PROGRAM BOOK - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director / Representative to NACS
One of the first improve ments in petro chem i cal pro duc tion was the process devel oped by Eugene Houdry for "crack ing" petro le um mol e cules into the short er ones that con sti tute gaso line. (Ear li er com mer cial process es for crack ing petro le um relied instead on heat.
Eugene Houdry (1892-1962) obtained a degree in mechan i cal engi neer ing in his native France before join ing the fam i ly met al work ing busi ness in 1911. After he served in the tank corps in World War I-for which he received hon ors for extra or di nary hero ism in battle-he pur sued his inter est in auto mo biles (espe cial ly race cars) and their engines. On a trip to the Unit ed States he vis it ed the Ford Motor Com pa ny fac to ry and attend ed the Indi anapo lis 500 race. His inter est soon nar rowed to improved fuels. Because France pro duced lit tle petroleum-and the world sup ply was thought to have near ly run out-Houdry, like many oth er chemists and engi neers, searched for a method to make gaso line from France's plen ti ful lig nite (brown coal). After test ing hun dreds of cat a lysts to effect the hoped-for mol e c u lar rearrange ment, Houdry began work ing with sil i ca-alu mi na and changed his feed stock from lig nite to heavy liq uid tars. By 1930 he had pro duced small sam ples of gaso line that showed promise as a motor fuel.
In the ear ly 1930s Houdry col lab o rat ed with two Amer i can oil com pa nies, Socony Vac u um and Sun Oil, to build pilot plants. Oil com pa nies that did not want to resort to the new addi tive tetraethyl lead were eager ly look ing for oth er means to increase octane lev els in gaso line. In 1937 Sun Oil opened a full-scale Houdry unit at its refin ery in Mar cus Hook, Penn syl va nia, to pro duce high-octane Nu-Blue Suno co gaso line. By 1942, 14 Houdry fixed-bed cat alyt ic units were bear ing the unan tic i pat ed bur den of pro duc ing high-octane avi a tion gaso line for the armed forces.
(One lim i ta tion of the process was that it deposit ed coke on the cat a lyst, which required that the unit be shut down while the coke was burned off in a regen er a tion cycle. War ren K. Lewis and Edwin R. Gilliland of the Mass a chu setts Insti tute of Tech nol o gy, who were hired as con sul tants to Stan dard Oil Com pa ny of New Jer sey [now Exxon Mo bil], final ly solved this prob lem with great inge nu ity and effort. They devel oped the "mov ing bed" cat alyt ic con vert er, in which the cat a lyst was itself cir cu lat ed between two enor mous ves sels, the reac tor and the regenerator.
Her man Pines was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1902. After earn ing his degree at the École Supérieure de Chimie in Lyon, France, he came to the U.S. in 1928. He was the clos est asso ciate of Vladimir Niko layevitch Ipati eff from the day they met in 1930, until Ipati ef f's death in 1952. Ipati eff, who was 35 years old er than Pines, then held two jobs: he was an employ ee of Uni ver sal Oil Prod ucts (UOP) in Des Plaines and a research pro fes sor at North west ern Uni ver si ty. As a con se quence of the close inter ac tion of these two devot ed sci en tists, Her man Pines, an employ ee at UOP, became involved in Ipati ef f's research at North west ern. What start ed spon ta neous ly and unof fi cial ly, was for mal ized in 1941, when Her man was appoint ed Research Assis tant Pro fes sor at North west ern, with the stip u la tion that he should spend his Wednes days work ing here. This appoint ment coin cid ed with the relo ca tion of Ipati ef f's lab from the base ment of Uni ver si ty Hall to the new ly erect ed Tech no log i cal Institute. One of the first actions of this new pro fes sor was to write, with Ipati eff, a mem o ran dum to the Chem istry Depart ment propos ing the cre ation of a Catal y sis Teach ing and High Pres sure Lab o ra to ry. This doc u ment was dat ed Sep tem ber 29, 1941, but it was not until 1947 that the Catal y sis Lab offi cial ly opened in the Tech no log i cal Insti tute. A spe cial High Pres sure Lab o ra to ry was built in 1952 and offi cial ly ded i cat ed August 14, 1953, in the pres ence of the Pres i dents of North west ern Uni ver si ty and of UOP. Pro fes sor Sir Hugh Tay lor of Prince ton Uni ver si ty gave a lec ture on catal y sis for the occa sion. Short ly there after, a bronze plaque hon or ing Vladimir N. Ipati eff was mount ed over the entrance of the High Pres sure Lab; it is now locat ed in the recep tion