Setting the Stage for a New Profession, Chemical Engineering in 1888.
For all intents and purposes the chemical engineering profession
began in 1888. While, the term "chemical engineer" had been floating around
technical circles throughout the 1880's, there was no formal education for such
a person. The "chemical engineer" of these years was either a mechanical
engineer who had gained some knowledge of chemical process equipment, a chemical
plant foreman with a lifetime of experience but little education, or an applied
chemist with knowledge of large scale industrial chemical reactions.
An effort in 1880, by George Davis (see
Davis below), to
unite these varied professionals through a "Society of Chemical Engineers"
proved unsuccessful. However, this muddled state of affairs was changed in 1888,
when Professor Lewis Norton of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology introduced "Course X" (ten), thereby uniting
chemical engineers through a formal degree. Other schools, such as the
University of Pennsylvania and Tulane University, quickly followed
suit adding their own four year chemical engineering programs in 1892 and 1894
respectively.
The Story: Early Industrial Chemistry
Chemical Engineering Needed in England
As the Industrial Revolution (18th Century to the present) steamed
along certain basic chemicals quickly became necessary to sustain growth.
Sulfuric acid was first among these "industrial chemicals". It was said that
a nation's industrial might could be gauged solely by the vigor of its sulfuric
acid industry (C1). With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that English
industrialists spent a lot of time, money, and effort
in attempts to improve their processes for making sulfuric acid. A slight
savings in production led to large profits because of the vast quantities of
sulfuric acid consumed by industry.
Sulfuric Acid Production
To create sulfuric acid the long used (since 1749), and little understood,
Lead-Chamber Method required air, water, sulfur dioxide, a nitrate,
and a large lead container. Of these ingredients the nitrate was frequently the
most expensive. This was because during the final stage of the process, nitrate
(in the form of nitric oxide) was lost to the atmosphere thereby
necessitating a make-up stream of fresh nitrate. This additional nitrate, in the
form of sodium nitrate (see
Nitrates below),
had to be imported all the way from Chile, making it very costly
indeed!
In 1859, John Glover helped solve this problem by introducing a
mass transfer tower to recover some of this lost nitrate. In his tower,
sulfuric acid (still containing nitrates) was trickled downward against upward
flowing burner gases. The flowing gas absorbed some of the previously lost
nitric oxide. Subsequently, when the gases were recycled back into the lead
chamber the nitric oxide could be re-used.
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 chemical plants. A well designed plant with
innovative chemical operations, such as the Glover Tower, often meant the
difference between success and failure in the highly competitive chemical
industries. (see
Sulfuric Acid below, or
FIGURE: SULFURIC ACID GROWTH ).
Alkali & The Le Blanc Process
Another very competitive (and ancient) chemical industry involved the
manufacture of soda ash (Na 2CO3) and potash
(K2CO3) (see
Carbonates
below) . These Alkali compounds found use in a wide range of products
including glass, soap, and textiles and were therefor in
tremendous demand. 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. Imports of Alkali, from
America in the form of wood ashes (potash) or Spain in the form of barilla (a
plant containing 25% alkali) or from soda mined in Egypt, were all very
expensive due to high shipping costs.
Fortunately for English coffers (but unfortunately for the English
environment) this dependence on external soda sources ended when a Frenchman
named Nicholas Le Blanc invented a process for converting common salt into
soda ash. The Le Blanc Process (see
Le Blanc below)
was adopted in England by 1810 and was continually improved over the next 80
years through elaborate engineering efforts. Most of this labor was directed at
recovering or reducing the terrible byproducts of the process. Hydrochloric
acid, nitrogen oxides (see
Glover Tower
above), sulfur, manganese, and chlorine gas were all produced by the Le Blanc
process, and because of these chemicals many manufacturing sites could easily be
identified by the ring of dead and dying grass and trees.
A petition against the Le Blanc Process in 1839 complained that
"the 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." Needless to say, many people strove to replace the Le
Blanc Process with something less offensive to nature and mankind alike.
Soda Ash & The Solvay Process
In 1873 a new and long awaited process swept across England rapidly
replacing Le Blanc's method for producing Alkali. While the chemistry
of the new Solvay Process was much more direct than Le Blanc's,
the necessary engineering was many times more complex. The
straight-forward chemistry involved in the Solvay Process had been discovered by
A. J. Fresnel way back in 1811, however scale up efforts had proven
fruitless until Solvay came along 60 years later. No doubt this is why
the method became known as the Solvay Process and not the Fresnel Process.
The center piece of Solvay's Process was an 80 foot tall
high-efficiency carbonating tower. Into this, ammoniated brine was poured
down from the top while carbon dioxide gas bubbled up from the bottom. These
chemicals reacted in the tower forming the desired Sodium Bicarbonate.
