Hydrocarbon Processing - April 2022 - 54

History of the HPI
was invented by scientists at Röhm and
Hass-the company, founded in Esslingen,
Germany by Dr. Otto Röhm and Otto
Haas in 1907, invented Plexiglas (this discovery
is detailed in the February issue of
Hydrocarbon Processing).
To find a new product to market, the
company's research department, led by
Harry Neher, conducted experiments on
acrylic monomer synthesis. The research
built on earlier work by I. G. Farben
(German chemical and pharmaceutical
conglomerate) scientist Walter Reppe.
After modifications, Neher invented a
new semi-catalytic process called the F
Process, which resulted in the production
of vast qualities of cheap acylate monomers.84
However,
the company did not
know exactly what to do with their newfound
discovery.
One idea came from two scientists at
the company, Benjamin Kline and Gerald
Brown. They suggested the aqueous
emulsion technology could make a great
house paint.84
At the time, most paints
were solvent paints; however, they emitted
an odor, were toxic and flammable,
and hard to clean up. In 1951, Röhm and
Hass built an F Process plant in Houston,
Texas (U.S.) and produced their first
paint emulsion product in 1952-it was
named Rhoplex AC-33. The product had
several benefits vs. solvent-based paints:
it had a low odor, was easy to clean up,
had a resistance to cracking and was environmentally
friendly.
Röhm and Hass perfected the product
over the next two decades, introducing
a range of exterior and interior paint
products with different finishes (e.g., flat,
Closing the loop: The computerintegrated
manufacturing era begins.
On April 4, 1959, Texaco started
operations on the first direct digital control
computer at a refinery. The system-
a Thompson Ramo Wooldridge (TRW)
RW-300 computer-was installed on the
company's 1,600-bpd polymerization
unit at the Port Arthur refinery (Texas,
U.S.). The initiation of this system " closed
the loop " in the first fully automatic, computer-controlled
industrial process.85
The installation of the system began
several years before startup. TRW and
Texaco engineers worked for more than
2.5 yr on a feasibility study for converting
the plant to full automation. The 318-pg
report provided robust detail on all actions
the system would have to monitor.
This analysis provided a basis for Texaco
engineers to design the instrumentation
and control system for the unit.86
The initial
goal of the computer system-which
totaled approximately $300,000 (computer,
instrumentation, labor and other
equipment),86
adjusting for inflation-was to raise the
plant's efficiency by 6%-10%.
The work of the computer was described
succinctly by Texaco's Chief Process
Engineer, Charles Richker. " It gets
an analysis of incoming gas and outgoing
gas; it senses and measures pressure,
flows and temperatures; it calculates
catalyst activity; then it weighs all these
together and decides what the processing
unit should do to get the most product
for the least cost, " said Richker. " Finally,
it sets the controls and rechecks its figuring. " 86
The
computer accomplished these
tasks in a matter of seconds.
The RW-300 computer was able to
FIG. 5. Goddard standing next to his rocket. On March 16, 1926, he successfully launched the
world's first liquid-propellant rocket. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Smithsonian National Air and
Space Museum.
54 APRIL 2022 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
accomplish more measurements, faster
than refining personnel could ever hope
to achieve. From literature, for example,
the computer could read dozens of recorder-controllers
that indicated pressure,
temperature and flow, and then relate
the readings that indicated the level
of activity of the reaction or condition
of the catalyst. The computer could then
calculate the complex interrelationships
of the process, all in time to reset the controls
to keep the plant operating at maxinearly
$2.9 MM today after
semi-gloss and gloss). By the early 1970s,
Rhoplex AC-33 surpassed Plexiglas sales
for the company and created a new line of
acrylic paints to rival solvent-based paints.

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