Patents Petroleum origin

I have not attempted to make this a "History of Zeolite Cracking Catalysts," To do so would involve a discussion of hundreds of patents. Since our original patents, Rosinski and I, alone, have received at least twenty-eight more in the field while others at Mobil have probably been responsible for scores. The tremendous interest of the whole petroleum industry in the field attests to the importance of these catalysts. This interest has further spread to the development of new zeolites and their use as catalysts for many reactions in addition to cracking. Thus, the success of the zeolite cracking catalysts has spawned a whole new field of catalyst research. We and many others at Mobil have been in the forefront of this work as well. I am looking with great interest at what will be accomplished in the future with zeolite catalysts. 

Consequently, the Phillips Petroleum scientists isolated crystalline polypropylene between October 9,1951 and April 16,1952. Although, initially, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded the composition of matter patent for isotactic polypropylene (prepared with a Ti-based catalyst composition) to Montecatini on February 6, 1973 (U.S. Patent 3,715,344), the Federal District Court of Delaware reversed the United States Patent and Trademark Office decision on January 11, 1980, and awarded the composition of matter patent to Phillips Petroleum based on the earlier research carried out by Hogan and Banks (See Chapter 3 of this book for additional details on the historical origins of polyethylene and polypropylene.)... 

Frasch s creative mind continued to work on petroleum. Between 1880 and 1900, thirty-four patents were filed by Standard Oil, half of which originated with Frasch. In 1895, another major invention was made by Frasch, the acidizing of an oil well to increase production, but this was not for Standard. Patents for the process were issued the following year (U.S. patent 556,651, 556,669). The acid reacted with the limestone rock, releasing carbon dioxide gas that opened up fissures in the rock. This process freed trapped oil pockets. Frasch had worked on this project with John W. Van Dyke (1849 - 1939). Frasch had known Van Dyke from the Solar Refinery years, where the latter had been the Superintendent of the revolutionary refinery for sour oil. On April 1, 1896, they assigned the patents to Van Dyke s company, the Oil Well Acid Treatment Company of Lima, Ohio. Van Dyke later led the Standard Oil spin-off company, the Atlantic Refining Company (later becoming part of ARCO and now part of BP). 

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