area of the Catal y sis Center. Mean while, Her man Pines had been pro mot ed, in 1951, to the rank of Asso ciate Research Pro fes sor; after Ipati ef f's death, in 1952, he became the first V.N. Ipati eff Pro fes sor of Organ ic Chem istry. On Jan u ary 1, 1953, he left UOP and began offi cial ly as a full-time pro fes sor at Northwestern. Only a few of the out stand ing sci en tif ic achieve ments of Her man Pines can be men tioned here; it is not an over state ment to say that his work rev o lu tion ized the gen er al under stand ing of chem istry, in par tic u lar the chem istry of hydro car bons inter act ing with strong acids. An unchal lenged dog ma of the chem istry of the 1930's was that paraf fins would not react with any thing at low tem per a ture; even the name of this class of com pounds, "parum affi nis," was based on this assumed lack of reac tiv i ty. It must have been quite a shock to the sci en tists of those days, when Pines and Ipati eff showed, in 1932, that in the pres ence of a strong acid the paraf fin iso-butane would react, even at ‑35 ºC, with olefins. This was the basis of the alky la tion process, patent ed in 1938 and indus tri al ly devel oped soon after. Its most spec tac u lar appli ca tion is the syn the sis of iso-octane from n‑butene and iso-butane. Iso-octane improves the qual i ty of gaso line and air plane fuel; it played a deci sive role in the vic to ry of the Roy al Air Force dur ing the Bat tle of Britain in 1941. The catal y sis of con vert ing paraf fins to isoparaf fins is, of course, one of the cor ner stone of the petro le um industry. The alky la tion process was not dis cov ered by acci dent. It was the pin na cle of research that start ed with an obser va tion that puz zled Her man Pines in 1930. At that time he was work ing in the ana lyt i cal lab of UOP; his task was to vig or ous ly shake petro le um frac tions with con cen trat ed sul fu ric acid in a cal i brat ed glass cylin der and to deter mine how much of the oil dis solved in the aque ous acid phase. It was known that only unsat u rat ed hydro car bons would be dis solved in the acid; this exper i ment of shak ing the petro le um and read ing the menis cus was the stan dard pro ce dure to deter mine how many unsat u rat ed prod ucts were present in a petro le um frac tion. Her man observed, how ev er, that after a few hours the phase bound ary between oil and acid had shift ed again: more oil was formed-oil that would not dis solve in the aque ous phase. Appar ent ly paraf fins had been formed from olefins; Her man con clud ed that this process required the simul ta ne ous for ma tion of a high ly unsat u rat ed coprod uct which remained dis solved in the aque ous phase. They called this process "con junct poly mer iza tion," and years lat er ana lyt i cal meth ods were found which per mit ted iden ti fi ca tion of this unsat u rat ed coprod uct as a mix ture of sub sti tut ed cyclopen ta di enes. The step which led from this ear ly obser va tion to the alky la tion process was lat er described by Herman: "On a hunch we thought that paraf fins might even react with olefins in the pres ence of acids; we there fore intro duced a stream of eth yl ene and hydro gen chlo ride to a stirred mix ture of the pen tanes and AlCl 3. We observed that the eth yl ene was absorbed and that the hydro car bons recov ered from the reac tion con sist ed of sat u rat ed hydro car bons only, an indi ca tion that eth yl ene must have react ed with the pentanes." On this basis, Her man Pines and Vladimir Ipati eff devel oped the new chem istry of acid cat alyzed reac tions; it formed the cor ner stone of their sci en tif ic work and was brought to its present beau ty by Her man in his years at North west ern. Major dis cov er ies led to new process es for the iso mer iza tion of paraf fins and the alky la tion of aro mat ic com pounds, but also to base cat alyzed organ ic reac tions. Two hun dred and fifty pub li ca tions in the sci en tif ic lit er a ture, one hun dred and forty-five U.S. patents and the book "The Chem istry of Cat alyt ic Hydro car bon Con ver sions" demon strate the wealth of Her man's sci en tif ic lega cy. The forty-one grad u ate stu dents and thir ty-three post doc tor al fel lows who per formed research in his lab helped car ry his sci en tif ic mes sage to the world. As U.S. edi tor of Advances in Catal y sis, he keen ly looked for and crit i cal ly eval u at ed new con cepts of catal y sis, and assured that their orig i na tors described them care ful ly to the sci en tif ic com mu