Wilhelm Keim

Wilhelm Keim (born December 1, 1934 in Oberhausen ; † September 30, 2018 in Aachen ) was a German chemist who last worked as a professor emeritus for technical chemistry at RWTH Aachen University . He retired in 2001 in Aachen.

Studies and doctorate, professional experience in the chemical industry

Wilhelm Keim studied chemistry first at the University of Münster and later at the University of Saarbrücken . In 1963 he did his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr with Karl Ziegler . He then completed a two-year postdoctoral program ("Postdoc Fellowship") at the renowned Columbia University in New York City from 1964 to 1965 under the direction of Professor Thomas J. Katz .

Keim then joined the Shell Development Company in Emeryville , California , and was promoted to head of the Petrochemicals Research Group two years later in 1967 . The next step in his career was to head the Petroleum Chemistry department from 1969 and head of basic research from 1972.

Research activities

After gaining practical experience in his many years of professional activity in the chemical industry , Keim switched to research.

In 1973 Keim took over as professor at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, succeeding Friedrich Asinger as director of the Institute for Technical Chemistry and Petrochemistry. On the other hand, in 1985 he turned down the appointment to the University of Clausthal and the management of the coal mining association.

Wilhelm Keim's research activities included the areas of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis , hydroformylation and the functionalization of olefins as well as selective CC linkages. Here he focused on the heterogenization of homogeneous catalysts and two-phase catalysis.

Wilhelm Keim was one of the key figures in the development of the Shell Higher Olefins Process . The SHOP olefins are widely used in many areas of industrial chemistry. Mention should be made here, among other things, of the modification of polyethylene as an ethylene-α-olefin copolymer, as a starting material for synthetic fatty alcohols by isomerization , olefin metathesis and hydroformylation or by sulfonation to give α-olefin sulfonates . He also made a significant contribution to the “Advanced Fluids” area in Germany.

Wilhelm Keim was the author of numerous works, including around 200 publications and 40 patents. He was also one of the co-authors and co-editors of the Winnacker-Küchler , an important manual on chemical engineering that is now considered the standard work for processes and products from the chemical industry .

Honorary positions

The list of positions and honorary posts that Wilhelm Keim held both in Germany and abroad is long. He was a member of the Academia Europaea , the Russian Academy of Sciences , the Supervisory Board of Degussa AG and the Board of Directors of the Society of German Chemists (until 1996). He was an honorary professor at Dalian University of Technology in China and at Hangzhou University , China, and was also an adjunct professor at King Fahd University in Dhahran , Saudi Arabia . He was also an honorary doctorate at the University of Lille and an honorary member of DECHEMA . He was deputy chairman of the board of trustees of the DECHEMA research institute and chairman of the board of the German scientific society for crude oil, natural gas and coal .

Honourings and prices

Wilhelm Keim was the recipient of the DECHEMA Medal, the Alwin Mittasch Prize and the “Carl Engler Medal” of the DGMK. His name is the “Willi-Keim-Preis”, which was introduced in his honor in 2012 by the Advanced Fluids specialist group of ProcessNet, an initiative of DECHEMA and the VDI-Gesellschaft process engineering and chemical engineering , and to promote young scientists in the area of ​​“Advanced Fluids ”and their application is awarded.

literature

• Wilhelm Keim, Arno Behr and Günter Schmitt : Basics of industrial chemistry: techn. Products and Processes. 1st edition, Salle, Frankfurt Berlin Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7935-5490-2 ; ISBN 3-7941-2553-3 (Sauerländer).
• R. Dittmeyer, W. Keim, G. Kreysa, A. Oberholz (eds.): Winnacker · Küchler: Chemische Technik.
• Processes and products; 5th, expanded and updated edition 2003–2005. 9677 pages, 4661 illustrations. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, ISBN 978-3-527-30430-1 .
• Kunststoffe (Ed.): Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2006, ISBN 978-3-527-31582-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wilhelm Keim: Obituary. In: Aachener Zeitung / Aachener Nachrichten. October 6, 2018, accessed October 6, 2018 . 
2. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Wilhelm Keim at academictree.org, accessed on January 1, 2018.
3. ^ Wilhelm Keim: Nickel: An element with diverse properties in technically homogeneous catalysis. In: Angewandte Chemie. 102, 1990, pp. 251-260, doi : 10.1002 / anie.19901020305 .
4. ^ Wilhelm Keim: Oligomerization of Ethylene to α-Olefins: Discovery and Development of the Shell Higher Olefin Process (SHOP). In: Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 52, 2013, pp. 12492–12496, doi : 10.1002 / anie.201305308 .
5. ↑ Wilhelm Keim: Advantages and disadvantages of homogeneous transition metal catalysis, presented on the SHOP process In: Chemie Ingenieur Technik. 56, 1984, pp. 850-853, doi : 10.1002 / cite.330561108 .
6. ↑ Peter Wasserscheid, Wilhelm Keim: Ionic liquids - new "solutions" for transition metal catalysis. In: Angewandte Chemie. 112, 2000, pp. 3926-3945, doi : 10.1002 / 1521-3757 (20001103) 112: 21 <3926 :: AID-ANGE3926> 3.0.CO; 2-U .
7. ↑ Carl Engler Medal Winners: Prof. Dr. rer nat. Dr. hc Wilhelm Keim (PDF; 4.1 MB) www.dgmk.de. Archived from the original on December 18, 2013. 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. Retrieved June 5, 2009. 
8. ^ Willi Keim Prize from the Advanced Fluids specialist group. Retrieved November 27, 2012 . 

Web links

• Literature by and about Wilhelm Keim in the catalog of the German National Library