Herbert Kölbel (1908-1995)

Herbert Kölbel was born on 13 August 1908 in Wulsdorf (now part of Bremerhaven), and attended school in Hanover. In 1928 he started his chemistry studies in Freiburg under Hermann Staudinger (1881-1965), and in 1930 he followed Walter Hückel (1895-1973) to Greifswald, where he took his doctorate in 1934. He worked as an assistant to Franz Fischer (1877-1947) at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Kohleforschung (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research) in Mülheim an der Ruhr, where he became acquainted with the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis. Developed in 1925, it is a process in which carbon monoxide and hydrogen extracted from coal and a cobalt catalyst are synthesised into a series of hydrocarbons such as Kogasin, used especially for gas synthesis.

In 1936 he went to the Rheinpreußen Company in Homberg as a director of research charged with putting into operation the first large-scale Fischer-Tropsch system. In 1938 he became the director of the synthesis research laboratory and in 1943 he became director of one of the Rheinpreußen factories. He succeeded in achieving syntheses of a diesel fuel made of Kogasin and tar oils and of lubricating oils for the navy and railways. After 1945, as a result of losing certain patents, the wartime destruction of the facilities and a prohibition by the occupying powers, the company changed to producing detergents; Kölbel had already developed degradable surface-active agents (tensides). His work on reaction mechanisms in Fischer-Tropsch processes led to significant improvements: in polyphase reactors suspended catalysts enabled improved heat dissipation and higher output; with the Kölbel-Engelhardt process in 1951 he achieved the significant cost-cutting measures of using iron instead of cobalt as a catalyst and steam instead of hydrogen.

In 1953 Kölbel became a professor at the TU Berlin, where he rebuilt the field of technical chemistry. In 1969 the Franz Fischer building, which was planned and named by Kölbel, was opened. His research at the TU continued to be concerned with hydrocarbons: he investigated reaction mechanisms of the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis and the influence of the constitution of tensides on their attributes and the optimal structural characteristics of lubricating oils, he clarified the electron interaction between gases and metallic catalysts and he was able to describe the hydrodynamic behaviour of polyphase reactors with mathematical precision or with semi-empirical comparative models. From these came estimates of the optimal dimensions and operating conditions of reactors, syntheses of higher-molecular polymethylenes, the one-step synthesis of amines from carbon oxide, water and ammonia, and a whole series of new synthetic lubricating oils and other synthetic substances. He overhauled the syllabus to include commercial chemistry for the examination of new processes, the theory of machinery and equipment and a systematic course on processes.

Kölbel was dean and rector at the TU and was active in scientific and technological societies. In 1967 he was inducted into the Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina. He became professor emeritus in 1973. He died in Berlin on 28 September 1995.

Kölbel enriched the field of technical chemistry with 227 publications and 433 patents, but he made his mark in other endeavours, too. It was only due to injury that he was unable to participate as a pole-vaulter at the Olympic Games of 1936. He was also prominent in the music world, giving 180 public concerts and publishing a book on the flute "Über die Flöte" and editions of unknown or forgotten musical works.

Lit.: TU-Archive

[B. E.]