ni ty. In 1957 he was chair man of the Chica go Catal y sis Soci ety, in 1960 chair man of the Gor don Con fer ence of Catal y sis. He received three awards from the ACS, an hon orary degree from the Uni ver si ty of Lyon and invi ta tions to lec ture and advise in Israel, Brazil, Venezuela, Argenti na, Poland, Czecho slo va kia and Spain. The Catal y sis Cen ter remained his sci en tif ic home. He rarely missed a sem i nar and often asked crit i cal ques tions. He could be quite sharp when speak ers used catal y sis only as a buzz word for the intro duc tion of their lec tures and spoke about work of rather ques tion able rel e vance to "real" catal y sis. Although he could be crit i cal, he was nev er insen si tive; his gen tle and friend ly nature made it quite impos si ble for him to do any harm to any one. While there is a unan i mous con sen sus that he was one of the tow er ing sci en tists of this cen tu ry, he always remained very mod est; when his trend set ting dis cov er ies of the 1930's were men tioned, he always referred them to Ipati eff. He worked assid u ous ly his entire life, bring ing his last book to com ple tion at the age of nine ty. Future gen er a tions can learn from his exam ple how rev o lu tion ary dis cov er ies arise from sharp obser va tions by an inves ti gat ing mind. Her man Pines passed away on April 10, 1996. Con tributed by Wolf gang Sachtler
Michel Boudart was born in 1924 in Brus sels. He grad u at ed from the Uni ver si ty of Lou vain with a B.S. degree (Can di da ture Inge nieur, 1944) and an M.S. degree (Inge nieur Civ il Chimiste, 1947). In 1950 he received his Ph.D. degree in Chem istry from Prince ton Uni ver si ty under the men tor ship of Sir Hugh Tay lor, who, along with Sir Eric Ride al and Paul Emmett, laid the foun da tions for mod ern catal y sis as a mol e c u lar science.
After grad u a tion, Michel remained at Prince ton Uni ver si ty until 1961, first at the For re stal Research Cen ter as a research asso ciate (1950-1953) and assis tant to John B. Fenn, the direc tor of Project SQUID (1953-1954), then in the Depart ment of Chem i cal Engi neer ing as Assis tant Pro fes sor (1954-1958) and Asso ciate Pro fes sor (1958-1961) and where he quick ly estab lished a rep u ta tion as one of the bright est young "stars" in the dis ci pline. After a three-year stay at the Uni ver si ty of Cal i for nia at Berke ley as Pro fes sor of Chem i cal Engi neer ing, he became Pro fes sor of Chem i cal Engi neer ing and Chem istry at Stan ford Uni ver si ty in the Depart ment of Chem i cal Engi neer ing, which he helped lead to a posi tion of inter na tion al promi nence and chaired from 1975 until 1978. He was the Keck Pro fes sor of Engi neer ing from 1980 to 1994, and Keck Pro fes sor of Engi neer ing, Emer i tus from then until his pass ing on May 2, 2012.
His hon ors include: Bel gian Amer i can Edu ca tion al Foun da tion Fel low ship, 1948; Proc ter Fel low ship, 1949; Cur tis McGraw Research Award of the Amer i can Soci ety for Engi neer ing Edu ca tion, 1962; the R.H. Wil helm Award in Chem i cal Reac tion Engi neer ing of the Amer i can Insti tute of Chem i cal Engi neers, 1974; the 1977 Kendall Award and the 1985 Mur phree Award, both of the Amer i can Chem i cal Soci ety; the 1991 Chem i cal Pio neer Award of the Amer i can Insti tute of Chemists; and the Inter na tion al Pre cious Met als Insti tute 1994 Tana ka Dis tin guished Achieve ment Award. The Sym po sium "Advances in Cat alyt ic Chem istry III" (May 1985, Salt Lake City, Utah) was orga nized in his hon or, as was the Catal y sis Sym po sium of the 68th ACS Col loid and Sur face Sci ence Sym po sium (June 1994, Stan ford Uni ver si ty). The Catal y sis Soci ety select ed him as the 1986 Cia pet ta Lec tur er. Michel was elect ed to the Nation al Acad e my of Sci ences in 1975, to the Nation al Acad e my of Engi neer ing in 1979, to the Amer i can Acad e my of Arts and Sci ences in 1991, to the Legion D'Honneur in France and to three Acad e mies in his native Bel gium where he and his wife Mari na were also hon ored as Knights of the Crown. He also received sev er al hon orary degrees, served on sev er al edi to r i al boards, and, in recog ni tion of Michel Boudart's broad glob al influ ence, the North Amer i can Catal y sis Soci ety and the Euro pean Fed er a tion of Catal y sis Soci eties joined hands and in 2006 estab lished the Michel Boudart Award for the Advance ment of Catal y sis in recog ni tion of the tru ly inter na tion al impact of his achieve ments and guid ance in this field.
