The Roots of Chemical Engineering

1. The Roots of Chemical Engineering David A. Rockstraw, Ph. D., P. E. Professor, Chemical Engineering New Mexico State University Based on the works of Wayne Pafko: "Chemical Engineering Then & Now." Chemistry In Australia. Royal Australian Chemical Institute. 67(6). July 2000. (p. 17-22) "What is a Chemical Engineer." CGP Reprint R-135. Chronicle Guidance Publications. December 1998.

2. The seed planted in England • As the Industrial Revolution in the 18th Century steamed along, certain basic chemicals quickly became necessary to sustain growth. • In particular, sulfuric acid & soda ash were noted high-volume industrial chemicals of the era.

3. tech boom inflationenergy crisis WWII market crash& Depression post-WWI free trade resumes Sulfuric Acid Production

4. Sulfuric Acid Production • The origins of sulfuric acid are lost in the obscurity of antiquity. Evidence suggests a synthesis route was known prior to the 10th century. • In the late 15th century, Basilius Valentinus described two ways to prepare sulfuric acid; one by burning sulfur with potassium nitrate, or saltpeter, the second by distilling the acid from a mixture of silica and ferric sulfate (vitriol—hence the name “oil of vitriol” used by alchemists).

5. Sulfuric Acid Production • In turn-of-the-century England, sulfuric acid was manufactured by the long-used (1749) and the not-so-well understood Lead-Chamber Method of John Roebuck. • The Lead-Chamber process requiredair, water, sulfur dioxide, a nitrate, and a large lead container. 82 Pb Lead 207.2

6. Sulfuric Acid Production • In 1827, French chemist Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac devised a tower that recovered most of the nitrogen oxide gases formed, thereby reducing consumption of saltpeter. • The first Gay-Lussac tower was installed in France in 1837, but use was not widespread until Glover invented a second tower, patented in England in 1859, in which acid was concentrated and more of the nitrogen oxides were recovered. By the 1870s, the Glover-Gay-Lussac system was used with lead chambers in Britain and throughout Europe. French chemist J.-L. Gay-Lussac

7. Sulfuric Acid Production Gay-Lussac's laboratory occupied the first level of his “castle”, where items such as a lab oven, various chemicals, and a copper still can be found.

8. Sulfuric Acid Production • During the final processing stage, nitrate (as nitric oxide) was lost to the atmosphere necessitating a make-up stream of fresh nitrate.

9. Sulfuric Acid Production • In 1859 England, John Glover helped solve this problem by introducing a mass transfer tower to recover some of this lost nitrate. • John Glover is commonly given credit as the first Chemical Engineer.

10. Sulfuric Acid Production • The Glover Tower represented the trend in many chemical industries during the close of the 19th Century. • Economic forces were driving the rapid development and modernization of plants.

11. Sulfuric Acid Production Above, model of Gay-Lussac's lead chamber plant with Glover Tower At left, drawings in the patent for Gay-Lussac's tower registered in England .

12. Sulfuric Acid Mindless Facts • Sulfuric acid is one of the few chemicals whose empirical formula is widely known by the lay public in the United States, thanks to the jingle: Little Johnny took a drink but he shall drink no more. For what he thought was H twoO Was H two S O four.

13. Alkali & The Leblanc Process • Another competitive (and ancient) chemical industry involved the manufacture of soda ash (Na2CO3) and potash (K2CO3).

14. Alkali & The Leblanc Process • As the 1700's expired, and English trees became scarce, the only native source of soda ash remaining on the British Isles was kelp (seaweed) which irregularly washed up on its shores.

15. Alkali & The Leblanc Process • Fortunate for English coffers (unfortunate for the English environment) this dependence on external soda sources ended when Frenchman Nicholas Leblanc invented a process for converting common salt into soda ash.

16. Alkali & The Leblanc Process • In 1775, the French Academy of Sciences offered a prize for a process whereby soda ash could be produced from salt. • Salt can be produced by the evaporation of seawater and it can be mined from large underground deposits. • The French Academy wanted to promote the production of much-needed sodium carbonate from inexpensive sodium chloride.

