Friedrich Karl Rudolf Bergius
Wrocław, Poland
University of Wrocław
Leipzig, Saxony, Germany
Main building of Leipzig University since 2012
Frankfurt, Germany
Completed in 1930, the IG Farben Building in Frankfurt was seized by the Americans after the war. In 1996 it was transferred to the German government and in 2001 to the University of Frankfurt
Main building Leibniz University Hannover
Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany
Stockholm, Sweden
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Austria
Wilhelm Exner Medal
Germany
Liebig Medal
Wrocław, Poland
University of Wrocław
Leipzig, Saxony, Germany
Main building of Leipzig University since 2012
Stockholm, Sweden
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Austria
Wilhelm Exner Medal
Germany
Liebig Medal
Main building Leibniz University Hannover
Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany
Frankfurt, Germany
Completed in 1930, the IG Farben Building in Frankfurt was seized by the Americans after the war. In 1996 it was transferred to the German government and in 2001 to the University of Frankfurt
1931
Stockholm, Sweden
Bergius with wife in Stockholm in 1931
Theodor Goldschmidt
Carl Bosch
Friedrich Karl Rudolf Bergius was born on October 11, 1884, in Goldschmieden, near Breslau, within the German Empire's Prussian Province of Silesia (now Wrocław, Poland).
Bergius became involved with chemistry in his very early years. His father was head of a chemical plant and his mother was the daughter of a classics professor; thus, he grew up in a home where learning was highly valued.
Before studying chemistry, Bergius was sent to work for 6 months at the Friedrich Wilhelms steelworks in Mülheim. His studies started at the University of Breslau (now University of Wrocław) in 1903 under Ladenburg, Abegg and Herz. In 1907, Bergius earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in chemistry at the University of Leipzig. He worked on sulphuric acid as solvent and Arthur Rudolf Hantzsch supervised the thesis.
In 1909 Bergius qualified as a university lecturer in Hannover, and thereupon set up a private laboratory where he could conduct his own research. Systematically he began work on the influence of high pressure and high temperature, seeking to clarify the conditions in nature under which wood was transformed into coal. Within a short time, Bergius succeeded in developing a coal very similar to that produced in nature through his process of carbonization of peat and cellulose.
At the same time, Bergius studied the origin of petroleum and conducted experiments in which he sought to make carboniferous materials react with hydrogen to yield liquid products. As early as 1913 he was granted (with John Billwiller) his first patent for the manufacture of liquid hydrocarbons from coal. Needless to say, research of this kind could not be conducted in a private laboratory. Bergius, who had acquired a fine reputation in scientific circles, became head of a new research laboratory at the Goldschmidt Company in Essen in 1914. The owner, Karl Goldschmidt, was an enthusiastic friend and promoter of Bergius. Soon afterward a private experimental plant was constructed for laboratory experiments, continuous processing of petroleum reserves (the daily output was twenty tons), and commercial experiments.
Bergius recognized that the hydrogenation- dehydrogenation balance was based on temperature, partial hydrogen pressure, and the size of the molecules in the hydrocarbon. For petroleum reserves, slight hydrogenation was found to be sufficient; hydrogen-poor coal, however, required greater hydrogenation before it could be thermally cracked. Hydrogenation of carbon was conducted in two stages, the first being to process the carbon into a paste with oil.
Conditions after World War I made it impossible for Bergius to continue his work, and in 1925 he sold his patent rights to the Badische Anilin-und Sodafabrik in Ludwigshafen, which had begun experimenting with hydrogenation of carbon.
Bergius then left the field and dedicated himself to a new problem: hydrolysis of wood by means of acid. With Hagglund, Bergius developed a process by which he obtained complete hydrolysis of wood cellulose by using concentrated hydrochloric acid. The product was either dextrose or, after transformation, ethanol or a nutrient yeast with a 50 percent albumin content.
In 1931 Bergius and Karl Bosch were awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Bergius was one of the most individualistic of research scholars. He persistently attempted to go his own way and to remain completely independent, but the tasks to which he committed himself exceeded the ability of a single individual.
After World War II, no longer able to find work in Germany, Bergius founded a company in Madrid and in 1947 became a scientific adviser to the Argentine government until his death on March 30, 1949, in Buenos Aires.
Quotations:
"As early as 1910, Ludwig Landsberg had suggested that I should examine the problem of splitting heavy oils and oil residues into benzines."
"As early as 1912, we worked on the problem of the hydrogenation of organic substances with the aid of highly compressed hydrogen."
"Even in the investigations into direct production of calcium peroxide in an alkali melt with highly compressed oxygen, it was found to be necessary to bring the high-pressure gas into contact with the suspension of lime in caustic alkali melt by agitation or some other means of mixing."
Friedrich Bergius was elected to the Board of Directors of many associations and companies interested in coal and oil.
Friedrich Bergius was married to Margarete Bergius and had two children - Renate Juliusberger and Johannes Bergius.
Carl Bosch was a German chemist and engineer, who was a pioneer in the field of high-pressure industrial chemistry and founder of IG Farben, at one point the world's largest chemical company.
Carl Theodor Wilhelm Goldschmidt was a German entrepreneur and chemist.
Carl Bosch was a German chemist and engineer, who was a pioneer in the field of high-pressure industrial chemistry and founder of IG Farben, at one point the world's largest chemical company.
