The complete history of the development of The - The Linde Group

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N o 2064 Special fixation of the
spiral-wound tube coil of a heat exchanger.
The development of gas companies outside Europe began in 1968.
Pictured here: transporting liquefied gases in Brazil.
Gas application in the construction industry: Flame descaling with
autogenous flame for finishing concrete surfaces.
1968 1969
Warsaw Pact troops end the “Prague Spring”
under Alexander Dubcek.
American Neil Armstrong is the first man to walk on
the moon on July 21.
N o 2082 Process and device
for the recovery of ammonia synthesis gas.
It would be fully developed, beginning in the mid-1960s, under
the leadership of Hermann Linde, Georg Plötz, Joachim Müller,
Hannes Kneissl and Karl Heinz Jungmann. Linde received its first
contract to build a petrochemical ethylene plant in Scholven,
near Gelsenkirchen (Veba) in 1965.
Business in technical gases also contributed to the economic
strength of the company. After the chemical industry, the steel
industry developed into the most significant customer sector. The
production of acetylene and inert gases also took on increasing
importance.
Refrigerated buildings benefited almost exclusively from
political developments in the mid-1950s: first from the Korean
war, later from the agricultural policies of the EEC, which led to
considerable agricultural surpluses – to lakes of milk and mountains
of butter and meat that had to be stored and refrigerated.
In the 1950s, the engineers in Höllriegelskreuth also worked
on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and in 1955 built a facility
for the production of heavy hydrogen (deuterium). But after
light water reactors became established internationally, Linde
dropped out of this field. One useful thing came out of this
venture, however: in the production of heavy hydrogen, the
Linde engineers made progress for the first time in an industrial
process at minus 252 degrees Celsius. Since that time Linde is
now among the world’s technological leaders in the field of
ultra-low temperatures (cryotechnology).