Enhancing life through chemistry.
HOBUM helps create comfort and beauty. Our solutions warrant many facets of everyday life: in the case of your phone, in the paint on your car, in the convenient flooring of your home and many more.
Green.Innovative.HOBUM.
We improve the quality of living and help people live life to its fullest while reducing our impact on the planet. Today, sustainability has become a megatrend – it has been our founding philosophy since 1896.
We have always aimed to make a difference: in our processes, in our management, in our interaction with our customers. As a result, our flexibility, curiosity, and our inventiveness have time and again created fundamentally sustainable solutions.
Our Blog: lets-greenovate.com
Our Story
1896
"Harburger Leinöl- und Firnisfabrik Brinckman”, a vegetable oil refinery, takes up operations
1959
Founding of the Harburger Fettchemie Brinckman & Mergell GmbH as a sister company to a vegetable oil refinery
1960
Launch of production of conjugated fatty acids.
Development and manufacturing of oleochemical polyols for the automotive industry
1975
Development of a waterborne polyaminoamide adduct hardener and its market launch
1985
Start of epoxidation of natural oils and esters
2003
Company rebranding to HOBUM Oleochemicals GmbH
2004
Founding of IBERO CHEMIE CONSULT GmbH
2019
Startup of additional state-of-the-art reactor for production of polyamino amides
2022
Acquisition of IBERO CHEMIE CONSULT GmbH
Sustainable products, flexible applications.
The chemical bases for our products are vegetable oils and other bio-based products. Through selective modification of these raw materials, we create our special polyols, polyaminoamides, epoxidized oils and esters, and conjugated fatty acids.
These substances are employed on metal, wood, or synthetic materials, e.g., to add flexibility or increase the gloss of the material. But they are also applied as coating for corrosion protection, improving resistance to water and chemicals or rendering materials hydrophobic. Furthermore, they act as softeners, co-stabilizers, or hardeners.
MERGINAT
Epoxidized Esters and Oils
MERGINOL
Polyols
MERGINAMID
Epoxy Hardeners
ISOMERGIN ACIDS
Conjugated Fatty Acids
MERGISOL
Diluent for epoxy resin systems
IBERO-TEC
Adhesion promotersFor our complete product portfolio visit our website at www.hobum.com
A tradition of competence
User-friendly product developments hardly happen by chance. That’s why our team of experts is constantly researching oleochemical substances to produce innovations that fit our customers. We hatch ideas and take them to large-scale production – as we have been for more than 120 years.
Know-how turned into practice.
We devote our know-how to an innovative process which ultimately serves practical requirements. Sometimes, it takes us intense effort to find exactly the features our customers need, but we find them.
Researching for tomorrow, cooperating for the future.
Our research department benefits not only large companies and tech enterprises. We also partner with small and medium-sized companies, startups, research institutes, or joint-funded projects.
As a pioneer in green chemistry, we are trailblazers. Not just through innovative solutions, but through leading by example.
Frequently Asked Questions
You have questions? Great! Because developing answers is what we specialize in. But if you are looking for quick answers to typical issues around our epoxidised vegetable oils, hardeners for epoxy resins, conjugated fatty acids and polyols, this FAQ section is the right place to be.
If anything remains unanswered, feel free to contact us directly. We are happy to oblige!
HOBUM uses soybean oil, sunflower oil, castor oil, tall oil, rapeseed oil, safflower oil and linseed oil. Due to their chemical composition, these oils are particularly suitable for further processing and modification. They originate from renewable sources, which makes them excellent alternatives to petrochemical products.
RTRS and neo products differ from standard products in one important respect: the source of raw materials. In the case of RTRS products, oil certified according to the criteria of the Roundtable on Responsible Soy is used in accordance with the mass balance approach.
In the case of neo products, only oil of European origin certified according to the Europe Soya Standard is used in accordance with the segregated approach. In this way, the high quality is also maintained in a controlled manner with regard to cultivation and working conditions.
HOBUM generally distinguishes between three types of formulation: solvent-free, solvent-based and water-based. Solvent-free systems are systems that do not use solvents in the conventional sense. These systems are also called 100 % systems or high solids.
Solvent-based systems, as the name suggests, contain solvents that evaporate during or after application. Water-based systems contain water in whole or in part as a substitute for organic solvents. Unless working in closed systems, water-based systems thus offer the advantage of emission reduction.
There are products that can be used in several of the systems mentioned. These include our Merginamid A 155/2 and our Merginamid A 210/5. These hardeners can be used in both solvent-free and water-based systems and are therefore universally applicable.
Epoxidized vegetable oils and esters have a wide range of applications. They can be used as plasticisers or co-stabilisers in plastics such as (bio-based) PLA, PVC or nitrocellulose. There are also many possible applications in coatings, adhesives, sealants, casting compounds and elastomers.
Petrochemical, conventional polyols usually consist of a polyether or polyester backbone. The bio-based polyols contain both ether and ester groups and combine the associated outstanding properties.
Conjugated fatty acids have unique chemical properties that make them attractive for use in various industrial applications. Their special feature is conjugated double bonds, i.e. double bonds separated by a single bond. This outstanding molecular structure leads to interesting chemical and physical properties.
One area where conjugated fatty acids find application is in the production of polymers and resins for adhesives, coatings and additives. Especially for the production of alkyd and polyester resins.
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Your contact persons
HOBUM Oleochemicals is a Hamburg-based company with more than 120 years of tradition in sustainable chemistry. For four generations, our medium have been non-saturated Vegetable Oils and their fatty acids.
To this day, we are still following the lead of Max Brinckman and Arnold Mergell who started processing the excess production of refining Vegetable Oils in 1896. This sustainable form of management and production is integral to our economic principle, and we take pride in summing this up in our claim Green.Innovative.HOBUM.
The HOBUM brand, our website and marketing collaterals are currently undergoing a relaunch process.
Until the new HOBUM look, feel and experience are ready for the public, please visit our current website www.hobum.com for our complete portfolio.
HOBUM at your fingertips.
Find out all about HOBUM and our comprehensive range of sustainable resins / binders, softeners, co-stabilizers, and hardeners. Simply sign in to download our product sheets or register for our newsletter.