17. Alkali & The Leblanc Process • By 1790, Leblanc had succeeded in producing soda ash from salt by a 2-step process. In the 1st step, sodium chloride is mixed with concentrated sulfuric acid at 800-900°C: H2SO4(l) + 2 NaCl(s)  Na2SO4(s) + 2 HCl(g) • Hydrogen chloride was sent up the stack leaving solid sodium sulfate. • In the 2nd step, sodium sulfate is crushed, mixed with charcoal and limestone and heated in a furnace: Na2SO4(s) + 2 C(s) + CaCO3(s)  Na2CO3(s) + CaS(s) + 2 CO2(g) • Carbon dioxide went up the stack, leaving a mixture of sodium sulfate and calcium sulfide. • Anyone who has passed the metathesis project can tell you that sodium sulfate is soluble in water, while calcium sulfate is not. So these two can be separated by dissolving the mixture in water, pouring off the water with its dissolved soda ash, and then evaporating the water to produce dry soda ash.

18. Alkali & The Leblanc Process • The prize was awarded to Leblanc in 1783 for his process which used sea salt and sulfuric acid as the raw materials. • By 1791 a plant was in operation producing 320 tons of soda ash per year, but two years later the plant was confiscated by the French revolutionary government, which refused to pay him the prize money he had earned ten years earlier.

19. Alkali & The Leblanc Process • In 1802, Napoleon returned the plant (not the prize), but by then he was so broke he could not afford to run it. • Leblanc committed suicide in 1806, but the process became the mainstay of the alkali industry. By 1885 it was being used to produce more than 400,000 tons per year.

20. Alkali & The Leblanc Process Widnes in Cheshire in the early 1800s, under the cloud of the Leblanc process

21. Alkali & The Leblanc Process • 1839 Petition against Leblanc Process… gas from these manufactories is of such a deleterious nature as to blight everything within its influence, and is alike baneful to health and property. The herbage of the fields in their vicinity is scorched, the gardens neither yield fruit nor vegetables; many flourishing trees have lately become rotten naked sticks. Cattle and poultry droop and pine away. It tarnishes the furniture in our houses, and when we are exposed to it, which is of frequent occurrence, we are afflicted with coughs and pains in the head...all of which we attribute to the Alkali works.

22. Gary, Indiana (1986)

23. Soda Ash & The Solvay Process • In 1873 a new and long awaited process swept across England, rapidly replacing Leblanc's Alkali process. • While the chemistry of the new Solvay Process was much more direct than Leblanc's, the necessary engineering was many times more complex. Ernest Solvay (1838–1922)

24. Soda Ash & The Solvay Process • The center piece of Solvay's Process was an 80 foot tall high-efficiency carbonating tower. • Ammoniated brine poured down the top; CO2 gas bubbled up from bottom. • These chemicals reacted in the tower, forming the desired Sodium Bicarbonate.

25. Soda Ash & The Solvay Process In the 1880s, Solvay Process Co. established the first soda-ash plant in the U.S.

26. Soda Ash & The Solvay Process Postmarked October 13, 1908 at 1:30pm in Syracuse. Addressed to Mr. William Thompson, 625 Addison St., Watertown, NY. Message reads "9/12/08, Will write later-say it is like winter now-cold enough for and overcoat-My job is hanging good so far and is every happy, Eldore"

27. Soda Ash & The Solvay Process Undated photograph of Milton Works. (closed 1985)

28. Soda Ash & The Solvay Process This is from a newspaper or magazine and the words "Solvay Plant" and the date "1890" were handwritten on the front.

29. Old News, right? rankChemicalU.S. 2000 production (109 kg) 1 Sulfuric acid 39.62 (> 100 worldwide) 2 Ethylene 25.15 3 Lime 20.12 4 Phosphoric acid 16.16 5 Ammonia 15.03 6 Propylene 14.45 7 Chlorine 12.01 8 Sodium hydroxide 10.99 9 Sodium carbonate 10.21 10 Ethylene chloride 9.92 Sulfuric Acid is the highest volume production chemical in the world

30. Local Importance • In April of 2011, Freeport-McMoRan opened a new 1,550 tons per day (tpd) sulfur-burning sulfuric acid plant at its Safford, AZ copper mine.

