For more than 100 years, Honeywell UOP has been the leading international supplier and licensor for the petroleum refining, gas processing, petrochemical production and major manufacturing industries. UOP is responsible for developing and implementing some of the most groundbreaking technologies in the world over the past century.

The Beginning

In 1914, inventor Jesse A. Dubbs commercialized the thermal cracking process, which was initially used to produce asphalt by demulsifying oil. It was only by accident that Dubbs discovered he was unknowingly cracking crude oil into gasoline with his original thermal cracking process. J. Ogdon Armour, Chicago meat-packing tycoon and owner of Standard Asphalt & Rubber Company, saw the potential of Dubbs’s discovery as an opportunity to invest in a process that would soon be integral to meeting the growing demand for gasoline from the emerging automobile industry. 

Together Armour and Dubbs formed the National Hydrocarbon Company in 1914, which became Universal Oil Products Company. Over the next century and through a series of mergers, acquisitions and business transformations, UOP continued to develop breakthrough innovations that impacted the world. 

Continued Innovation

In the 1930s, UOP pioneered catalytic polymerization and laid the groundwork for dozens of other new technologies. During World War II, UOP’s technologies were pooled with others in the industry, speeding the development of fluid catalytic cracking, alkylation and isomerization. 

Through the 1960s, the company continued to develop even better refining methods, as well as the technologies that brought lead-free gasoline, the catalytic converter and the first biodegradable detergents. UOP later expanded its expertise to include natural gas processing, zeolites, hydroprocessing and, most recently, renewable fuels.

Today and Tomorrow

In 2005, Honeywell announced its acquisition of UOP and began new investments in UOP’s research and development capabilities. Today, UOP licenses more than 70 processes and 300 catalysts to 6,000 refineries and plants.  

UOP continues to invest in research and development, operating the world’s leading centers of research for the catalytic processing of hydrocarbons. Scientists and engineers from around the world are inventing better ways to convert oil, natural gas, coal and biomass into the fuels and chemicals required to support the growth and well-being of our world, while keeping the air and water we depend on clean.

UOP Milestones:

1914: Dubbs Cracking Process 

1938: High Octane Aviation Gasoline 

1949: Platforming™ Process 

1953: Synthetic Zeolites 

1957: Zeolites for Catalytic Cracking 

1960s: Technologies for Unleaded Gasoline 

1968: Biodegradable Detergents

1970s: Automotive Catalytic Converter 

1970s: Parex™ Process 

1990: Oleflex™ Process 

2003: First National Medal of Technology 

2006: Green Diesel Technology 

2008: MTO, Uniflex™ and Green Jet™ Fuel

2012: Acquired Thomas Russell and Callidus

2014: UOP Celebrates 100 years

2014: Second National Medal of Technology

2016: ISOALKY™ ionic liquids alkylation

2016: Connected Performance Services

2018: Acquired Ortloff Engineers

Today: UOP licenses more than 70 processes and 300 catalysts to 6,000 refineries and plants 

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