Oppau, Germany

As was Uie case in Oppau, Germany, in 1921, everyone with firstliand knowledge of the disaster was killed on the site, leaving tlie cause of the incident unknown. It is reasoned tliat a structural weakness in one of the tanks caused the gas leak, although the liquefied gas was not under any pressure. The tanks were only 3 years old when tlie accident occurred and certainly were not expected to... 

Developed by IG Farbenindustrie and first installed at Oppau, Germany, in 1913. Subsequently, widely used worldwide. 

Sachsse Also called the Flame cracking process, and the Sachsse-Bartholome process. A process for making acetylene by the partial combustion of methane. The product gases are quenched rapidly and the acetylene is extracted with methyl pyrrolidone. First operated by IG Farbenindustrie at Oppau, Germany, in 1942. Worldwide, 13 plants used the process, of which 7 were still in operation in 1991. 

An Oppau, Germany nitrate plant exploded killing over 600 people. This was probably the worst ever chemical explosion up to 1984. 

Preparation from propyl alcohol developed during WWII by.IGFarbenindnstrie at Oppau, Germany (the so-called Oppau Process")... 

A disastrous accident occurred at a BASF s plant in Oppau, Germany, with two explosions at 7 29 and 7 31 a.m. on September 21, 1921, resulting in a casualty list of 509 dead, 160 missing, and 1,952 injured. 

Carl Bosch, a German industrial chemist improved Haber s process by designing new reaction chambers, improving pressurizing pumps, and finding inexpensive catalysts. By 1913, Bosch had huilt the first plant for synthesizing ammonia in Oppau, Germany. 

Another whole area I left out was ammonium nitrate explosions. This hazard was one that we seemed to have learned about in the twentieth century, with major accidents at Oppau, Germany in 1923, and in Texas City in 1947. However, there have been at least two major ammonium nitrate explosions causing multiple fatalities in the twenty-first century the Toulouse AZF explosion (France, 2001) and the West explosion (Texas, 2013). We seem to keep forgetting about the hazardous nature of ammonium nitrate, perhaps because it is such a commonplace fertilizer. 

---