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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.
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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 phenylmethacrylic and phenylisobutyric acids" (original title in German: "Ueber einige Derivate der Phenylmethacrylsäure und der Phenylisobuttersäure"), in which he described phenylisopropylamine, a nervous system stimulant also known as amphetamine or benzedrine.
After receiving his doctorate, Edeleanu worked for a time at the Royal College of Artillery in London as lecturer and assistant to professor Hodgkinson. During this period he collaborated with C.F. Cross and E.J. Bevan to create a type of artificial fireproof silk and with R. Meldola to create oxazine-based dyes. Back in Romania, he was hired by chemist Constantin I. Istrati as assistant, and then lecturer, at the Faculty of Sciences in Bucharest, Organic Chemistry Department. In 1906 he was appointed Head of the Chemistry Laboratory at the Geology Institute (founded that year) and director of Vega Refinery near Ploesti (refinery owned at that time by German company Diskont). In 1907 he co-organized the Petroleum Congress in Bucharest and co-authored a monograph on Romanian crude oil's physical and technical properties with Ion Tănăsescu.
1908 was the year of his most significant invention, the Edeleanu process, in which petroleum is refined with liquid sulfur dioxide to selectively extract aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, xylene, etc.). The procedure was first applied experimentally in Romania at the Vega Refinery, then at Rouen, France, in Germany, and subsequently throughout the world.
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.
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.
Editura Hasefer, 2004 p. 215-216 (Fed. of Jewish Communities in Romania - Contributions of Romanian Jews to culture and civilization, Hasefer Publ.House, Bucharest 2004, in Romanian 215-216)
Magdaleine Moureau.Gerald Brace Dictionnaire du petrole et d'autres sources d'energie –anglais- français Ed. Technip 2008
1st World Petroleum Congress, July 18–24, 1933 , London, UK
in the Monit. Petr. Roumanie , obituary article - 1941
Lazăr Edeleanu Editura Stiinţifică şi enciclopedică Bucureşti,1982 (in Romanian)
(Anglo-Rumanian Bibliography of works and brevets of dr L.Edeleanu), Bucureşti 1946.
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