Chemical factory Rhenania

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Coordinates: 50 ° 47 '  N , 6 ° 13'  E

Chemical factory Rhenania AG and Rhenania-Halde

The Chemische Fabrik Rhenania AG is a former soda and sulfuric acid factory that was founded in 1852 in the Stolberg district of Atsch by Friedrich Wilhelm Hasenclever and closed after the destruction in the Second World War . The Rhenania dump belonging to this company still exists and as a contaminated site represents a considerable environmental risk, which causes high costs.

Friedrich Wilhelm Hasenclever era

In 1850, the studied chemist and owner of a pharmacy in Aachen came to Stolberg, where he first founded the woodruff 's hut in the Atsch district, relatively close to the Atsch mine , from which he obtained the coal . Here, with the help of roasting ovens , he prepared the zinc blende that was available in sufficient quantities in the Stolberg area for smelting. In doing so, he developed a process to produce sulfuric acid from this zinc blende, which made the previously common import of sulfur and pyrites unnecessary. Just two years later, Hasenclever, together with the entrepreneurs Max Braun and Eugène Godin, whom he had got to know at a calamine mine in Altenberg, today's Kelmis , significantly expanded and expanded his company, which then operated as "Hasenclever & Co." They began using the Leblanc process to process sulfuric acid into soda.

Under the leadership of Hasenclever, an important company developed, which in 1856 was converted into the stock corporation "Chemische Fabrik Rhenania AG". In 1863, the plant was the first company in Germany to succeed in regenerating sulfur from the remains of soda production. Only one year later, the Rhenania dedicated itself to the production of chlorine barium , water glass , mineral fertilizers , superphosphates , sulfates and Glauber's salt .

Also in 1864, the company took over the window glassworks , which was under liquidation , from the company "Stolberger Glashüttengesellschaft Emil Rabe & Co." on the cutting mill, which had already been merged with the glassworks in Nievelstein near Herzogenrath in 1861 .

In the meantime, Rhenania has brought the Leblanc process it practiced to a globally recognized high standard and constructed its own systems such as the "Sodarevolver", the "Thelen pan" for evaporating the soda eye, in which the soda burns on using mechanically moved scrapers was prevented and the “Hasenclever cylinder apparatus” for the continuous production of chlorinated lime . After the Solvay process had been developed by Ernest Solvay in 1865 , which was to replace the Leblanc process, Moritz Honigmann , who was employed by Rhenania in 1866, tried to install a modern laboratory system for the production of ammonia soda using this new process. However, for economic reasons, the company refused to use this more modern process for the production of soda and Honigmann then left the company in 1868 and built the first German ammonia soda factory two years later on the grounds of the Königsgrube in Grevenberg, a district in Würselen .

As a reason for its rejection, Rhenania AG stated that the required ammonia should have been obtained from external gas factories or coking plants and that the sulfuric acid that still accumulates in the factory, which is then used for soda production, is no longer sufficient and at an economical price could have been discontinued. In addition, with the Solvay method, the chlorine contained in table salt would bind to calcium and thus also withdraw from any further use. The chlorine was vital for the Rhenania, as they were able to use the profits from their chlorine products to make up for the losses from the soda production, which was affected by an international price decline in the 1860s. The disadvantage of this decision, however, was that the large quantities of waste products produced by the Leblanc process had to be dumped on the neighboring Rhenania heap and represent a considerable environmental problem to this day.

The company's founder, Friedrich Wilhelm Hasenclever, died on December 25, 1874, and his son Robert Hasenclever , who had worked in his father’s business from 1864 after completing his engineering degree, became the new head of Rhenania.

Robert Hasenclever era

Robert Hasenclever took over an economically well-positioned company that only lacked a connection to the rail network. Hasenclever therefore primarily advocated that a year later the "Chemische Fabrik Rhenania AG" could be connected to the rail network of the Aachen-Jülich Railway Company with a works track starting at the Stolberg-Atsch station . In 1882, Rhenania received the patent for a "Rhenania roasting oven" developed by its engineers, which was used worldwide for roasting zinc blende over the next few decades.

Finally, in 1887, Hasenclever took over parts of the "Chemische Fabrik Rheinau" in the Mannheim district of Rheinau , which had also been producing soda and potash since 1873 using the Leblanc process , but had to stop production in 1884 due to a lack of profitability. Before the takeover, the company was completely renovated and then equipped with the most modern machines. In the years that followed, the main focus was on the production of hydrochloric acid and its by-products and, from the 1890s, the production of sulfuric and nitric acid , chlorinated lime and sodium sulphate .

After the chemist Friedrich Quincke was hired as operations manager at Rhenania from 1891 to 1896 , the company began producing pancreatin in the mid-1890s . This served on the one hand as a medicament for digestive complaints and on the other hand, from 1907 onwards, it replaced the dog feces used in tanneries as a pickling agent due to its trypsin content .

In return, in 1899, Hasenclever sold the window glassworks that his father had acquired to the “Glashütte, vorm. Gebr. Siegwarth & Co. AG “in Stolberg, which then continued to operate it until 1928.

On June 28, 1902, Robert Hasenclever died and his son Max Hasenclever († 1939) took over in the third generation and as a member of a three-person board of directors, "Chemische Fabrik Rhenania AG", which had become a large company.

