The Alfred G. Comolli Collection

Collection

Identifier: 2004-004

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

For a more detailed inventory, please view this record in our library catalog: https://othmerlib.sciencehistory.org/record=b1063323~S6

The collection is two-hirds devoted to the Amoco Chemical Corporation's attempt to make gasoline from natural gas; the remaining third concerns the Cyanamid Company's work with X-15, a synthetic fiber.

Dates

Creation: 1945-1957
Creation: Majority of material found within 1950-1952

Language of Materials

Text in English.

Biographical sketch

Alfred G. (Al) Comolli was born in Brattleboro, VT on February 2, 1929. He attended the University of Rhode Island where he studied Chemical Engineering. Upon graduating he went to work for Koppers then moved on to American Cyanamid, Monsanto and Thiokol. He co-founded Hydrocarbon Technologies, Inc. (HTI) to develop clean energy technologies. He died at his home in Yardley, PA on July 21 2011. In 1946, Percival Keith, a chemical engineer who worked at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project, invented a process using liquid oxygen and synthetic gas to produce liquid fuels. In the light of ongoing shortages of petroleum-based gasoline products, Keith's process attracted the interest of Amoco which built a plant in Brownsville, TX utilizing the technology to produce synthetic gasoline from natural gas, of which there were abundant supplies.