UOP celebrates its 100th year in business in 2014, and in many ways our history is analogous to the development of the world’s oil and gas industry.
We have accomplished many great things during the last century. For that, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to our customers, who helped us develop and commercialize our technologies.
When our company was founded, there were fewer than 2 billion people in the world, and travel was dominated by horses and steam engines. Much of every barrel of oil was used for heating and paving roads. Gasoline’s primary use was as a solvent, and kerosene and natural gas were used for lighting.
But the birth of UOP also coincided with the mass production of automobiles. The Dubbs process quadrupled the yield of gasoline from crude oil, ensuring that tens of millions of people had access to the fuels that allowed them to travel wherever and whenever they wanted. This was a milestone in our society.
UOP’s research and development led to the introduction of catalysis to refining during the 1930s, further multiplying the yield of valuable products from crude oil while raising the octane levels of these fuels.
After World War II, our technologies provided the building blocks that launched the petrochemicals industry. These helped introduce the world to products made from plastic resins, films and fibers. We commercialized technologies to produce new detergents including biodegradable cleaning agents. At the birth of the environmental movement, we developed lead-free gasoline and the automobile catalytic converter.
More recently, as part of Honeywell’s advanced technology portfolio, UOP has developed specialized catalysts and methods to convert a wider range of feedstocks into high-quality fuels and petrochemical compounds. Today, we offer technologies to convert products from coal and natural gas into the building blocks for plastics, more efficiently convert the bottom of the barrel into valuable fuels, and make diesel and jet fuel from renewable sources. We’ve also been at the front lines of the natural gas revolution, enabling quick monetization of assets through modular solutions.
Reflecting on the last century of leadership and innovation in the oil and gas industry, we believe the most exciting chapters in our history haven’t yet been written.
Sincerely,
Dr. Rajeev Gautam
President and CEO
UOP LLC, A Honeywell Company