Max Hasenclever era

The era of Max Hasenclever was mainly characterized by numerous mergers and realignments with the aim of ensuring the continued existence of Rhenania in view of a market that was repositioning itself, especially after the First World War .

First, in 1912, Hasenclever separated from the former “Chemische Fabrik Rheinau” in Mannheim, which at that time employed around 320 people, and transferred it to “Th.” , Which was run by the industrialist Theodor Goldschmidt . Goldschmidt AG ”, who was looking for a safe delivery of preliminary products and heavy chemicals.

In 1917, Rhenania AG took over the "Chemische Fabrik Hönningen, vorm." Founded by Walter Feldt in 1890. Walther Feld & Co. KG "in Bad Hönningen and was involved in the same period together with the" Kaliwerke Friedrichshall AG "in the founding of" Claus-Schwefel GmbH "in Bernburg an der Saale , which produced sulfur using the Claus process . Three years later, Rhenania AG merged with the Verein Chemischer Fabriken in Mannheim, with headquarters in Aachen and a branch in Mannheim, and in 1925 with “Chemische Fabrik Kunheim & Co. AG” based in Berlin, whereupon the company moved to “Rhenania-Kunheim Vereinigte Chemische Fabriken AG “was renamed and the headquarters in Berlin was set up. In 1928, Rhenania-Kunheim finally merged with "Kaliwerke Neu-Staßfurt - Friedrichshall AG", which in turn was created in 1921 through the majority acquisition of "Kaliwerke Friedrichshall AG" in the "Kaliwerke Neu- Staßfurt " in the Prussian province of Saxony . According to the resolution of the shareholders' meeting on September 6, 1928, this new company constellation was renamed Kali Chemie AG, based in Berlin, where both the soda production and the rock salt extraction required for this were in one hand. The original company name of the Stolberg company was retained in the product "Rhenania phosphate", which has been manufactured since 1918 and which was made from Belgian chalk phosphate and phonolite .

After Max Hasenclever died in 1939 and the Stolberg plant was almost completely destroyed in the war years that followed, Kali-Chemie decided not to rebuild this traditional company. Kali Chemie itself has been 100% integrated into the Solvay GmbH division since 1992 , after it had become the main shareholder of Kali Chemie AG since 1954, making Solvay the legal successor and owner of the Rhenania-Halde and its environmental problems.

Rhenania waste dump

Rhenania heap

From the beginning of its production until its shutdown, the "Chemische Fabrik Rhenania AG" had piled up the residues from its soda production and other waste products in the immediate vicinity of an industrial dump, which on a floor area of ​​approx. 78,000 m² with a volume of approx Million cubic meters had grown to a height of 38 meters and still characterizes the townscape today. This dump is made up of both inorganic calcium salts and calcium sulphides , whereby one kilogram of calcium sulphide was accrued per kilogram of soda produced, as well as slag from metal smelting, ashes from furnace systems, rubble from building demolitions and incorrect batches from production. Precipitation occurring and seeping into the dump causes a solution of various substances from the interior of the dump, especially sulphides and sulphates , which led to sulphurous seepage water with a corresponding pollution of the groundwater and an enormous odor nuisance. In addition, the stability of the heap was at risk until the start of the renovation measures described below.

However, nature had away recaptured the stockpile for decades and it is now considered nationally significant site of some very rare orchid species known, such as Marsh Helleborine , two-blade , wood bluebells and wild orchids , all of the legal protection of species subject. In addition, from the middle of the 20th century a go- kart track , which no longer exists, was set up on the heap, which has meanwhile been used as a local event site.

It was not until 2007 that the Aachen city region , the contaminated site redevelopment association of North Rhine-Westphalia and Solvay Deutschland GmbH decided to renovate the Rhenania dump at great expense and with due consideration for species protection. First of all, surface sealing was carried out and drainage was laid for the seepage water, which is collected in a ditch and fed to a newly installed bioreactor . There the contaminated water is cleaned in an environmentally friendly manner and fed to the Inde via the nearby Saubach . In addition, the paths of the disused kart track were renatured and the dump itself was leveled with 13,000 cubic meters of earth and the embankments stabilized. This was followed by planting several thousand Douglas firs , which can absorb and evaporate a considerable amount of moisture, which has meanwhile reduced the proportion of seepage water by more than 50%.

The total costs of the previous and not yet fully completed renovation work currently amount to more than 10 million euros, with Solvay GmbH bearing around half of the costs. Added to this are the ongoing follow-up costs for the operation of the bioreactor and the further maintenance of the reforested heap.

literature

  • O. Schulte: Rhenania Verein Chemischer Fabriken Aktiengesellschaft Aachen. German Architecture and Industry Publishing House (DARI), Berlin-Halensee 1925.
  • Fritz Rüsberg: Fifty years of Kali-Chemie Aktiengesellschaft. Kali-Chemie AG, Hanover 1949.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Woodruff's Hut Stolberg-Atsch
  2. ↑ Glashütte cutting mill
  3. ↑ Soda Revolver
  4. ↑ Thelen pan
  5. ^ Rhenania roasting oven
  6. ^ History of the Rheinau chemical factory
  7. ↑ Harold James: Georg Solmes, a German banker, series of publications for the journal for corporate history, vol. 25, CH Beck
  8. ^ Share Kali-Chemie with company history