Otto Roelen
Otto Roelen (born March 22, 1897 in Mülheim an der Ruhr , † January 30, 1993 in Bad Honnef ) was a German chemist . As an employee of Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research, he was significantly involved in the development of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis , a process for the production of motor fuels from synthesis gas , and its technical implementation.
In his investigations of the Fischer-Tropsch process discovered Roelen in 1938 as head of research Ruhrchemie the hydroformylation , a method according to today several million tons of oxo products are manufactured. Otto Roelen is considered to be the pioneer of technical organometallic complex catalysis . In the post-war years, he transferred the production of high-molecular-weight polyethylene to chemical engineering using the Karl Ziegler process .
life and work
Otto Roelen was born in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1897. He attended the royal high school, where in 1914 he obtained his military diploma. After a six-month internship at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Hütte, he began studying chemistry at the Technical University of Munich in 1915 . After being called up for military service in June 1915, he served in various positions until the end of the war. After the end of the war, he began studying at the Technical University of Stuttgart in 1918 , where he obtained his diploma in 1922.
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research
After another internship in the steel industry, he worked from 1922 at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research (KWI) in Mülheim an der Ruhr on his doctorate under Franz Fischer . Since Fischer was only an honorary professor in Berlin after moving to the KWI, Roelen received his doctorate from the TH Stuttgart as an academic student of William Küster in August 1923 . After completing his experimental work at KWI, he moved to the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg as a research assistant for Hans Theodor Bucherer . In the following year he moved back to the KWI for Coal Research in Mülheim, where he started work on the development of catalysts for the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis .
Technical development of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
In November 1934 Roelen moved to Ruhrchemie, where he took over the management of the research laboratory. His successor at Franz Fischer was Helmut Pichler , who later developed the medium-pressure process of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Roelens focused his research on the transfer of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis into chemical engineering. This included the development of a process for desulphurization of the synthesis gas, the optimization of the catalyst and the development of a process for the regeneration of the catalysts used. Since at that time no system was working according to the Fischer-Tropsch process, the CEO of Ruhrchemie, Friedrich Martin , founded Ruhrbenzin AG to outsource the entrepreneurial risk. The company had undertaken to supply the German Reich with petrol produced using the Fischer-Tropsch process.
In the course of the establishment of Braunkohle-BENZ AG (Brabag), Ruhrchemie received a guarantee contract from the Reich Ministry of Economics in 1934 , which promoted the construction of Fischer-Tropsch plants and promised high tax breaks for research. On February 10, 1935, Brabag laid the foundation stone for the first large-scale industrial FT synthesis plant in Schwarzheide , which also served as a research facility. In the following years, Otto Roelen worked closely with the chemists and scientists at Brabag.
Hydroformylation
During attempts to feed ethene back into the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis in 1938, Otto Roelen discovered homogeneously catalyzed hydroformylation for the technical synthesis of aldehydes from alkenes and synthesis gas. From the fed ethene was propionaldehyde , recognized its formation Roelen properly designated as independent reaction. In the same year he filed a patent application for the reaction, also known as the oxo synthesis.
After initial attempts to optimize the reaction in the direction of aldehyde formation, which he began in July 1938, Roelen filed a patent for the oxo synthesis at the end of the same year. Through his experiments he recognized cobalt carbonyl hydride as the active catalyst component. In addition to the hydroformylation of ethene, he also investigated the production of fatty alcohols from the olefins obtained in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. A technical system for this was built in 1940, but no longer put into operation. In addition, in 1941 Roelen began developing a technical process for methanation of carbon monoxide.
post war period
After the end of the war, Otto Roelen was one of the German scientists who were often involuntarily brought to England by British special forces in top secret operations. As the Guardian found in declassified files in 2007, it was done on behalf of the British government "to plunder the defeated country's intellectual property, undermine its competitiveness and at the same time give British companies an advantage".
From November 5, 1945 to August 12, 1946, Roelen was interned in Wimbledon (London) and subjected to intensive interrogation by British and American authorities. In extensive dossiers he had to disclose his knowledge of the research and development status of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and hydroformylation to the Ministry of Fuel and Power (British Ministry of Energy), among others. Its information is summarized in numerous so-called Field Intelligence Agency Technical (FIAT) and British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee (BIOS) reports.
After his return, Roelen was initially unable to continue the research work because the Allies had issued a research ban on Ruhrchemie and only lifted it in 1949. In that year Otto Roelen became August Hagemann's assistant to the director and began developing a technical process for the large-scale production of polyethylene. From 1955 until his retirement in 1962, Roelen was authorized signatory and head of research at Ruhrchemie.
Honors
Otto Roelen received many honors and awards for his scientific work. In 1963 the German Society for Fat Science awarded him the Wilhelm Normann Medal . In the same year he was awarded the German Chemical Society , the Adolf von Baeyer Medal . The RWTH Aachen University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1983.
In his honor, DECHEMA annually awards the Otto Roelen Medal donated by Oxea and named after him . The city of Oberhausen named Otto-Roelen-Strasse after him. The Society of German Chemists added its workplace at the Ruhrchemie plant to the list of historical chemistry sites .
literature
- Manfred Rasch: Roelen, Otto. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 719 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Dirk Steinborn : Fundamentals of organometallic complex catalysis , Vieweg and Teubner publishers, 2009, 434 pages, ISBN 978-3-8348-0581-2
- Historic sites of chemistry: Otto Roelen , Oberhausen, September 24, 2013. Brochure, published by the GDCh on the occasion of the unveiling of a bronze plaque at the OXEA in the Ruhrchemie plant on the 75th anniversary of the patent application for hydroformylation
Individual evidence
- ^ Boy Cornils, Wolfgang A. Herrmann, Christian W. Kohlpaintner: Otto Roelen: Father of organometallic, homogeneous catalysis. In: News from chemistry, technology and the laboratory. 41, 1993, pp. 544-550, doi : 10.1002 / nadc.19930410504 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Boy Cornils, Wolfgang A. Herrmann, Manfred Rasch: Otto Roelen as a trailblazer for industrial homogeneous catalysis. In: Angewandte Chemie . 106, 1994, pp. 2219-2238, doi : 10.1002 / ange.19941062104 .
- ↑ Manfred Rasch: A chance discovery and its inventor: 75 years of oxo synthesis. In: Nachrichten aus der Chemie , 61, 2013, pp. 1113–1116, doi : 10.1515 / nachrchem.2013.61.11.1113 .
- ↑ a b c Historic sites of chemistry: Otto Roelen , Oberhausen, September 24, 2013. Brochure, published by the GDCh on the occasion of the unveiling of a bronze plaque at the OXEA in the Ruhrchemie plant on the 75th anniversary of the patent application for hydroformylation.
- ↑ Helmut Maier: Community research, authorized representatives and knowledge transfer. The role of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the system of war-relevant research under National Socialism. Wallstein Verlag, 2007, p. 474 f.
- ↑ BIOS - Final Report No. 447, Item No. 30: Interrogation of Dr. Otto Roelen of Ruhrchemie AG (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 8, 2012 ; accessed on November 28, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ How T-Force abducted Germany's best brains for Britain The Guardian of August 29, 2007, accessed on July 9, 2019.
- ↑ BIOS - Final Report No. 447 Interrogation of Dr. Otto Roelen of Ruhrchemie AG Fischer-Tropsch-Archiv, accessed on July 9, 2019
- ↑ Homepage of the Fischer-Tropsch-Archives.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Roelen, Otto |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 22, 1897 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mülheim an der Ruhr |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 30, 1993 |
| Place of death | Bad Honnef |