Industrial Gases in Petrochemical Processing

Harold Gunardson Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, NY, 283 pp., $150, indexed

This reference volume, which should be useful to any chemical engineer who has to deal with industrial gas feedstocks in petrochemical and chemical processes, focuses on oxygen, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and syngas.

Because the term "petrochemical" appears in the title, one would expect this book to have devoted more space than it does to ethylene, ammonia, and methanol. Instead, it covers the reactions of chemicals and gaseous feedstocks with derivatives, which seems more appropriate for a volume about plants that use organic chemicals than one on petrochemical facilities.

Each of the …