UOP Overview
UOP LLC was founded in 1914 as the National Hydrocarbon Company on the strength of patent rights developed from the pioneering work of Jesse A. Dubbs, a California inventor, and financing by a noted Chicago entrepreneur and investor, J. Ogden Armour. In 1915, the name of the company changed to Universal Oil Products Company. Under the direction of Carbon P. Dubbs, son of Jesse Dubbs, research and development work continued at the company’s small site near Independence, Kansas, where, in 1919, the famous Dubbs thermal cracking process was successfully demonstrated. This revolutionary process became the foundation of UOP’s rapid growth and early worldwide recognition by the industry. During this period, Dr. Gustav Egloff, one of the world’s leading petroleum chemists, directed the company’s research activities.
In 1931, UOP established its headquarters in Chicago and its research laboratories in nearby Riverside, Ill. That same year, the ownership of UOP passed to a consortium of major oil companies, all of them UOP licensees, led by Shell and Standard Oil of California.
The company benefited immensely by the addition to its research staff of Professor Vladimir Ipatieff, famous Russian scientist known internationally for his work in high-pressure catalysis. His contribution in catalytic chemistry gave UOP a position of leadership in the development of catalysis as applied to petroleum processing, the first being catalytic polymerization.
�With the outbreak of World War II, UOP scientists and engineers focused their knowledge and talents on developing new catalytic processes, notably alkylation, which helped the U.S. and its allies meet wartime energy requirements, especially for superior aviation fuel. UOP also cooperated with other companies to develop the fluid catalytic cracking process.
In 1944, the owners of UOP divested themselves of their holdings in the company and UOP’s stock was placed in trust, with the American Chemical Society named as beneficiary. Thus, the Petroleum Research Fund was created, with the understanding that income from the trust was to be used for advanced scientific education and fundamental research in the petroleum field.
In 1949, UOP’s research staff developed a radically different refining process that utilized a catalyst containing platinum. This process, called Platforming™, revolutionized the art of reforming to produce gasoline with a substantially improved octane number. The process was also instrumental in making benzene available in a quality and quantity never before realized on a commercial scale. With Platforming and other innovative processes, UOP became a vital contributor to the emergence and growth of the petrochemical industry.
In the early 1950s, UOP also began to manufacture its own proprietary catalysts and a variety of refining chemicals at a newly constructed plant in Shreveport, Louisiana. Later
UOP built manufacturing plants at McCook, Illinois; Brimsdown, U.K. and other locations.
In 1952, UOP moved its headquarters and engineering activities to Des Plaines, a suburb of Chicago, and soon after began construction of a new research center at the same location.
In 1959, UOP assumed its fourth different corporate form when it was sold to the public for the first time in its history. The 1960s saw UOP grow from essentially a process licensing company into a diversified corporation through many acquisitions and mergers with other companies.
In 1975, The Signal Companies Inc. acquired 50.5% of UOP and in 1978 acquired the remaining 49.5%, making UOP a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. When the Signal Companies merged with Allied Corporation in 1985, UOP Inc. became a subsidiary of Allied-Signal Inc.
In 1988, Allied-Signal entered into an agreement with Union Carbide Corporation that resulted in the creation of a unique joint venture company, called simply “UOP.” The new UOP combined the resources of Allied-Signal’s UOP Inc. with Catalysts, Adsorbents and Process Systems (CAPS) Division of Union Carbide.
In 1998, ownership partners changed as Allied-Signal and Honeywell merged and Union Carbide and Dow completed their merger.
As of November 30, 2005, Honeywell purchased Dow's 50 percent ownership in UOP LLC. UOP is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell as part of Honeywell Specialty Materials strategic business entity.
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