Solvay's engineering resulted in a continuously operating process
free of hazardous by-products and with an easily purified final product.
By 1880 it was evident that the Solvay Process would rapidly replace the
traditional Le Blanc Process. (see
Solvay below)
George Davis
Enter George Davis, a heretofore unremarkable Alkali Inspector
(see Alkali below)
from the "Midland" region of England. Throughout his long career Davis' daily
rounds had carried him through many of the chemical plants in the region. Inside
he was given intimate access to monitor pollution levels as
necessitated by the Alkali Works Act of 1863. These rounds included the
Lead-Chamber, Le Blanc, and Solvay processing plants which had undergone a
revolution due to engineering efforts. This revolution in operation
clarified the necessity for a new branch of engineering that was equally
comfortable with both applied chemistry and traditional engineering. In 1880
George Davis acted upon these ideas and proposed the formation of a "Society
of Chemical Engineers". While the attempt was unsuccessful, he continued to
promote chemical engineering undaunted.
In 1884 Davis became an independent consultant applying and synthesizing the
chemical knowledge he had accumulated over the years. In 1887 he molded his
knowledge into a series of 12 lectures on chemical engineering, which he
presented at the Manchester Technical School (see
Davis below).
This chemical engineering course was organized around individual chemical
operations, later to be called "unit operations." Davis explored these
operations empirically and presented operating practices employed by the
British chemical industry. Because of this, some felt his lectures merely shared
English know-how with the rest of the world. However, his lectures went
far in convincing others that the time for chemical engineering had arrived.
Some of these people lived across the Atlantic, where the need for
chemical engineering was also real and immediate.
Chemical Engineering in the United States
In 1888 Americans were entranced by their local papers which carried
news from across the Atlantic. However, it was not the emergence of chemical
engineering that was exciting the populace. Instead "Jack the Ripper"
grabbed headlines by slaying six women in the foggy, twisting London streets.
With all the hype, sensationalism, and overblown coverage surrounding the
world's first serial killer, it seemed that the emergence of chemical
engineering might slip past unnoticed. However, the blueprint for the
chemical engineering profession, as laid down by George Davis (see
Davis above), was
recognized and fully appreciated by a few.
MIT's "Course X"
Only a few months after the lectures of George Davis, Lewis Norton
(see Norton
below) a chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) initiated the first four year bachelor program in chemical engineering
entitled "Course X" (ten). Soon other colleges, such as the University
of Pennsylvania and Tulane University (see
Penn & Tulane
below), followed MIT's lead starting their own four year programs. These
fledgling programs often grew from chemistry departments which saw the
need for a profession that could apply the chemical knowledge that had been
accumulated over the last hundred years. These pioneering programs were also
dedicated to fulfilling the needs of industry. With these goals in mind, and
following Davis' blueprint, they taught their students a combination of
mechanical engineering and industrial chemistry with the emphasis most defiantly
on engineering.
From its beginning chemical engineering 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. Competition between
manufacturers was brutal, and all strove to be the "low cost producer."
To reach this end some unscrupulous individuals stooped so low as to bribe
shipping clerks to contaminate competitor's products. However, to stay ahead of
the pack dishonest practices were not enough. Instead chemical plants had
to be optimized. This necessitated things such as; continuously
operating reactors (as opposed to batch operation), recycling and
recovery of unreacted reactants, and cost effective purification of
products. These advances in-turn required plumbing systems (for which
traditional chemists where unprepared) and detailed physical chemistry
knowledge (unbeknownst to mechanical engineers). The new chemical engineers
were capable of designing and operating the increasingly complex chemical
operations which were rapidly emerging.
The Story: Early Industrial Chemistry
Chemical Engineering Needed in England
As the Industrial Revolution (18th Century to the present) steamed
along certain basic chemicals quickly became necessary to sustain growth.
Sulfuric acid was first among these "industrial chemicals". It was said that
a nation's industrial might could be gauged solely by the vigor of its sulfuric
acid industry (C1). With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that English
industrialists spent a lot of time, money, and effort
in attempts to improve their processes for making sulfuric acid. A slight
savings in production led to large profits because of the vast quantities of
sulfuric acid consumed by industry.
Sulfuric Acid Production
To create sulfuric acid the long used (since 1749), and little understood,
Lead-Chamber Method (see
Lead-Chamber below)
required air, water, sulfur dioxide, a nitrate, and a large lead container. Of
these ingredients the nitrate was frequently the most expensive. This was
because during the final stage of the process, nitrate (in the form of nitric
oxide) was lost to the atmosphere thereby necessitating a make-up stream
of fresh nitrate. This additional nitrate, in the form of sodium nitrate
(see Nitrates
below), had to be imported all the way from Chile, making it very
costly indeed!
