Hydrocarbon Processing - September 2022 - 15

History of the HPI
McAfee, who created a process that used
anhydrous aluminum chloride-based catalyst
that produced a higher yield of gasoline
from the distillation process. McAfee's
employer, Gulf Refining, would launch the
first anhydrous aluminum chloride cracking
unit in Port Arthur, Texas in 1915.19
In the same year Burton was patenting
his thermal cracking process, German scientist
Friedrich Bergius developed a new
synthetic fuel process. The direct coal liquefaction
process-a predecessor to the
Fischer-Tropsch process, which used an
indirect method for coal liquefaction-involved
reacting hydrogen at high pressures
with lignite to produce liquid fuels.20
National defense: War ushers in
a new era for oil. Prior to the start of
WWI, coal was the dominant source of
fuel for marine vessels, especially for navies.
However, the benefits of using oil
soon became prevalent around the world.
The fuel had double the energy intensity
of coal, refueling at sea was easier, it enabled
better flexibility in changing speeds,
fewer crew members were needed to operate
a ship's fueling system and oil produced
less smoke than coal-an imperative
for line of sight when aiming cannons
at enemy vessels.21
In 1914, WWI began in Europe. The
4-yr conflict significantly expanded the
use and demand for oil. The war effort
included the use of tens of thousands of
trucks, motorcars and motorcycles, hundreds
of ships and the introduction of airplanes
and tanks, all using ICEs that ran
off gasoline and used oil for lubrication.
The use of oil became a mainstay for transportation,
which continued after the war.
Demand increases and technologies
advance. As WWI ended, global gasoline
demand expanded immensely. Although
thermally-cracked gasoline was the dominant
choice in ICEs, premature combustion
caused knocking, which can cause
several problems with an engine's operation.
New research efforts were devoted
to find solutions to this challenge. This
included optimizing the thermal cracking
process. C. P. Dubbs created a modified
thermal cracking process (i.e., the Dubbs
process) that operated at 400°C-460°C
(750°F-860°F), which lessened carbon
buildup in the system, enabling the process
to operate longer before cleanout.
Dubbs licensed his process for nearly two
decades under the company name National
Hydrocarbon Co., later changing the
name to Universal Oil Products (UOP).22
In 1921, while working at General Motors,
Thomas Midgley-who later also
helped invent Freon-discovered that
incorporating tetraethyllead (TEL) into
gasoline prevented knocking in ICEs (increasing
gasoline octane rating leads to
better compression and, in turn, improved
engine performance). Around the same
timeframe, chemists at Standard Oil Co.
of New Jersey produced isopropyl alcohol
(IPA), which is credited as the first commercial
petrochemical-it was a synthetic
alcohol. Just one year later (September
1922), the inaugural issue of The Refiner
and Natural Gasoline Manufacturer was
published to provide technical articles
and know-how to the global refining industry
(later including petrochemicals
and gas processing/LNG technical materials,
as those industries evolved). The
publication would change its name several
times-evolving with discoveries in new
industrial processes-before taking the
name Hydrocarbon Processing.
Several other technological advances
in refining and petrochemicals production
happened in the 1920s. These included
the discovery of synthetic rubber
(styrene-butadiene rubber or SBR) by the
German chemist Walter Bock, synthetic
methanol by the German chemist Matthias
Pier, the production of moisture-proof
cellophane, the Fischer-Tropsch process
for liquids production (coal liquefaction
and gas-to-liquids), the discovery of silicones,
an improved method to produce
PVC by the American inventor Waldo
Semon, the first ethylene plant built by
Union Carbide in West Virginia (U.S.),
and early research by French inventor Eugene
Houdry that would eventually lead
to the development of the catalytic cracking
process in the 1930s.23
These milestones
in the refining and petrochemicals
industries helped provide the foundation
for the acceleration of the industry to
develop new and better products for the
global population.
The 1930s. Over the following decade,
the global HPI continued to evolve and
advance technologies for fuels and petrochemicals
production. The industry's
milestones of the 1930s included the
discovery of catalytic cracking, polyethylene
and synthetic resins.
19
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20
21
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Hydrocarbon Processing's Centennial Anniversary | SEPTEMBER 2022 15

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Hydrocarbon Processing - September 2022

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