Lazăr Edeleanu -the first chemist to synthesize amphetamine at the University of Berlin and the inventor of the modern method of refining crude oil

Lazăr Edeleanu (1861, Bucharest - 1941) was a Romanian chemist of Jewish origin.

 He was the first chemist to synthesize amphetamine at the University of Berlin and the inventor of the modern method of refining crude oil.

His childhood and studies

Edeleanu,son of Jewish turner,Shaye Edeleanu, was raised in Bucharest and in the town of Focşani. As he showed an early aptitude for science, was sent at the age of 12 to study in Bucharest at the prestigious St. Sava College. Lived in poor housing conditions, in a basement room and earned his living through giving private lessons. So could he receive his baccalaureate in 1882. After ending high school, he worked hard as worker in order to go on and study - chemistry - at the Berlin University with A.W. Hofmann, C.F. Rammelsberg and H.L. Helmholtz.

In 1887, he received the title of Doctor in Chemistry with the thesis "On the derivatives of fatty fenil-metacrilic and fenil-izobutiric acids", in which he discovered fenil-izopropilamine, known in medicine as amphetamine or benzedrine, with its important action as a nervous system stimulant.

His research activity in England and Romania

After receiving his doctorate, Edeleanu worked for a time in London as a lecturer at the Royal College of Artillery as assistant to professor Hodgkinson. During this period he worked with C.F. Cross and E.J. Bevan to create a type of artificial fireproof silk and with R. Meldola to create oxazine-based dye. Back in Romania, he won the appreciation of the great chemist Constantin I. Istrati, who kept him as an assistant and then as a lecturer in the Organic Chemistry Department of the Faculty of Sciences in Bucharest. In 1906, he was appointed Head of Laboratory of Chemistry of the Geologic Institute (founded in that year) and director of the Vega Refinery, owned by the German company Diskont. In 1907, he became part of the organizing committee of the Congress of Petroleum in Bucharest and published together with Ion Tănăsescu an important monograph on Romanian oil's physical and technical properties.

1908 was the year of his most significant invention - the Edeleanu process, consisting of refining the petroleum with liquid sulfur dioxide as a selective solvent, which provides selective extraction of aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, xylene, etc.). The procedure was first applied experimentally in Romania at the Vega refinery, then at Rouen in France, in Germany and subsequently throughout the world.


His research and business activity in Germany

Since 1910 Edeleanu himself settled in Germany there he founded a company called "Allgemeine Gesellschaft für Chemische Industrie". Due to the success of the logo "Edeleanu", since 1930 the company changed its name to Edeleanu GmbH. During the National Socialist regime was bought by the Deutsche Erdöl-AG, later changed several times its owners and in 2002 was acquired by Uhde GmbH, which is owned by Thyssen-Krupp trust. The name Edeleanu stayed in use for the refinery department till nowadays.

Lazăr Edeleanu came back to Romania and died in Bucharest in April 1941.

Edeleanu's heritage

By 1960, there were 80 Edeleanu facilities worldwide. The Edeleanu Method is still used today, in its many variations, and remains the basic process for manufacturing high quality oils.

Edeleanu obtained 212 patents for inventions in Romania, USA, Germany, France, Austria, Sweden, and Holland.

Prizes and honors

1910 - member of the Society of Natural Sciences in Moscow

1925 - honorary member of the Institution of Petroleum Technologists in London (1925)

1932 - Theophilus Redwood Medal for lifetime scientific achievement in analytic chemistry.