Hans Just

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Hans Wilhelm Just (born September 5, 1899 in Freiberg , † March 9, 1969 in Essen ) was a German lignite and coal chemist and university professor.

His work significantly promoted the development and construction of large-scale plants for the production of liquid hydrocarbons from lignite, the development of processes for the pressure gasification of lignite and hard coal to cover load peaks and for underground storage of gas. His developments ensured that the growing needs of industrial and private consumers could be met by liquid and gaseous fuels. They were indispensable in the Federal Republic of Germany until the mid-1960s and in the GDR until reunification. They were replaced by oil and gas imports.

Life

Family relationships

The oldest ancestors of the Just family can be found in Neukirchen near Wilsdruff around 1500 . Hans Wilhelm Just was the third of four children of the later Ministerial Director in the Saxon Ministry of Finance Ernst Wilhelm Just (1899–1945) and his wife Anna Bertha, née. Schmitz (1871–1945) born.

He spent childhood and youth in Dresden . He attended the citizen school and then the Royal High School in Dresden-Neustadt until he graduated from high school (1917). After a short basic military training, he followed his brothers Fritz and Ernst to the Western Front in 1918 (Ernst, the second oldest, had already fallen). Hans survived the First World War with a minor injury and was awarded the EK 2. His first marriage in 1930 was Beatrice Harlan (1905–1939), who bore him three children, and in 1941 his second marriage was Elsbeth Luise Hedwig Schilde (1900–1964).

Studies and career entry

From 1918 to 1923 he studied chemistry at the Technical University of Dresden . In 1922 he graduated as Dipl.-Ing. and received his doctorate in 1923 with the grade "very good" for Dr.-Ing. He began his professional life with a year-long activity as a laboratory chemist and research assistant at E. Merck in Darmstadt . In the middle of 1924 he switched to the Saxon Hütten- und Blaufarbenwerke Muldenhütten near Freiberg for three and a half years . There he worked in the company laboratory, dealt with the expansion of the gas cleaning systems for the roasting processes and took on additional responsibility as a thermal engineer and head of the sulfuric acid factory.

The lignite chemist

His professional change began when he joined AG Sächsische Werke (ASW) with the task of introducing the chemical refinement of lignite in the company, which until then had only been active in the field of lignite extraction and power generation. He began this task with preliminary scientific work and technical experiments for the establishment of large chemical companies in the field of carbonization, pressurized gasification with oxygen (together with the Lurgi Gesellschaft für Wärmetechnik), for tar processing and by-product extraction in the lignite research institute at the Freiberg mining academy , as an employee in the private laboratory of the fuel technician Paul Rosin in Dresden and in the Hirschfelde and Böhlen facilities of the ASW.

From 1934 he was the chief chemist, and from 1940 to 1946 he was director of the chemical department in the main administration in Dresden, responsible for setting up, commissioning and managing large companies. From August to November 1946 he was director of the plant in Espenhain , which had passed into Soviet ownership , and then employed in the head office of the (Soviet) AG for the fuel industry in Leipzig .

After the "request" to set up a coal-chemical combine for the Soviets in Kazakhstan, he decided to move with his family to West Germany. The escape as a know-how carrier succeeded with the support of the British secret service. In 1944, Just was awarded the brown coal research award of the German Brown Coal Industry Association for his services to lignite chemistry. The chemical plants in Böhlen and Espenhain were operated with increased capacity until the reunification of Germany, mainly to supply the GDR with fuel.

The coal chemist

At Ruhrgas AG , founded in 1926 by the Ruhrzechen, active in the distribution of coke oven gas in its own long-distance gas network and in gas trading, he took over the management of the newly founded development department on November 1, 1947. The main focus of the department was the development of procedures to cover peak loads, both seasonal and daily peaks. They arose from the aftermath of World War II - the reconstruction of the destroyed coking plants did not keep pace with increasing industrial and municipal gas consumption, and natural gas was only available in Germany to a very limited extent.

On the basis of his experience with lignite pressurized gasification, he further developed the process together with the Lurgi Gesellschaft für Wärmetechnik for the use of hard coal. As a result of these developments, the Dorsten plant of Steinkohlengas AG was built, and he was appointed to manage it on January 1, 1954. The work served to ensure the gas supply from peak loads. On the basis of this development, further large-scale plants were built in South Africa (Sasol) and in England.