31. George Davis (The Father of Ch E) • George Davis was a Alkali Inspector from Midland England. • In his career, Davis' daily rounds carried him through many chemical plants in the region where he was given intimate access to monitor pollution levels as necessitated by the Alkali Works Act of 1863.

32. George Davis (The Father of Ch E) • In 1880, Davis proposed the formation of a Society of Chemical Engineers. • While the attempt was unsuccessful, Davis continued to promote chemical engineering.

33. George Davis (The Father of Ch E) • In 1887 Davis molded his knowledge into a series of 12 chemical engineering lectures, which he presented at Manchester Technical School. • This course was organized around individual chemical operations, later called unit operations.

34. Ch E in the United States • Jack the Ripperstole the 1888 headlines by slaying 6 women in the streets of London. • Overblown media coverage surrounding the world's first serial killer, almost overshadowed the emergence of chemical engineering.

35. MIT's Course X • A few months after the lectures of George Davis, a chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Lewis Norton) initiated the first four-year bachelor program in chemical engineering entitled Course X (ten).

36. MIT catalog ("Course X") 1888-89 • This course is arranged to meet the needs of students who desire a general training in mechanical engineering and to devote a portion of their time to the study of the application of chemistry to the arts, especially to those engineering problems which relate to the use and manufacture of chemical products.

37. Early Ch E Education • From its beginning Ch E was tailored to fulfill the needs of the chemical industry. • At the end of the 19th Century, these needs were as acute in America as they were in England.

38. German Ch Es? "Just say 'Nein'! • Germany had experienced its own rapid period of growth (on their way to becoming the world's greatest chemical power) during the 19th Century. Chemical Engineer = Mechanical Engineer + Chemist

39. German ChEs? "Just say 'Nein'! • The American chemical industry was fundamentally different from their German counterpart.

40. Support for an American Ch E • The American chemical industry (initially following the German example) employed chemists and mechanical engineers to perform the functions that would later be the chemical engineer's specialty.

41. Support for an American Ch E • Unlike the highly praised German research chemists, the American counterparts were given very little respect from the chemical industry which employed them. • Analytical chemists were regarded as being of the same grade as machinists, draftsmen, and cooks.

42. Support for an American Ch E • The need for action was most imminent! • As a solution, the production chemists began referring to themselves as chemical engineers (for this is what they were in practice if not in education), and engaged themselves in the formation of an institute devoted to securing greater recognition for their profession.

43. An "AIChE Breaky" Beginning • The formation of a society of chemical engineers was originally proposed by George Davis in 1880, a full ten years before the profession could boast of a formal education. • The first serious proposal for an American Society of Chemical Engineers was presented in a 1905 editorial by Richard K. Meade.

44. Avoiding Conflict, Speak Softly • Faced with the possibility of direct conflict with the American Chemical Society, AIChE decided on a 3-point course of action designed to minimize rivalry and remain on good of terms with the ACS.

45. Avoiding Conflict, Speak Softly • Use very restrictive membership criteria (through 1930) so as not to pose a threat to American Chemical Society. • Emphasize a role in which AIChE would compliment, not compete with, ACS membership. • Avoid conflict by approaching possible problems conservatively.

46. Big Stick of Chemical Engineering • In transforming matter from inexpensive raw materials to highly desired products, chemical engineers became very familiar with the physical and chemical operations necessary in this metamorphosis. • These transformations were performed in Unit Operations.

47. Big Stick of Chemical Engineering • Additionally, the knowledge gained concerning a "unit operation" governing one set of materials can easily be applied to others. Whether one is distilling alcohol for hard liquor or petroleum for gasoline, the underlying principles are the same!

48. Big Stick of Chemical Engineering • The unit operations concept had been latent in the chemical engineering profession ever since George Davis had organized his original 12 lectures around the topic. • However, it was Arthur Little who first recognized the potential of using unit operations to separate chemical engineering from other professions.

49. Educational Standardization/Accreditation • A 1922 AIChE report (headed by Arthur Little, the "originator" of the unit operation concept) pointed out the continuing need for standardization due to chronic divergence in nomenclature and inconsistencies in course arrangement and worth. Arthur D. Little in 1922

50. Educational Standardization/Accreditation • AIChE again took action by making chemical engineering the first profession to utilize accreditation in assuring course consistency and quality.