Our scientific innovation and stewardship of resources has been essential for +150 years.

Essential in historical moments.

Innovating new ways for the world to move, power, connect and protect means our products can be found in the stories of seminal moments of history.

Albemarle’s Kings Mountain, North Carolina operations, atop one of the richest spodumene ore deposits in the world, played a critical role in the 1950's when the United States Atomic Energy Commission contracted it to supply Li-6. Lithium from the Kings Mountain site was also used for decades in the production of stronger aluminum and steel, as a lubricant for aircraft engines and to create hydrogen gas for observation balloons.

In 1970, Albemarle scientific and chemical process know-how played an unexpected vital role in the now infamous Apollo 13 Mission. It was scheduled to be NASA’s third mission to take astronauts to the moon’s surface, but an explosion of one of the oxygen tanks and subsequent damage to other systems resulted in the mission being cut short before the planned landing could take place. With the oxygen tanks depleted, the command module was unusable and the crew of four transferred to the lunar module, designed for a maximum of two crew members for a much shorter duration than the emergency required.

Albemarle scientists deeply experienced in working with lithium hydroxide, deployed their chemical process knowledge for an air-purifying CO2 scrubbing solution. This provided the astronauts with oxygen for several days while 200,000 miles from Earth while a complex – and ultimately successful – reentry plan was devised.

Today, Albemarle materials and chemical expertise continues to support life-saving breathing technologies from portable medical grade oxygen systems widely used in the COVID-19 Pandemic to Emergency Escape Breathing Devices (EEBD) that provide adequate oxygen for sustaining human life in non-breathable atmospheres.

During the COVID-19 global pandemic, Albemarle’s ongoing role in the production and safe use of portable oxygen and was essential to meet the sharp rise in life saving ventilation and breathing devices. Our process chemistry know-how allowed us to rapidly convert manufacturing sites to produce disinfectants, including thousands of gallons from the Langelsheim, Germany site while Albemarle’s hydrobromic acid continued to support the production of lifesaving personal protective equipment.

A highly integrated player in many essential value chains, Albemarle knows partnering to pioneer is often the best way to serve people and planet.

Joint ventures have fueled both growth and innovation in our history and continue to play a vital role in our future progress.

• Jordan Bromine Company (JBC): Formed in the late 1990s, this partnership is essential to our global leadership in bromine production and innovation in everything from flame retardants to fertilizers.
• Through our Talison Joint Venture, Albemarle holds a 49% interest in the Greenbushes hard rock lithium resource in Western Australia. 
• Albemarle and Mineral Resources Limited (MinRes) are Joint Venture partners in MARBL lithium, which owns the Wodgina lithium mine. Each company has a 50:50 share in the mine producing lithium spodumene. MinRes operates Wodgina on behalf of the Joint Venture.

Collaborating with like-minded scientists, academia, local experts and customers is in our DNA. It has always allowed us to solve problems smarter and faster while assuring we have all stakeholders in mind.

• Industry Partners: Our Baton Rouge Bio-Safety Facility is a decade-plus example of a laboratory partnership – critical to our food and waterborne pathogens research. This is done in partnership with Southern Microbiological Services, LLC in Baton Rouge at the Louisiana Business & Technology Center.

Albemarle has always partnered with a wide range of companies, including many customers across all our businesses to advance common goals in research and development as well as their own proprietary business strategies. Recent examples include Sandia Labs, Caterpillar, Ford, BMW, and more.

Albemarle has long believed in the power of global academic engagement for research collaboration as well as workforce development. Together, we continue to inspire the next generations of scientists, engineers and doers in the specialty chemicals world.