Covering the seasonal peaks in consumption in winter prompted him to undertake pioneering work on container-free underground gas storage. A study trip to the USA , where underground gas storage was already practiced, led to the construction of the first large European storage facility in Engelbostel near Hanover and two more at Hähnlein and Eschenfelden . On July 1, 1961, Just was appointed department director of Ruhrgas.

His suggestion that the chemical industry emit synthesis gas on days with the highest load peaks, which can be mixed with propane as town gas, falls into the same area.

In 1961, the Technical University of Darmstadt appointed him a lecturer for fuel technology and appointed him honorary professor on January 1, 1963. He was a member of the advisory board of the German Society for Mineral Oil Science and Coal Chemistry and was a board member of the Society of Friends of the Institute for Fuel Technology in Berlin.

personality

Just was first and foremost a scientist with a broad spectrum of knowledge and interests beyond coal chemistry. He was seen as a fair colleague and responsible superior. Publications and a patent for wastewater treatment of phenols prove his responsibility for the environment. Under political pressure he joined the NSDAP in 1937 without ever holding an office. During a rehabilitation process in the Soviet zone of occupation (1946), in addition to the statements of the works council, he was helped by the confirmation of a capable chemical laboratory technician who used to belong to the KPD that he owed his reinstatement after his dismissal (1933) to the work of Just.

Publications

  • with Erich Müller: The electrometric determination of iron and vanadium side by side . In: Journal of Inorganic and General Chemistry . Verlag Leopold Voss Leipzig, 125/1922, pp. 155–166, doi : 10.1002 / zaac.19221250108
  • with Paul Rosin: About the determination and extraction of phenols in the wastewater from the lignite mills . In: Journal of Applied Chemistry . Verlag Chemie Berlin, 42/1929, pp. 965-968. doi : 10.1002 / ange.19290424002 , pp. 984-987 doi : 10.1002 / ange.19290424103 , pp. 1002-1007 doi : 10.1002 / anie.19290424204
  • with Paul Rosin: About the smoldering of completely dried brown coal, taking into account the tar yield and smoldering water . In: brown coal . 28/1929/41, p. 893 ff. And 28/1929/42, p. 915 ff.
  • Dephenolation of smoldering water and phenol recovery at the stock company Sächsische Werke In: Braunkohle 40/1941/19, pp. 245–249 and 40/1941/20, pp. 259–263.
  • The underground storage of gas in the USA and the possibilities of its application in Europe . In: The gas and water compartment , output gas . 94/1953/1 pp. 2-7.
  • Long-distance gas generation through gasification of hard coal using the Lurgi pressure process . In: Petroleum and Coal . 7/1954/1, pp. 14-20.
  • with A. Steding, H. Weber and F. Gödde: Clearance of coke oven gas by external hydrocarbons . In: Technical Communications . 51/1958/3, pp. 151-163.
  • with Erich Diekmann: Experience with pressure measurements according to the Maihak method in the Engelbostel gas storage facility and examinations of the transducer . In: Erdöl und Kohlen 11 / 1958/9, pp. 606-608.
  • On the state of underground gas storage in the USA . In: Petroleum and Coal 12/1959/2, pp. 109–110.
  • Underground gas storage and its importance for supra-local gas supply . In: The gas and water compartment , output gas . 101/1960/41, pp. 1041-1048.
  • Heating gas problem and underground storage . In: Gas use . 1962/2.
  • Hydrogen as a dilution gas when using gaseous hydrocarbons in public gas supply . In: fuel chemistry . 44/1963/12, pp. 374-382.
  • Ammonia synthesis gas / propane - A new type of gas to cover the extreme peak in the public gas supply . In: The gas and water compartment , output gas . 106/1965/21, pp. 589-592.
  • "Geological traps" and caverns as storage spaces . In: Ferngas: Half-yearly publication for the workforce of Ruhrgas AG 17/1964.
  • Natural gas - the third pillar . In: Der Volkswirt, Wirtschafts- und Finanzzeitung , supplement to no.27, 1964.
  • The long-distance gas network masters the peaks in demand . In: Gasverendung 15/1964/5, pp. 202-206.