Boudart's text book, Kinet ics of Chem i cal Process es (1968), has been trans lat ed into Japan ese, Span ish, and French, and was pub lished again (1991) in the But ter worth-Heine man Series of Chem i cal Engi neer ing Reprints. He is also the author of Kinet ics of Het ero ge neous Cat alyt ic Reac tions (with G. Djé ga-Mari adas sou), Prince ton Uni ver si ty Press, 1984, orig i nal ly pub lished as Ciné tique des réac tions en catal yse hétéro gene (Mas son, Paris, 1982). Togeth er, these two books rep re sent a lega cy that con tin ues to define the field. He was also co-edi tor (with J.R. Ander son) of Catal y sis: Sci ence and Tech nol o gy, Vol umes 1-9 (Springer-Ver lag). He pub lished more than 250 jour nal arti cles and held four US patents.
Robert L. Bur well, Jr., Ipati eff Pro fes sor Emer i tus of Chem istry at North west ern Uni ver si ty, will always be remem bered by his many friends, col leagues, and stu dents as a learned gen tle man of high moral stan dard, a ded i cat ed edu ca tor, and a thor ough and bril liant researcher in het ero ge neous catal y sis. He was a lead ing fig ure in guid ing the devel op ment of the catal y sis com mu ni ty in the U.S. and the world. His many con tri bu tions to the com mu ni ty includ ed serv ing on the gov ern ing body of the (North Amer i can) Catal y sis Soci ety from 1964 to 1977 as Direc tor, Vice Pres i dent, and in 1973-77, Pres i dent. From 1955-84, he served on the Board of Direc tor, as U.S Rep re sen ta tive to the Con gress, Vice Pres i dent, and Pres i dent (1980-84) of the Inter na tion al Con gress on Catal y sis. He chaired the Gor don Research Con fer ence on Catal y sis in 1957, and was Asso ciate Edi tor and a mem ber of the Edi to r i al Board of Jour nal of Catalysis.
Robert Bur well received his Ph.D. in 1936 from Prince ton Uni ver si ty under the guid ance of Sir Hugh Tay lor. After three years as a Chem istry Instruc tor at Trin i ty Col lege, in 1939 he joined the Chem istry Depart ment at North west ern Uni ver si ty. Except for the World War II peri od from 1942 until 1945, when, hav ing enlist ed, he worked at the Naval Research Lab o ra to ry, Dr. Bur well served at North west ern until he retired in 1980. As Ipati eff Pro fes sor Emer i tus, he con tin ued his research and intel lec tu al activ i ties for anoth er decade after retire ment. Dur ing his career he pub lished over 170 orig i nal research arti cles, served on Nation al Research Coun cil Com mit tees, IUPAC Com mit tees, the Petro le um Research Fund Advi so ry Board, the Nation al Sci ence Foun da tion Chem istry Advi so ry Board, and oth ers, as well as Chair ing the Chem istry Depart ment at North west ern Uni ver si ty. In 1994, he moved to Vir ginia with Elise, his wife of over six ty years.
Pro fes sor Bur well was among the first sci en tists who under stood the crit i cal con nec tion between gen er al chem istry and catal y sis. He intro duced and pop u lar ized con cepts that are now famil iar to and even com mon place with in the entire catal y sis com mu ni ty. His research themes cen tered around elu ci da tion of the reac tion mech a nisms, nature of sur face inter me di ates, and char ac ter i za tion of active sites of sol id cat a lysts. He was well known for the use of H‑D exchange for such stud ies. Using this tech nique, he iden ti fied the impor tance of 1,2‑diadsorbed alka ne on noble met al sur faces in the exchange and the hydro gena tion reac tion, and the irre versibil i ty in the adsorp tion of alkene dur ing hydro gena tion. He estab lished the "rollover" mech a nism for cyclic hydro car bons in these reac tions, and the term "sur face organometal lic zoo". He care ful ly doc u ment ed the impor tance of sur face coor di na tion unsat u ra tion in catal y sis by met al oxides, and devel oped new cat a lysts of unusu al activ i ties by depo si tion of organometal lic com plex es on alu mi na and sil i ca, and by mod i fy ing sil i ca surface.
