Hydrocarbon Processing - September 2022 - 144

Industry Pioneers
facturing Hall of Fame. The Society of Manufacturing Engineers
offers the Richard E. Morley Outstanding Young Manufacturing
Engineer Award for outstanding technical accomplishments in
the manufacturing profession by engineers aged 35 and under.69
ODO JOSEF STRUGER
Odo J. Stuger, an Austrian engineer and scientist,
is recognized as the pioneer of modern-day
automation and shares the credit as 'father of
PLC' alongside Richard Morley. During 1958-
1960,70
Sturger led his engineering team at Allen-Bradley
in developing the programmable
logic controller and also coined the acronym PLC for programmable
logic controllers. Allen-Bradley became the pioneering
leader in programmable logic controllers in the U.S., and PLC
remains a registered trademark of the Allen-Bradley Company
(now Rockwell Automation).
Struger's work on PLCs was built upon the concepts studied
in his doctoral research in " The process for quantitative handling
of positioning errors in numerical control machines, " at
Vienna University of Technology.70
His invention proved to be
a 'rugged industrial computer' that, through precise numerical
control of machinery, soon became ubiquitous in manufacturing
environments across the world.
Struger was born in Carinthia, Austria, and studied at the Vienna
University of Technology. In 1958, he moved to Milwaukee,
Wisconsin (U.S.) to work as a research engineer at AllenBradley.
Struger grew within the company and held the position
of Vice President of technology until retirement in 1998.70
He
was associated with the development of the National Electrical
Manufacturers Association (NEMA) standard for PLCs and
IEC 1131-3 programming language standard. Struger has 50
patents to his credit in the U.S. and Canada. He received the
Prometheus Award in 1996, authored more than 40 technical
papers and is an inductee to the Automation Hall of Fame at the
Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. To honor Struger's
legacy, Rockwell Automation established the Odo J. Struger
Automation Award for future engineers' exceptional advancements
in the control and automation fields.71
JOHN MOONEY AND CARL D. KEITH
John Mooney, an American
chemical engineer, and Carl D.
Keith, a chemist, created the
three-way automotive catalytic
converter while working at
Engelhard Corporation in 1973
and solved a major environmental
problem-making automobile exhaust 98% cleaner.72
An
EPA report recognized this invention as one that helped save
100,000 lives and prevent many more cases of lung and throat
ailments.73
Today, catalytic converters are the key-emissions
control components in automobiles worldwide.
The earliest catalytic muffler was developed by Eugene
Houdry as a generic device that could convert carbon monoxide
(CO) and unburned hydrocarbons (UHCs) from automobile
and industrial exhausts. Houdry launched his company
Oxy-catalyst and his catalytic converter design was patented in
1962.74
However, fuel still contained tetraethyllead (TEL) as an
144 SEPTEMBER 2022 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
anti-knock agent, which poisoned the catalyst in the converter.
It took the passing of the Clean Air Act in 1970 and the ban
of TEL for converters to be recognized and become a piece of
standard equipment in automobiles.
Mooney and Keith, while working at Engelhard Corporation
(acquired by BASF in 2006)75
, developed the three-way
) are
). The incatalytic
converter, where the exhaust gas components are
UHCs, and CO are oxidized and nitrogen oxides (NOx
reduced to water, nitrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2
herent complexity of the reaction implied the need for a bulky
two-stage converting system. Mooney, however, theorized that
if the fuel-to-air ratio was correct, the exhaust would provide
just the right amount of oxygen for a one-stage converter to
treat all three pollutants at once.
Equipped with his idea and a 'can-do' attitude, Mooney garnered
his supervisor Keith's support to allow him to convince
auto manufacturers to include an oxygen sensor to their engines.
The sensor was intended to monitor fuel-to-air ratio at
a level where the one-stage converter could function successfully.
Volvo agreed to the proposal and soon the sensors were
successfully incorporated into other automobiles, as well. The
converter is a small can-shaped device that installs at the exhaust
pipe under vehicles. A combination of rare-earth oxides
and base metal oxides along with platinum and rhodium were
used together in the catalyst. The engine exhaust passes over a
specialized honeycomb-shaped structure, where a washcoat of
catalyst materials acts as active sites for reactions. The design
ensured an adequate amount of oxygen was offered for the oxidation
and allowed all three pollutants to be targeted at once.
Both Keith and Mooney received the 2001 Walter Ahlstrom
Prize and earned the National Medal of Technology in 2002 for
their invention.75
Engelhard (now BASF) continues to lead the
development of automotive emissions catalysts.
MARGARET WU
Margaret Wu is an industrial chemist who is
known for the remarkable contributions she has
made in the field of synthetic lubricants. Her research
altered the way that automobile and industrial
lubricants are designed and synthesized,
producing products that provide superior machine
protection, high efficiency and reduced waste oil. Wu
trained as a chemical engineer at the National Taipei University
of Technology in Taiwan and earned a doctorate in physical
chemistry in Rochester. She joined Mobil in 1977 and in the
mid-1980s began developing a new class of polyalphaolefin
(PAO), a synthetic base oil used in synthetic lubricants.76
Wu attributed the 'novelty' of the synthetic lubricants she
developed to their elegant chemical architecture, which is assembled
in a uniform manner without extraneous side branching-earlier
versions of synthetic lubricants had chemical
structures with extensive side branching. In addition to lubricating
properties, Wu's series of new PAO synthetic base oil
demonstrated greater wear prevention, heat resistance, oxidative
stability and less friction in formulated products. This provided
much-improved engine performance, oil life and overall
fuel efficiency in addition to reduced engine wear and waste oil.
Today, lubricant products based on Wu's work are used in a
wide array of applications such as commercial vehicles, car en
http://www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com
Hydrocarbon Processing - September 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hydrocarbon Processing - September 2022
