Water Solutions for Oil and Gas

Siemens Water Solutions in Rothschild, Wisconsin, traces its beginnings to 1929, when Frederick J. Zimmermann, a London-born chemical engineering graduate, came to America looking for a career in the chemical manufacturing business. After a brief career in pharmaceuticals, Zimmermann settled in Rothschild, and in 1935, established a productive relationship with the Marathon Paper Corp., now the Domtar paper mill (just minutes north of the Rothschild facility).

Zimmermann formed Salvo Chemical Co., and he and his staff developed a completely new method of obtaining artificial vanilla flavoring (vanillin) directly from pulping liquor by partial oxidation of ligno-sulphonic acids. The technology, known as wet air oxidation, had been used in the metals refining industry but had not been applied to chemical manufacturing. By 1940, Salvo Chemical was producing 70 percent of the United States supply of (vanillin) by wet air oxidizing spent pulping liquor from Marathon Paper. 

In 1942, Salvo was purchased by Sterling Drug, Inc., a large international pharmaceutical firm, and with Sterling's support, expanded wet air oxidation to other applications, including pollution control. As Zimmermann’s group was the only company commercializing wet air oxidation, the process became known as the “Zimmermann Process”. The technology was introduced to the pulp and paper market in 1955, and to the municipal sewage sludge market in the late '50s and early '60s. Naming the company after the Zimmermann Process, Sterling established "Zimpro" in Rothschild in 1961, building the present engineering and research center along the Wisconsin River.

Since the 1960s, the company has been bought and sold several times, has changed names many times, and has evolved in its product, technology and solutions offerings. However, Zimpro® wet air oxidation (WAO) remains one of the cornerstones of the Siemens Water Solutions business today, and the same problem-solving R&D spirit that drove Zimmermann to achieve his goals is still alive and well within the business.