His many sci en tif ic con tri bu tions and their indus tri al appli ca tions were rec og nized in his day, as evi denced by the many awards and hon ors he received. They includ ed the ACS Kendall Award in Col loid and Sur face Chem istry, the Lubri zol Award in Petro le um Chem istry, and the Hum boldt Senior Sci en tist Award. In addi tion, the Robert L. Bur well Lec ture ship Award of the (North Amer i can) Catal y sis Soci ety was estab lished in recog ni tion of his out stand ing con tri bu tions to the field of catal y sis. Pro fes sor Bur well was also known for the first short course in het ero ge neous catal y sis that he taught for sev er al years togeth er with Michel Boudart.
To those who knew him per son al ly, Bur well was not only an impos ing intel lect, but a warm, deeply car ing, pleas ant per son, a com pli cat ed per son with many facets. For instance, while wise and judi cious, he nev er the less con duct ed him self with a great sense of humor and wit. Any who he favored soon real ized he could engage in live ly con ver sa tion on prac ti cal ly any sub ject. Many of his cowork ers also remem bered him for his numer ous per cep tive sci en tif ic advice and sug ges tions. Very often in sem i nars, stu dents felt that they learned more about a sub ject from his prob ing ques tions than the actu al sem i nar itself. His fam i ly remem bered him also as a care tak er extra or di naire. His devo tion to his wife, par tic u lar ly dur ing the last year of her life, will be remem bered by all.
Dr. Bur well was a walk ing encyclopedia-indeed he was sci en tif ic con sul tant to the World Book Ency clo pe dia. He read exten sive ly on vir tu al ly every sub ject. He par tic u lar ly enjoyed a com mand ing knowl edge of the birds, flo ra and fau na and could be seen bird watch ing in the snowy ear ly springs in Evanston. He enjoyed cul tur al mat ters and shar ing of his knowl edge with his col leagues, friends, and post-doc tor al and grad u ate stu dents, a trait he con tin ued even after he retired to Vir ginia with his wife, where he became an active mem ber of many local Vir ginia muse ums and a vari ety of genealog i cal soci eties (and a founder of the Com put er Club and Wine Club at the retire ment com mu ni ty). He was often expect ed to be the cul tur al guide for his group of friends on tours around the world. He par tic u lar ly enjoyed teach ing Amer i can cul ture and the nuances of the Eng lish lan guage to his inter na tion al post-doc tor al and grad u ate stu dents. Dr. Bur well loved to refer to the 4th of July as "the day we cel e brate Eng lish becom ing a for eign lan guage". He also pos sessed a cul ti vat ed taste for wine, and was proud of his col lec tion of antique porcelain.
Per haps the most appro pri ate ref er ence to Robert Bur well was from Marie West brook, the Depart ment Sec re tary of Chem istry at North west ern, who referred to him always as "Mr. Bur well", not as "Doc tor" or "Pro fes sor". When asked why, she replied: "A lot of peo ple can become a Pro fes sor or a Doc tor, and I use Mis ter just for him". On May 15, Mr. Bur well passed away at the age of 91. He was buried on June 28th, 2003 in Christ Epis co pal Church in West Riv er, Mary land next to his beloved wife, Elise.
Sir Eric Ride al who was one of the founders of catal y sis in Great Britain and who was the eponym of the famous Eley Ride al mech a nism. Pro fes sor E. Ride al was famous for the work of the Col loid Sci ence Lab o ra to ry which he set up in Cam bridge Uni ver si ty in the 1930s. He was born in 1890 and was first involved in sur face chem istry dur ing the First World War when, with
H.S. Tay lor, he worked on cat a lysts for the Haber process for the pro duc tion of ammo nia from nitro gen and hydro gen, and for the selec tive oxi da tion of car bon monox ide in mix tures of CO and hydro gen. Lat er Tay lor and Ride al wrote a pio neer ing book Catal y sis in The o ry and Prac tice. The Ride al Con fer ence is so named in his hon or; this tri en ni al series of UK research con fer ences on sur face chem istry and catal y sis was ini ti at ed by Charles Kem ball and oth ers in the late 1960s.