Ruhrchemie is a chemical company founded in 1927/28. The company, based in the Holten district of Oberhausen, is now the German headquarters of the OQ (company). It is now formally known as OQ Werk Ruhrchemie.
Ruhrchemie is a chemical company founded in 1927/28. The company, based in the Holten district of Oberhausen, is now the German headquarters of the OQ (company). It is now formally known as OQ Werk Ruhrchemie.
For a short time at the beginning of the 20th century, one of the first German airports seemed to be built in the Holtener Bruch, which had been largely drained by the canalization of the Emscher river. However, it remained with air shows and training flights; the course and outcome of the First World War prevented the airport project from being realized. Instead, the area was used for industrial purposes at the end of the 1920s.
The company was founded in 1927 by numerous Ruhr mining companies as de:Kohlechemie AG. It was renamed Ruhrchemie AG in April 1928 and began producing fertilizers at the Holten site in 1929. In 1936, the first plant for the production of liquid hydrocarbons using the Fischer-Tropsch process went into operation.
In 1938, Otto Roelen developed the oxo synthesis of aldehydes, which are used to produce polyols, carboxylic acids, esters and solvents, among other things. [1]
After 1945, the Allies banned the production of synthetic fuels and dismantled the corresponding plants, which had been badly damaged in the war. This led to a shift in production focus from coal to petrochemicals in the early 1950s. [2]
In 1958, Farbwerke Hoechst acquired an initial 25 percent stake in Ruhrchemie. The shareholding was gradually increased to two thirds in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1960, the production of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) began, and in 1972, low-density polyethylene (LDPE).
In 1977, a large-scale test plant for coal gasification was built as a joint project between Ruhrchemie and Ruhrkohle AG; in 1986, the Ruhr synthetic gas plant was commissioned. [3]
In 1984, Hoechst took over the remaining shares of Ruhrchemie and incorporated them as the Ruhrchemie plant.
Fertilizer production was shut down in 1990.
In 1998, in preparation for the merger with Rhône-Poulenc to form Aventis, Hoechst combined certain chemical activities, including Ruhrchemie, and spun them off into Hoechst Celanese Corporation, which it had merged with its American subsidiary, American Hoechst, in 1987 after acquiring the Celanese Corporation for $2.85 billion. [4]
From 2007 to 2020 it was part of Oxea GmbH, which was formed in March 2007 from the merger of European Oxo and selected business units of Celanese Chemicals. In November 2013 Oxea was sold to the Oman Oil Company. [5] [6] After Oxea was renamed OQ Chemicals in mid-May 2020, the plant is officially called OQ Werk Ruhrchemie.
The current plant site has an area of around 1.2 km². The focus of the product range is oxo intermediates & oxo derivatives. The number of employees is around 1,065, after temporarily reaching more than 3,000 in the 1940s and 1950s.[ citation needed ]
Industry makes a city theme route on the Route of Industrial Heritage. On September 24, 2013, the German Chemical Society (GDCh) installed a memorial plaque entitled Historical Sites of Chemistry in memory of Otto Roelen. [7]
Petrochemicals are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as maize, palm fruit or sugar cane.
MAN SE was a manufacturing and engineering company based in Munich, Germany. Its primary output was commercial vehicles and diesel engines through its MAN Truck & Bus and MAN Latin America divisions, and participation in the manufacturer Sinotruk.
Oberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen. The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
Hoechst AG was a German chemicals, later life sciences, company that became Aventis Deutschland after its merger with France's Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1999. With the new company's 2004 merger with Sanofi-Synthélabo, it became a subsidiary of the resulting Sanofi-Aventis pharmaceuticals group.
Celanese Corporation, formerly known as Hoechst Celanese, is an American technology and specialty materials company headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a Fortune 500 corporation. The company is the world's leading producer of acetic acid, producing about 1.95 million tonnes per year, representing approximately 25% of global production. Celanese is also the world's largest producer of vinyl acetate monomer (VAM).
Friedrich Karl Rudolf Bergius was a German chemist known for the Bergius process for producing synthetic fuel from coal, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of contributions to the invention and development of chemical high-pressure methods. Having worked with IG Farben during World War II, his citizenship came into question following the war, causing him to ultimately flee to Argentina, where he acted as adviser to the Ministry of Industry.
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In organic chemistry, hydroformylation, also known as oxo synthesis or oxo process, is an industrial process for the production of aldehydes from alkenes. This chemical reaction entails the net addition of a formyl group and a hydrogen atom to a carbon-carbon double bond. This process has undergone continuous growth since its invention: production capacity reached 6.6×106 tons in 1995. It is important because aldehydes are easily converted into many secondary products. For example, the resultant aldehydes are hydrogenated to alcohols that are converted to detergents. Hydroformylation is also used in speciality chemicals, relevant to the organic synthesis of fragrances and pharmaceuticals. The development of hydroformylation is one of the premier achievements of 20th-century industrial chemistry.
The Fischer–Tropsch process (FT) is a collection of chemical reactions that converts a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, known as syngas, into liquid hydrocarbons. These reactions occur in the presence of metal catalysts, typically at temperatures of 150–300 °C (302–572 °F) and pressures of one to several tens of atmospheres. The Fischer–Tropsch process is an important reaction in both coal liquefaction and gas to liquids technology for producing liquid hydrocarbons.
Synthetic fuel or synfuel is a liquid fuel, or sometimes gaseous fuel, obtained from syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, in which the syngas was derived from gasification of solid feedstocks such as coal or biomass or by reforming of natural gas.
Straight-chain terminal alkenes, also called linear alpha olefins (LAO) or normal alpha olefins (NAO), are alkenes (olefins) having a chemical formula CnH2n, distinguished from other alkenes with a similar molecular formula by being terminal alkenes, in which the double bond occurs at the alpha position, and by having a linear (unbranched) hydrocarbon chain.
1-Octene is an organic compound with a formula CH2CHC6H13. The alkene is classified as a higher olefin and alpha-olefin, meaning that the double bond is located at the alpha (primary) position, endowing this compound with higher reactivity and thus useful chemical properties. 1-Octene is one of the important linear alpha olefins in industry. It is a colourless liquid.
SGL Carbon SE is a European company based in Germany. It is one of the world's leading manufacturers of products from carbon.
Otto Roelen was a German chemist who pioneered using carbon monoxide to synthesize of organic compounds.
Cassella AG, formerly Leopold Cassella & Co. and Cassella Farbwerke Mainkur AG, commonly known as Cassella, was a German chemical and pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main. Founded in 1798, in the Frankfurt Jewish Alley by Leopold Cassella, Cassella operated as an independent company until 1995, and was one of many predecessor companies of today's Sanofi. Its main products were dyes, drugs, cosmetics and various other chemical products. From 1949, Cassella focused increasingly on pharmaceuticals and cosmetics rather than its former primary focus, dyes. Much of its history is closely associated with the Gans family, a prominent family of industrialists and philanthropists and former owners of Cassella.
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OQ, formerly known as Oman Oil Company, is an energy investment company headquartered in Muscat, Oman. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Government of Oman through the Oman Investment Authority state-owned enterprise.
Brabag was a German firm, planned in 1933, and operating from 1934 until 1945, that distilled synthetic aviation fuel, diesel fuel, gasoline, lubricants, and paraffin wax from lignite. It was an industrial cartel firm closely supervised by the Nazi regime; while it operated, it produced commodities vital to the German military forces before and during World War II. After substantial damage from strategic bombing, the firm and its remaining assets were dissolved at the end of the war.
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The chemical industry in Germany is one of the most well-established in the world, and a world leader; a quarter of the chemicals made in the EU, are made in Germany.
