Hydrocarbon Processing - January 2022 - 50

History of the HPI
Building off Lenoir's design, the German
engineer Nicolaus Otto created a
four-stroke piston cycle ICE in 1876. Otto's
thought process was the inefficiencies
in Lenoir's engine design could be solved
using a liquid fuel. Gottlieb Daimler and
Wilhelm Maybach-both worked at Otto's
engine company in Germany in the
late 1860s/early 1870s-patented their
own ICE design in 1883. Their concept
used ligroin (i.e., heavy naphtha) as fuel.
Over the next 2 yr, Daimler and Maybach
optimized their ICE design by including
a carburetor that mixed gasoline with air
for combustion.17
This design led to the
first installation of a liquid petroleumfueled
automobile.
Other engine pioneers improved on
earlier ICE designs. For example, Rudolf
Diesel designed a more efficient ICE in
the early 1890s. His engine could use
several types of fuels but primarily used
kerosene. The concept significantly improved
energy efficiency vs. other engine
types, especially those run off steam or
gasoline. Diesel's engine was later used
in heavier industrial and transportation
applications such as agricultural machinery,
marine vessels, locomotives, trucks
and many others.
Thermal cracking evolves the refining
process. As the production of automobiles
increased, giving rise to automobile
pioneers such as J. Frank, Charles
Duryea, Henry Ford, William Durant,
Karl Benz and several others, refined
gasoline demand surpassed kerosene demand
in the early 1900s. This new form of
gasoline was refined, unlike previous iterations
of straight-run gasoline, which was a
byproduct from the kerosene production
process. However, the kerosene production
process used a simple distillation
technique, which did not yield enough
gasoline fraction to meet burgeoning demand.
This challenge was solved by the
invention of the thermal cracking process.
The earliest thermal cracking process
was patented by Vladimir Shukhov
in Russia in 1891. The Shukhov Cracking
Process used high pressure to " crack "
heavier hydrocarbon chains into lighter,
shorter chains.18
However, Shukhov's process
found little adoption since a market
for lighter fraction fuels (e.g., gasoline)
did not exist at the time. It was not until
the worldwide growth of automobiles did
gasoline demand increase in prominence.
In 1910, Americans William Burton
and Robert Humphreys developed their
own thermal cracking process while working
at Standard Oil of Indiana's Whiting
refinery-the refinery was originally established
to produce kerosene for lamps.
According to literature18
, the process inFIG.
4. View of Burton's patented apparatus for gasoline production. Photo courtesy of
the U.S. Patent Office.
50 JANUARY 2022 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
volved heating crude oil in a still to 371°C-
399°C (700°F-750°F). The petroleum vapors
were regulated through a valve system
that maintained constant pressure through
the entire process. Once the fractions were
evaporated, they gathered through a condenser.
Lastly, the still was opened and
the carbon deposits were collected. The
process produced primarily gasoline, gasoil,
residual fuel oil and petroleum coke.18
A view of Burton's apparatus for the process,
submitted to the U.S. Patent Office
in January 1913, is shown in FIG. 4. The
process significantly expanded the Whiting
refinery and led to many other refining
companies licensing the thermal cracking
technology from Standard Oil of Whiting.
The Burton process was used extensively
for more than 20 yr, until the creation of
catalytic cracking. It was not until after
WWI that advances to the thermal cracking
process accelerated within the industry.
Note: One of the earliest pioneers in catalytic
cracking was the American Almer M.
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