Ethyl Corporation
| Ethyl Corporation | |
|---|---|
| legal form | |
| founding | 1924 |
| Seat | Richmond , Virginia , |
| Branch | Fuel additives |
| Website | Ethyl.com |
The Ethyl Corporation is a company for the distribution of fuel additives , headquartered in Richmond , Virginia , in the United States . At the Houston , Texas site , the company offers warehousing, distribution and blending services .
history
General Motors and Standard Oil New Jersey founded the Ethly Corporation in 1921. General Motors held the application patent for tetraethyl lead (TEL) as an anti-knock agent based on the work of Thomas Midgley , Charles Kettering, and later Charles Allen Thomas , and Standard Oil held the patent for making TEL. Each parent company had a 50% stake in the new company. Since neither company had any manufacturing experience, they hired Dupont to operate the production facilities. After the patents expired, Dupont began manufacturing TEL itself and the Ethyl Corporation began operating its own manufacturing facilities.
In 1962, Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company of Richmond borrowed $ 200 million and bought Ethyl Corporation, 13 times the size. Albemarle then adopted the name Ethyl Corporation. The 1962 transaction was the largest leveraged buyout to date.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Ethyl Corporation expanded and diversified in response to the gradual decline in the market for TEL as the automotive industry switched to unleaded gasoline. In the late 1980s, Ethyl began to outsource a number of departments. The aluminum, plastic, and power units became Tredegar Corporation in 1989. In 1993, the life insurance company First Colony Life was spun off, and in 1994 the specialty chemicals business was spun off as an independent, publicly traded company called the Albemarle Group. In 2004, Ethyl Corporation became a subsidiary of NewMarket Corporation (NYSE: NEW).
production
The Ethyl Corporation was the world's largest producer of chloroethane and the largest producer of sodium in the United States. The Baton Rouge facility produced approximately 80 tons of sodium and 120 tons of chlorine per day.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christopher C. Vogel: The manufacture of "Ethyl" antiknock compound. In: Journal of Chemical Education. 25, 1948, p. 55, doi: 10.1021 / ed025p55 .