UOP LLC
DES PLAINES, IL

Over the last century, the world’s population has quadrupled and the standard of living increased seven-fold. All of this has been fueled by the oil and gas industry — powering our vehicles, homes, factories and offices, furnishing our clothing, purifying our water, and providing life-saving medical technologies. These advances were made possible largely by technology from Honeywell UOP. Part of Honeywell’s Performance Materials and Technologies business group, UOP has more than 3,000 active patents, a global presence, and a century of experience using breakthrough chemistry and engineering to power global growth. UOP developed the first biodegradable detergents, unleaded gas and the catalytic converter. Honeywell Green Diesel™ and Honeywell Green Jet Fuel™ require no changes to engines or fuel infrastructure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than two-thirds. And our advanced adsorbents can clean even the most contaminated industrial wastewater. In nearly 150 natural gas plants around the world, UOP technologies improve the recovery of valuable methane and natural gas liquids while removing sulfur, carbon dioxide, and water – making natural gas safe for transport, storage and use. And as refineries and petrochemical plants become more complex, UOP’s deep process knowledge, combined with software expertise from Honeywell Process Solutions, will enable oil and gas companies to operate far more efficiently and profitably. UOP provides reliable technical service and support, with expertise in plant operations, asset management, customized training, strategic and tactical support, troubleshooting, and engineering services. Our commitment to innovation is based on an extensive network of laboratories and pilot plant facilities. UOP’s worldwide sales, support and manufacturing facilities includes Well into the future, the demands of our society will be met by an energy economy powered by hydrocarbons. With natural gas use expected to grow by 65 percent, and oil by 20 percent, meeting these demands will depend on innovations and technologies developed by Honeywell UOP. , we’re building a world that’s safer and more secure, more comfortable and energy efficient, and more innovative and productive. We are committed to the safety of our employees, the quality of our products, and being responsible stewards for the protection of our environment, the communities in which we operate, and our customers. We are a member company of the American Chemistry Council, and Responsible Care® is the foundation for sustainability in our business. The Responsible Care® Management System is used to support our full commitment to comply with legal and other Health, Safety and Environmental (HS&E) requirements. / UOP History In the hundred years since UOP was founded, the world’s population has quadrupled while world GDP has grown by more than 700 percent, adjusted for inflation. This incredible growth was fueled by the oil and gas industry, led in many cases by technology from UOP. UOP was founded in 1914 to commercialize 12 inventions held by Jesse Adams Dubbs. Descended from a Dutch family of chemists, and born in Pennsylvania oil country, Jesse Dubbs fell naturally into the oil business. Such was his confidence in oil that he named his eldest son Carbon. After joining his father in business, Carbon added the middle initial P to make his name “euphonious,” he said. People started calling him “Petroleum” for fun and, finding cache in the name, he did little to correct them. One of the Dubbs inventions was developed in 1909 to demulsify oil, specifically to yield heavier fuel oil and asphalt. The byproduct was lots and lots of gasoline – a 30-percent yield, four times greater than conventional refining methods. When the younger Dubbs brought this to the attention of the Chicago meat packer J. Ogden Armour, the invention was reviewed by Armour’s patent attorney Frank Belknap. Belknap reasoned that, if the 1909 Dubbs process could be patented, it would take precedence over a 1912 patent for a similar process granted to William Merrion Burton of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana. With this patent, Armour could demand payments from Standard Oil – and gain retribution against his rival John D. Rockefeller, that company’s principal shareholder. After acquiring the rights to Dubbs’ invention, Armour created the National Hydrocarbon Company on July 17, 1914. Belknap resubmitted the patent application, which was granted on January 5, 1915. The company immediately began preparing legal complaints, and the first of these was filed on August 7, 1916. UOP History Gasoline, which until then had been used as a solvent, had found favor as a fuel in internal combustion engines. With mass production of automobiles by Ford, General Motors and other car companies, these engines were being produced by the millions, generating strong demand for gasoline. Jesse Dubbs retired in 1914 and died four years later. But Carbon Dubbs remained with the company to prove the efficacy of his father’s invention. While he did this, he spent most of his time on other projects, much to the displeasure of the company’s president Hiram J. Halle. In 1919, the year the company changed its name to Universal Oil Products, Carbon Dubbs revealed his secret work – Clean Circulation, a refining method that improved on his father’s invention by circulating a quantity of refined gasoline back into the feedstock. For Halle, this meant a profound change in the company’s business. No longer just a paper company formed to enforce patent rights, UOP now had a new and improved method for refining oil. Because UOP lacked the capital to become a refining company itself, Halle decided UOP should license the Clean Circulation process to any refiner in exchange for a royalty fee, based on production. For its part, UOP would engineer its customers’ refineries and guarantee performance. This would remain UOP’s business model for the next century. In 1921, UOP established its Riverside research and development laboratory in present-day McCook, Illinois, as a focal point where the best and brightest scientists could create new products and provide scientific support for the oil refining industry.