Show cornstalk provides rival for valuable coal tar dallas texas coal tar highly valuable raw material by which organic chemists fashion scores of synthetic chemical products has a new rival in lignin tar obtained from cornstalks corn stalks it was indicated in the report to the chemists meeting here of G leon bridger of the chemical engineering department of iowa state university synthetic resins plastics drugs dyes perfumes and flavors may be manufactured in the future from agricultural materials like corn stalks by digesting cornstalks corn stalks with strong alkalis like ordinary lye in the absence of air a black tar is produced which is somewhat similar to co coal 1 tar it is however far richer in phenois phenols ph enols moreover the yield of tar is much greater and as a result about 40 times as much phe are obtained from a pound of lignin as from a pound of coal the preparation of phenols phenois from the linnins by destructive distillation was discovered by dr max phillips of the united states department of agriculture |