Patents

  • Process for the production of practically ashless tars . ASW and Hans Just, Reich Patent Office patent specification No. 574,358 of November 30, 1930
  • Process for the extraction of phenols from waste water . Heinrich Koppers GmbH , Hans Just, Adolf Schmalenbach, Reichspatentamt Patent 734 883 from September 24, 1937
  • Gasification of fuels in connection with the smelting of ores , inventor Hans Just, patent holder: Ruhrgas AG, DP 972.499
  • Method for operating the fuel lock of compressed gas generators , inventor Hans Just, patent owner Ruhrgas AG, DP 809.226
  • Process for eliminating or reducing the baking ability of hard coals . Inventor Hans Just, patent owner Ruhrgas AG, DP 826.745;
  • Process for filtering fine fuel fractions from the gas flow from gas generators . Inventor: Hans Just, patent holder: Ruhrgas AG; DP 1.026 081
  • Process for smelting pulverulent or fine-grain ores with pulverulent or fine-grain fuels , inventors: Traenckner, Just, Nistler, Schulze, patent holder: Ruhrgas AG; DP 1.024.245
  • Process for making coke with high strength . Inventor: Just, patent holder: Ruhrgas AG, patent application R 21.680 VI / 10a
  • Process for obtaining high calorific value gases from dusty or fine-grained fuels , inventors: Kurt Traenckner, Robert Lotz, Josef Schütte, Hans Just, Hans-Wolf von Gratkowski, patent owner: Ruhrgas AG / Steag AG, DP 923.869
  • Device for degassing or degassing and gasifying dusty or fine-grained fuels , inventors Paul Schmalfeld, Hans Just, Hans Sommers, patent owner Ruhrgas AG, metal company; DP 1.025.380
  • Process and device for the continuous splitting and / or gasification of hydrocarbons, which can also contain other organic compounds , inventor Paul Schmalfeld, Heinrich Janssen, Hans Sommers, Hans Just, patent holder: Metallgesellschaft, DP 1.004.312

literature

  • Personal messages (obituary). In: The gas and water compartment , output gas . 110/1969/19, p. 522.
  • Association of old miners and smelters of the Bergakademie Freiberg: From the life of old Freiberg mountain students , supplementary volume to the Schiffner volumes I – III, p. 152, Verlag Glückauf, Essen 1971.
  • Westfälisches Wirtschaftsarchiv Foundation: Pictures of life from the Rheinisch-Westfälische industrial area , year 1968–1972, pp. 88–89.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Wilhelm Just: From the life of our ancestors , JM Gebhardt's Verlag Leipzig 1939, p. 6.
  2. ↑ Contributions to the knowledge of the electrochemical and chemical behavior of iron pentacyanides . Dissertation, 1923.
  3. ^ Certificate from E. Merck, Darmstadt.
  4. ↑ Certificate from the Freiberg State Metallurgical Works and Blue Paint Works.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Personal messages (obituary). In: The gas and water compartment , output gas . 110/1969/19, p. 522.
  6. ^ Certificate from ASW dated August 31, 1946.
  7. ↑ Stefan Locke The Wounds of Change, FAZ January 6, 2017, p. 3.
  8. ↑ Patent specification DP 923.869 : Process for the production of high calorific value gases from dusty or fine-grained fuels .
  9. ↑ Underground gas storage and its importance for supra-local gas supply . In: The gas and water compartment , output gas . 101/1960/41, pp. 1041-1048.
  10. ↑ Ammonia synthesis gas / propane - A new type of gas to cover the extreme peak in the public gas supply . In: The gas and water compartment , output gas . 106/1965/21 pp. 589-592.
  11. ^ Certificate of appointment as honorary professor of the TH Darmstadt of the Hessian Minister for Education and Public Education from December 20, 1962.
  12. ^ Letter from Josef Siegel dated August 7, 1946 (certified copy)
personal data
SURNAME Just, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Just, Hans Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lignite and hard coal chemist as well as university professor
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiberg
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1969
Place of death eat