Lazăr Edeleanu
Lazăr Edeleanu (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈlazər edeˈle̯anu]; September 1, 1861, Bucharest - April 7, 1941) was a Romanian chemist of Jewish origin.[1] He is known for being the first chemist to synthesize amphetamine at the University of Berlin and for being the inventor of the modern method of refining crude oil.
Childhood and Studies
Edeleanu was raised in Bucharest and in the town of Focşani as the son of Jewish turner Shaye Edeleanu. As a child he showed a keen interest in science and was sent to study in Bucharest at the prestigious St. Sava College at the age of 12. His family was poor, so he lived in a basement room and earned his living by teaching private lessons.[2] After finishing college in 1882, he worked as a laborer to continue his studies in chemistry at the University of Berlin with A.W. Hofmann, C.F. Rammelsberg and H.L. Helmholtz.
In 1887, he received the title of Doctor in Chemistry with the thesis "On the derivatives of fatty phenylmethacrylic and phenylisobutyric acids" (original title in German: "Ueber einige Derivate der Phenylmethacrylsäure und der Phenylisobuttersäure"), in which he described phenylisopropylamine, a nervous system stimulant also known as amphetamine or benzedrine.
Research Activity in England and Romania
After receiving his doctorate, Edeleanu worked for some time at the Royal College of Artillery in London as a lecturer and as an assistant to professor Hodgkinson. During this period, he collaborated with C.F. Cross and E.J. Bevan to create a type of artificial fireproof silk and with R. Meldola to create oxazine-based dyes. Back in Romania, he was hired by chemist Constantin I. Istrati as his assistant and then lecturer at the Faculty of Sciences in Bucharest's Organic Chemistry Department. In 1906 he was appointed Head of the Chemistry Laboratory at the Geology Institute (founded that year) and director of Vega Refinery near Ploesti (refinery owned at that time by German company Diskont). In 1907 he co-organized the Petroleum Congress in Bucharest and co-authored a monograph on Romanian crude oil's physical and technical properties with Ion Tănăsescu.
His most significant invention, the Edeleanu process, was invented in 1908. It is a process in which petroleum is refined with liquid sulfur dioxide to selectively extract aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, xylene, etc.). The procedure was first applied experimentally in Romania at the Vega Refinery and later spread to Rouen, France, Germany, and subsequently throughout the world.
Research and Business in Germany
In 1910, Edeleanu settled in Germany where he founded a company called "Allgemeine Gesellschaft für Chemische Industrie". Due to the success of the name "Edeleanu", the company changed its name to Edeleanu GmbH in 1930. During the National Socialist regime it was bought by the Deutsche Erdöl-AG. Several ownership changes later it was acquired by Uhde GmbH in 2002, which is owned by Thyssen-Krupp trust. The name Edeleanu is still used for the refinery department at this day.
Lazăr Edeleanu came back to Romania and died in Bucharest in April 1941.
Heritage
By 1960, there were 80 Edeleanu facilities worldwide. The Edeleanu Method is still used today, in its many variations, and remains the basic process for manufacturing high quality oils.
Edeleanu obtained 212 patents for inventions in Romania, USA, Germany, France, Austria, Sweden, and Holland.
Prizes and Honors
- 1910 - Member of the Society of Natural Sciences in Moscow
- 1925 - Honorary Member of the Institution of Petroleum Technologists in London (1925)
- 1932 - Theophilus Redwood Medal for lifetime scientific achievement in analytic chemistry.
References
- ↑ The Romanian Jewish Community at www.romanianjewish.org
- ↑ biography on net
Sources
- FCER - Contribuţia evreilor din România la cultură şi civilizaţie
Editura Hasefer, 2004 p. 215-216 (Fed. of Jewish Communities in Romania - Contributions of Romanian Jews to culture and civilization, Hasefer Publ.House, Bucharest 2004, in Romanian 215-216)
- Allgemeine deutsche Biographie&Neue deutsche Biographie Bd.4,Duncker &Humblot, Berlin 1959
Magdaleine Moureau.Gerald Brace Dictionnaire du petrole et d'autres sources d'energie –anglais- français Ed. Technip 2008
- E H J Rosenburg- The History of selective solvents
1st World Petroleum Congress, July 18–24, 1933, London, UK
- Dr.L.Edeleanu - Ludovic Mrazec
in the Monit. Petr. Roumanie, obituary article - 1941
External links
- Homepage der Edeleanu GmbH since 2002 owned by Uhde company (in German)
- *biography - in Romanian
Further reading
- S.Benari
Lazăr Edeleanu Editura Stiinţifică şi enciclopedică Bucureşti,1982 (in Romanian)
- O.Păduraru -Bibliografia lucrărilor şi brevetelor în limba engleză de dr. L. Edeleanu
(Anglo-Rumanian Bibliography of works and brevets of dr L.Edeleanu), Bucureşti 1946.
- I.Drimuş, C. Tache - Lazăr Edeleanu, precursor al chimizării petrolului , (in Romanian) in Revista de chimie 1958
- Robert Treyball- Liquid extraction - McGrawHill Book Co,1951m first edition
- Avilino Sequeira - Lubricant base oil and wax processing CRC Press 1994
- Alan A.Comyns - Encyclopedic Dictionary of Named Processes in Chemical Technology - CRCPress 1999
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