Lubrizol

Lubrizol Corporation is a global provider of specialty chemicals for the transportation, industrial and consumer markets. These products include additives for engine oils and other transportation-related fluids, additives for industrial lubricants, and additives for gasoline and diesel fuel. In addition, Lubrizol makes ingredients and additives for personal care products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, specialty materials, including plastics technology, and coatings in the form of specialty resins and additives.

Since 2011, Lubrizol has been a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. It generated $6.5 billion in revenue in 2016[4] and has an employee headcount of approximately 8,300 people globally.[5]

History

The Lubrizol Corporation was founded in 1928 as The Graphite Oil Products Company in Cleveland, Ohio, by father Frank A. Nason and son Francis A. "Alex" Nason, Thomas W. James and brothers Kent H. Smith, Vincent K. Smith and A. Kelvin Smith.[6]

Operations

The Lubrizol Corporation is broken down into two business segments, Lubrizol Additives and Lubrizol Advanced Materials.

Lubrizol Additives

With Lubrizol Additives, the company supplies additives for transportation, including additives for lubricating engine oils, fuels and other chemicals, and industrial lubricants.[25]

Lubrizol Advanced Materials

Lubrizol Advanced Materials creates and sells specialty materials and chemicals used in consumer products for personal care, pharmaceutical and food industries; specialty materials under the Carbopol, TempRite, Hycar and Estane trademarks; and performance coatings under the trademarks Hycar, Sancure, Algan, Performax and Myflam.[26]

Lubrizol had operated Lubrizol Oilfield Solutions, an oilfield chemicals and drilling fluids business, following the 2014 acquisition of Weatherford International businesses.[27] Bloomberg reported in February 2017 that Lubrizol eliminated the oilfield solutions business segment.[19]

Industrial accidents

Sites in and around Rouen (France) have been the site of numerous industrial incidents:

On June 14, 2021, the company's Chemtool manufacturing plant in Rockton, IL suffered a large explosion and fire. A one-mile evacuation zone was established as fire agencies worked to contain the fire.[28]

See fr:Incendie de l'usine Lubrizol à Rouen
In 1975 and 1989, two incidents (similar to the one that occurred in 2013) resulted in the emission of mercaptans.
On April 16, 2003, a fire damaged the facilities of the Oudalle factory without causing any casualties.
On January 21, 2013, an incident occurred at the Lubrizol plant located in Rouen (Seine-Maritime): the chemical decomposition of a zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) tank resulted in the emission of a cloud of gas composed of a cocktail of mercaptans (probably dominated by isopropyl mercaptan), whose odor was perceptible far beyond the Rouen site by several hundred thousand people, the plume from south of London to the Paris region ("Complaints of local residents citing bad smells, headaches or nausea were thus collected by the poison and toxicovigilance centers (CAPTV) and Air normand between 21 and 22 January). The hazard study had modeled the risk of decomposition of zinc dialkyldithiophosphate, a risk also taken into account in the development of the PPRT: according to this modeling, H2S can be emitted (highly toxic with fatal or irreversible effects beyond certain thresholds, thresholds not reached in the environment during the event of 21 January). This decomposition is also a source of large quantities of mercaptans, gases known to be not very toxic but whose olfactory threshold is very low (10,000 times lower than the concentrations reached in the air that day). The genes or headaches related to this type of event have not been integrated in the PPRT, but must be included in emergency plans (PPI ...). After analyzing the accident, corrective measures were submitted to CODERST (May 2013) and then imposed on the factory via a prefectural order (June 2013). These measures are: better monitoring of the temperature of the adjustment tanks, new automatic safety systems, an analysis of the stirring and refrigeration needs of the tanks (decalcification, new refrigeration means, etc.), new monitoring tools process, manufacturing and alarm, an improved process of response in case of decomposition, improvement of the measurement system of mercaptans in the stack and finally the resizing of the system treating releases to the air in case of decomposition. The implementation of these measures was verified by the DREAL on June 11 and 12, 2013. The invisible but fragrant plume of mercaptans was retrospectively modeled (publication 2015).

type	Subsidiary
foundation	1928
location city	Wickliffe, Ohio
location country	United States
key people	Rebecca Liebert (president and CEO)
industry	Chemicals
products	Specialty chemicals
revenue	Approximately $6.5 billion (2016)
owner	Berkshire Hathaway
num employees	Approximately 7,000+
divisions	Lubrizol Additives Lubrizol Surface Sciences Lubrizol Engineered Materials
homepage	http://www.lubrizol.com
footnotes	‡R1R‡‡R2R‡‡R3R‡‡R4R‡‡R5R‡

History

Operations

Lubrizol Additives

Lubrizol Advanced Materials

Industrial accidents

Acquisitions and partnerships

External links

References