. Recent trends have been emphasized. Chief among these is the recognition that, although the conventional rules of aromatic orientation are followed under kinetically controlled conditions during sulfonation with sulfuric acid or oleum, these rules are not always followed under conditions that are thermodynamically controlled. This effect is made possible by the reversible nature of the sulfonation reaction, a characteristic which has enough other implications to warrant consideration in a sweparate chapter. Another effect noted increasingly in all aspects of sulfonate preparation, as well as in desulfonation, is the importance of steric requirements. Many examples are noted of the steric assistance or hindrance to be expected in reactions involving moieties as large as sulfur trioxide or sulfite ion. Emphasis is also placed upon recent studies involving the reactions of sulfur trioxide itself, and its various adducts with organic compounds. An effort is made in appropriate cases to bring together isolated facts into possibly meaningful form in such a way as to indicate trends or generalizations.

This book is about Sulph(on)ation Technology in its technical entirety, aiming at superiority in final product quality, raw material utilisation, sustained plant reliability and safety, minimisation of liquid effluent and gaseous emissions; it is about the total quality of the operation. It will be of value to engineers and chemists who are, or will be, involved in the practical daily operation of sulphonation plants or R&D activities. The book can also be used as a tool for the teacher in preparing fmal year projects in a chemical engineering curriculum. The book covers sulphonation of alkylbenzenes, primary alcohols, alcohol ethers, alpha-olefIns and fatty acid methyl esters, with a strong emphasis on the sulphur-based S~/air sulphonation technology. The first part deals with raw material specifications, hazards, storage, handling and physical properties. In the following section the process chemistry is discussed, indicating main chemical reactions, undesired parallel and consecutive reactions, exothermal heat effects and all other process chemistry data that are relevant for process selection and equipment design. The section about the actual process equipment from the various plant equipment suppliers (Ballestra, Chemithon, Mazzoni, Meccaniche Modeme and Lion Corp.) takes into account the chemical reaction engineering aspects derived from the sulphonation technology processing chemistry. Product quality, product storage and handling, product safety and physical properties are the contents of the next section. The effluent handling and exhaust gas treatment of the SOiair sulphonation technology are further discussed in detail.