Hydrocarbon Processing - January 2022 - 62

Industry Pioneers
be used in interior design.
Around 1880, the Samuel brothers expanded their father's
business to include exporting oil around the world. However,
a challenge at the time was oil containers and space on a marine
vessel. Oil barrels were prone to leak and took up a lot
of space on oceangoing vessels. To overcome this challenge,
they commissioned a fleet of steamers to carry the oil in bulk.5
Just as the brothers were revolutionizing crude oil trade, they
began to include shipping kerosene to demand centers around
the world. In 1896, the brothers renamed the company Shell
Transport and Trading Co.
By the late 1890s, business was booming, and the the company
established its first refinery in Balikpapan, Indonesia in
1897 (known as Dutch Borneo at the time). In 1901, Shell
Transport and Trading Co. merged with a smaller competitor-Royal
Dutch-that had set up a sales organization in
Asia. The company took the name the Royal Dutch Shell
Group. The company's operations-drilling, exploration and
refining-expanded rapidly to various parts of the globe and
since it has become one of the largest integrated energy companies
in the world.
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
The American industrialist was responsible
for building the largest refining operation
in the U.S., which led to the spinoff
of several different entities, each
becoming some of the largest integrated
oil companies in the world.
The company's origins began in the
early 1860s. Rockefeller and other associates
owned refineries in Ohio (U.S.),
producing kerosene for lamp lighting.
Over the next 20 yr, the company expanded exponentially,
controlling nearly 95% of refining operations in the U.S. By the
mid-1890s, Standard Oil Co. had also become the dominant
kerosene exporter to other parts of the globe, such as Asia.
However, the company was eventually labeled a monopoly and
was split into several entities that would eventually lead to the
creation of Amoco, Chevron, Exxon, Mobil and Marathon.
FRITZ HABER, CARL BOSCH
Using fertilizers for agricultural
significantly expanded
in the 1800s/
early 1900s. However,
the primary sources to
develop ammonia-niter
and guano-were not
adequate to satisfy demand;
therefore, a new
process was needed to produce adequate amounts of ammonia
and nitrates. This challenge was solved by the German
chemist Fritz Haber in 1909 and later commercialized and expanded
by Carl Bosch of BASF.
Haber conducted significant research in the early 1900s
on the synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen.
62 JANUARY 2022 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
The process requires high temperatures, high pressure and
catalysts. Intense research was led by Carl Bosch. After a few
years of trial-and-error, the process was a success, and the
first ammonia synthesis plant went into operations in Oppau,
Germany in 1913.7
The Haber-Bosch process-still in use today-enabled
BASF to become the first company to employ high-pressure
technology. The Oppau facility's success with ammonia production
expanded to include a second site in Leuna, Germany.
This site would not only utilize the Haber-Bosch process
to produce ammonia but would also be instrumental in the
research and development of synthetic gasoline from the hydrogenation
of lignite.
WILLIAM BURTON
William Burton was an American
chemist who is credited for inventing a
viable thermal cracking process. In
1910, he and Robert Humphreys developed
their own thermal cracking
process while working at Standard Oil
of Indiana's Whiting refinery-Vladimir
Shukhov (Russia) holds the earliest
patent for thermal cracking, which
he invented in 1891. However, the
Shukhov Cracking Process found little adoption since lighter
fractions (e.g., gasoline) did not exist at the time.
According to literature8
, Burton's thermal cracking process
involved heating crude oil in a still to 371°C-399°C (700°F-
750°F). The petroleum vapors were regulated through a valve
system that maintained constant pressure through the entire
process. Once the fractions were evaporated, they gathered
through a condenser. Lastly, the still was opened and the carbon
deposits were collected. The process produced primarily
gasoline, gasoil, residual fuel oil and petroleum coke.8
The
Burton process was used extensively for more than 20 yr, until
the creation of catalytic cracking.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Hydrocarbon Processing would like to thank several institutions/companies for
the use of archived images of industry pioneers. These include Linde, the Canadian
Petroleum Hall of Fame, Explore Pennsylvania History, Shell, the National Inventors
Hall of Fame and BASF.
LITERATURE CITED
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Wikipedia, " Carl von Linde, " online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_
Linde.
Britannica, " Carl von Linde, " Encyclopedia Britannica, November 2021, online:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Paul-Gottfried-von-Linde.
Linde, " Corporate Heritage, " Linde, online: https://www.linde.com/aboutlinde/corporate-heritage.
Canadian
Petroleum Hall of Fame, " Abraham Gesner, 1797-1864, " online:
http://www.canadianpetroleumhalloffame.ca/abraham-gesner.html.
Shell, " Company History, " online: https://www.shell.com/about-us/our-heritage/our-company-history.html.
Britannica,
" Standard Oil, " Encyclopedia Britannica, March 2020, online: https://
www.britannica.com/topic/Standard-Oil.
BASF, " Who we are: 1902-1924, " BASF, online: https://www.basf.com/ca/en/
who-we-are/history/1902-1924.html.
Gerali, F., " Thermal Cracking, " Engineering and Technology History, 2019, online:
https://ethw.org/Thermal_Cracking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Linde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Linde https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Paul-Gottfried-von-Linde https://www.linde.com/about-linde/corporate-heritage https://www.linde.com/about-linde/corporate-heritage http://www.canadianpetroleumhalloffame.ca/abraham-gesner.html https://www.shell.com/about-us/our-heritage/our-company-history.html https://www.shell.com/about-us/our-heritage/our-company-history.html http://www.britannica.com/topic/Standard-Oil http://www.britannica.com/topic/Standard-Oil https://www.basf.com/ca/en/who-we-are/history/1902-1924.html https://www.basf.com/ca/en/who-we-are/history/1902-1924.html https://www.ethw.org/Thermal_Cracking http://www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com

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