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Otto Roelen
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<p>Otto Roelen (22 March 1897 – 30 January 1993) was a German chemist who pioneered using <a href="/facts/Carbon_monoxide/CKuLtEMJ">carbon monoxide</a> to synthesize of organic compounds. </p><p>Roelen was born in <a href="/facts/M%25C3%25BClheim/ANmzRprX">Mülheim</a>, <a href="/facts/Germany/paluuWBX">Germany</a> and studied chemistry and graduated in 1922 from <a href="/facts/University_of_Stuttgart/Fj4bN8UX">Technische Hochschule Stuttgart</a>. He worked with <a href="/facts/Franz_Joseph_Emil_Fischer/9SkSa9ar">Franz Fischer</a> and <a href="/facts/Hans_Tropsch/JxVet0hA">Hans Tropsch</a> at the <a href="/facts/Kaiser_Wilhelm_Institute_for_Coal_Research/FeQcYSho">Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research</a> from 1922. He developed the <a href="/facts/Homogeneous_catalysis/c7wplnb2">homogeneously catalysed</a> <a href="/facts/Hydroformylation/KCnbNIu7">hydroformylation</a> process (also known as "<a href="/facts/Oxo_synthesis/KCnbNIu7">oxo synthesis</a>") for the industrial synthesis of <a href="/facts/Aldehyde/xSIRkW03">aldehydes</a> from <a href="/facts/Alkene/RtYcS6kU">alkenes</a> and <a href="/facts/Carbon_monoxide/CKuLtEMJ">carbon monoxide</a>. </p><p>During the <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">second world war</a> he was chief chemist for <a href="/facts/Ruhrchemie/zTQ5MWhV">Ruhrchemie</a>. After the war he described the construction, operation and yields of oxo synthesis plants in detail to British <a href="/facts/Department_of_Scientific_and_Industrial_Research_(United_Kingdom)/kTFcJyaT">Department of Scientific and Industrial Research</a> interrogators. </p><p>Roelen was awarded the <a href="/facts/Adolf_von_Baeyer/5wRNhT9H">Adolf von Baeyer</a> prize by the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker in 1963. In his honor, <a href="/facts/DECHEMA/3kKFWJPz">DECHEMA</a> named the <i>Otto Roelen prize</i> after him. </p><p>He died in <a href="/facts/Bad_Honnef/pKAvAXj7">Bad Honnef</a>, <a href="/facts/Germany/paluuWBX">Germany</a>, at the age of 95. </p> <ul><li>Boy Cornils; <a href="/facts/Wolfgang_A._Herrmann/CnAcyxMa">Wolfgang A. Herrmann</a>; Manfred Rasch (1994). "Otto Roelen, Pioneer in Industrial Homogeneous Catalysis". <i>Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English</i>. 33 (21): 2144–2163. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fanie.199421441">10.1002/anie.199421441</a>.</li></ul>