WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Heinz Heinemann, who developed the process for converting methanol into gasoline, has died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 92.
Heinemann died Nov. 23 of pneumonia, the Washington Post reported Thursday. At the time of his death, he held the title of distinguished scientist in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Washington office.
Heinemann was born in Berlin and immigrated to the United States in 1938.
During the early 1940s, he won a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Dominican Republic for research into ethanol, which was made from that nation's sugar cane.
Following World War II, as manager of catalysis research for the Mobil Research and Development Co., he developed the process for converting methanol into gasoline.
During his more than 60 years of research he contributed to the invention and development of 14 commercial fossil fuel processes, received 75 patents and was the author of more than 100 publications.
He was the founder of the journal Catalysis Reviews and served as its editor for 20 years.
In 1994, Heinemann received the Homer H. Lowry Award in Fossil Energy, presented by then-Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary for research he conducted during the previous decade.
