18-06-2014

Honeywell’s UOP celebrates 100 years of leadership in the oil & gas industry

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, today marked 100 years of innovation and leadership in the oil and gas industry, celebrating the day of its centennial by helping to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Honeywell Chairman and CEO Dave Cote was present at the closing bell event, which recognized the centennials of UOP as well as Honeywell Aerospace.

Founded in Chicago on June 17, 1914, UOP was created to commercialize the first conversion technology for upgrading crude oil, resulting in a four-fold increase in the amount of gasoline that could be derived from crude oil. This created the foundation for the modern oil refining industry just as mass production of automobiles began.

As a part of Honeywell’s Performance Materials and Technology business, UOP remains a leading provider of process technology, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment, and consulting services to the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and gas processing industries. Today, 31 of the 36 refining technologies in use worldwide employ UOP technologies. With more than 3,000 active patents, UOP created the processes that make more than 60 percent of the world’s gasoline, 67 percent of its paraxylene (a key building block for plastic resins, films and fibers), and nearly 90 percent of its biodegradable detergents – and that treat 40 percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas so it can be safely transported.

“UOP has been and continues to be a driving force of innovation for the global petroleum and natural gas industries,” said Rajeev Gautam, president and CEO of UOP. “Our partnership with the world’s oil and gas companies has led to the development and commercialization of the technologies that have enabled our modern way of living.”

On December 1, 2005, Honeywell completed the acquisition of the 50 percent interest in UOP LLC that was owned by Union Carbide Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, giving Honeywell full ownership of UOP. Since then, UOP has been a fast-growing and integral part of Honeywell’s comprehensive portfolio of energy and energy efficiency solutions.

Honeywell has invested significantly in UOP, establishing engineering centers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia and Gurgaon, India, and opening the Honeywell India Technology Center, which features dozens of pilot plants where refining and petrochemical process technologies are developed. Under Honeywell, UOP has established dedicated businesses for renewable energy and chemicals, as well as gas processing and hydrogen. In 2012, UOP acquired a 70 percent share of Thomas Russell, which provides technologies to treat and process natural gas and recover valuable natural gas liquids.

During the past 100 years, UOP breakthroughs include technologies to manufacture the chemical compounds that helped launch the modern petrochemicals industry, introducing the world to products made from plastic resins and films, and synthetic fibers. UOP commercialized technologies to produce the first large-scale biodegradable detergents, produce lead-free gasoline and make possible the automobile catalytic converter.

UOP’s innovations continue today with process technologies to get more valuable products from every barrel of oil, to convert coal and natural gas into plastics, and to convert biofeedstocks such as algae into renewable fuels. The company also develops technologies to grow the availability of natural gas and treat it so it can be shipped around the world.

The world’s leading developer of technologies for the oil and gas industry, UOP has earned more than 12,000 patents and has employed some of the leading scientists in their field, including Vladimir Ipatieff, widely acknowledged as the father of petroleum catalysis, and Edith M. Flanigen, whose work on the synthesis of molecular sieves earned her the prestigious Perkin Medal in 1992.

UOP has been based in Des Plaines, Ill. since 1952. The company employs more than 5,000 people and operates 36 offices and manufacturing facilities in 18 countries.

In 2003, UOP was recognized by President George W. Bush with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, for “sustained technical leadership and innovation for the petroleum refining and petrochemical industries; and for the invention and commercialization of adsorbents, catalysts, process plants, and process technology.”

Also celebrating its centennial this year is Honeywell Aerospace, which traces its origin to the introduction of the aircraft autopilot by Lawrence Sperry on June 18, 1914 – coincidentally, one day after UOP was founded. Honeywell Aerospace products and services are found on virtually every commercial, defense and space aircraft worldwide. The Aerospace business unit develops and integrates technologies that span air traffic modernization, flight and runway safety, engines, cockpit and cabin electronics, connectivity, logistics and more that deliver safe, efficient, productive and comfortable transportation-related experiences.

For more information, please visit www.uop.com