Our History

The Beginning

1928 – Purdue University chemist Henry B. Hass begins nitroparaffins research

The development of nitroparaffins originated in Smackover, Arkansas, where research chemist, Henry Hass, witnessed two pipes shooting natural gas out of the ground. At that time, industry had not discovered how to produce commercially useful chemicals from natural gas. Hass decided to dedicate himself to developing the chemical potential of paraffin gases for commercial use.

Over the next nine years, Hass continued his efforts to nitrate paraffins while serving as a member of the chemistry faculty at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.

At Purdue, Hass worked closely with graduate student, Byron Vanderbilt, who discovered that he could successfully produce pure nitroparaffins through vaporization. Following Vanderbilt’s graduation, graduate student, Edward Hodge, stepped in to work on the nitroparaffins project with Hass.

Hodge improved the nitration process and devised a flow method to facilitate production on a commercial scale. Hodge also discovered that nitration produced a multiplicity of products. Specifically, vapor phase nitration of propane resulted in four products: nitromethane, nitroethane, 1 − nitropropane, 2 − nitropropane. Hodge’s research confirmed Vanderbilt’s proposition that the nitration process would work with any paraffin hydrocarbon.