Hermann Frasch

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Hermann Frasch

Hermann Frasch (born December 25, 1851 in Oberrot near Gaildorf, Baden-Württemberg, † May 1, 1914 in Paris ) was an American petroleum chemist of German origin.

Life

In 1868 the apprentice pharmacist and son of the Gaildorf mayor emigrated to Philadelphia in the United States at the age of just 17 . There he trained as a chemist and technologist in self-study, where he dealt in particular with research questions in the field of petrochemistry .

In 1876 he developed in his laboratory a method for refining of paraffin -Wachs, which he successfully a business with the Standard Oil Company was able to sell affiliated company. In the following years he also focused his work on procedures and the like. a. to improve the distillation of crude oil , the production of white lead from zinc ore , the extraction of sodium carbonate from table salt and the production of permanent glow wires from treated coal. The paper soaked in paraffin wax he developed in 1884 is still used today for the packaging of dairy products .

Shortly thereafter, Frasch achieved worldwide fame with the introduction of the Frasch process named after him for the extraction of sulfur from elementary deposits (US Pat. No. 461,430). Elemental sulfur is melted underground with the help of hot steam and brought to the surface in liquid form under pressure (compressed air). According to this process, which does not require any mining equipment, the majority of the sulfur was extracted worldwide until the 1970s; the degree of purity is over 99%. Today most of the sulfur from the oil and gas industry comes from hydrogen sulfide using the Claus process . This is contained in natural gas or occurs in large quantities during the hydrodesulphurization of crude oil.

Frasch's patents made him a wealthy man, not least because the Standard Oil Company urgently needed his process to extract high-sulfur crude oil. Frasch was known to the public as the "sulfur king of Louisiana ". In 1908 he donated a gymnasium and festival hall to his hometown of Gaildorf , which was destroyed in 1945.

Hermann Frasch died in Paris in 1914 at the age of 62. He was buried in a mausoleum built in his honor in Gaildorf. In 1924 his body was transferred to the United States.

In 1912 he received the Perkin Medal .

literature

  • Hermann Strenger: Electricity from the Earth. Novel of a life . dva, Stuttgart 1942 (new edition: Stieglitz-Verlag Händle, Mühlacker 1957)
  • Elsa Augusta Strenger: Hermann and the yellow devil stuff. The fate of the sulfur king Hermann Frasch . The buoy, Stuttgart 1953 (illustration for young people)
  • Hans-Georg Schäfer:  Frasch, Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 379 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Hermann Strenger: Leading petroleum chemist and “sulfur king”. Hermann Frasch . In: Diethard H. Klein / Teresa Müller-Roguski: Swabian man pictures . Stieglitz-Verlag Händle, Mühlacker 1989, ISBN 3-7987-0283-7 , pp. 351-368
  • Helmuth Albrecht (ed.): Swabian researchers and scholars. Life pictures from six centuries . DRW, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-87181-264-1
  • Hans König: Hermann Frasch. The American sulfur king and oil pioneer of world renown , in: People from the Limpurger Land. Life pictures from five centuries . Geiger, Horb am Neckar 1998, ISBN 3-89570-456-3 , pp. 55-60
  • Walter Botsch: A Swabian becomes the American sulfur king. For the 150th birthday of Hermann Frasch . In: Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau. 54th year, 2001, pp. 579-584
  • Walter Botsch: chemist, technician, entrepreneur: on the 150th birthday of Hermann Frasch . In: Chemistry in Our Time . tape 35 , no. 5 , October 2001, p. 324-331 , doi : 10.1002 / 1521-3781 (200110) 35: 5 <324 :: AID-CIUZ324> 3.0.CO; 2-9 .
  • Lisa Heiss: "The Sulfur King of Louisiana", A German fights for a world monopoly , Ensslin & Laiblin, Reutlingen 1943

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patent US461430 : Apparatus for mining sulfur. Registered on December 26, 1890 , published October 20, 1891 , inventor: Herman Frasch. ‌

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Frasch, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American petroleum chemist
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberrot near Gaildorf, Baden-Württemberg
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1914
Place of death Paris