Friedrich August Raschig (also called Fritz Raschig) (8 June 1863 – 4 February 1928) was a German chemist and politician. He was born in Brandenburg an der Havel. After he received his PhD in 1884 from the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

for his work with

Robert Wilhelm Bunsen Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (; 30 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Buns ...

, he started working at the BASF company. In 1891 he opened his own chemical company in

Ludwigshafen am Rhein Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning " Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it form ...

(which still operates today as Raschig GmbHwww.raschig.de
Company Website). He patented a number of chemical processes, particularly relating to

phenol Phenol (also called carbolic acid) is an aromatic organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a white crystalline solid that is volatile. The molecule consists of a phenyl group () bonded to a hydroxy group (). Mildly acidic, it req ...

s, one of which is now known as the Raschig phenol process, and nitrogen compounds—the Raschig process for producing hydroxylamine and the

Olin Raschig process The Olin Raschig process is a chemical process for the production of hydrazine. The main steps in this process, patented by German chemist Friedrich Raschig in 1906 and one of three reactions named after him, are the formation of monochloramine from ...

for producing

hydrazine Hydrazine is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a simple pnictogen hydride, and is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odour. Hydrazine is highly toxic unless handled in solution as, for example, hydrazine ...

. He also developed improvements to

distillation Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separation process, separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distilla ...

, in particular the

Raschig ring Raschig rings are pieces of tube, approximately equal in length and diameter, used in large numbers as a packed bed within columns for distillations and other chemical engineering processes. They are usually ceramic, metal or glass and provide a la ...

, small metal or ceramic rings which are used in commercial

fractional distillation Fractional distillation is the separation of a mixture into its component parts, or fractions. Chemical compounds are separated by heating them to a temperature at which one or more fractions of the mixture will vaporize. It uses distillation to ...

columns.

References

Further reading