In 1859, John Glover helped solve this problem by introducing a
mass transfer tower to recover some of this lost nitrate. In his tower,
sulfuric acid (still containing nitrates) was trickled downward against upward
flowing burner gases. The flowing gas absorbed some of the previously lost
nitric oxide. Subsequently, when the gases were recycled back into the lead
chamber the nitric oxide could be re-used.
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 chemical plants. A well designed plant with
innovative chemical operations, such as the Glover Tower, often meant the
difference between success and failure in the highly competitive chemical
industries. (see
Sulfuric Acid below, or
FIGURE: SULFURIC ACID GROWTH ).
Alkali & The Le Blanc Process
Another very competitive (and ancient) chemical industry involved the
manufacture of soda ash (Na 2CO3) and potash
(K2CO3) (see
Carbonates
below) . These Alkali compounds found use in a wide range of products
including glass, soap, and textiles and were therefor in
tremendous demand. 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. Imports of Alkali, from
America in the form of wood ashes (potash) or Spain in the form of barilla (a
plant containing 25% alkali) or from soda mined in Egypt, were all very
expensive due to high shipping costs.
Fortunately for English coffers (but unfortunately for the English
environment) this dependence on external soda sources ended when a Frenchman
named Nicholas Le Blanc invented a process for converting common salt into
soda ash. The Le Blanc Process (see
Le Blanc below)
was adopted in England by 1810 and was continually improved over the next 80
years through elaborate engineering efforts. Most of this labor was directed at
recovering or reducing the terrible byproducts of the process. Hydrochloric
acid, nitrogen oxides (see
Glover Tower
above), sulfur, manganese, and chlorine gas were all produced by the Le Blanc
process, and because of these chemicals many manufacturing sites could easily be
identified by the ring of dead and dying grass and trees.
A petition against the Le Blanc Process in 1839 complained that
"the 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." Needless to say, many people strove to replace the Le
Blanc Process with something less offensive to nature and mankind alike.
Soda Ash & The Solvay Process
In 1873 a new and long awaited process swept across England rapidly
replacing Le Blanc's method for producing Alkali. While the chemistry
of the new Solvay Process was much more direct than Le Blanc's,
the necessary engineering was many times more complex. The
straight-forward chemistry involved in the Solvay Process had been discovered by
A. J. Fresnel way back in 1811, however scale up efforts had proven
fruitless until Solvay came along 60 years later. No doubt this is why
the method became known as the Solvay Process and not the Fresnel Process.
The center piece of Solvay's Process was an 80 foot tall
high-efficiency carbonating tower. Into this, ammoniated brine was poured
down from the top while carbon dioxide gas bubbled up from the bottom. These
chemicals reacted in the tower forming the desired Sodium Bicarbonate.
Solvay's engineering resulted in a continuously operating process
free of hazardous by-products and with an easily purified final product.
By 1880 it was evident that the Solvay Process would rapidly replace the
traditional Le Blanc Process. (see
Solvay below)
George Davis
Enter George Davis, a heretofore unremarkable Alkali Inspector
(see Alkali below)
from the "Midland" region of England. Throughout his long career Davis' daily
rounds had carried him through many of the chemical plants in the region. Inside
he was given intimate access to monitor pollution levels as
necessitated by the Alkali Works Act of 1863. These rounds included the
Lead-Chamber, Le Blanc, and Solvay processing plants which had undergone a
revolution due to engineering efforts. This revolution in operation
clarified the necessity for a new branch of engineering that was equally
comfortable with both applied chemistry and traditional engineering. In 1880
George Davis acted upon these ideas and proposed the formation of a "Society
of Chemical Engineers". While the attempt was unsuccessful, he continued to
promote chemical engineering undaunted.
In 1884 Davis became an independent consultant applying and synthesizing the
chemical knowledge he had accumulated over the years. In 1887 he molded his
knowledge into a series of 12 lectures on chemical engineering, which he
presented at the Manchester Technical School (see
Davis below).
This chemical engineering course was organized around individual chemical
operations, later to be called "unit operations." Davis explored these
operations empirically and presented operating practices employed by the
British chemical industry. Because of this, some felt his lectures merely shared
English know-how with the rest of the world. However, his lectures went
far in convincing others that the time for chemical engineering had arrived.
Some of these people lived across the Atlantic, where the need for
chemical engineering was also real and immediate.
Chemical Engineering in the United States
In 1888 Americans were entranced by their local papers which carried
news from across the Atlantic. However, it was not the emergence of chemical
engineering that was exciting the populace. Instead "Jack the Ripper"
grabbed headlines by slaying six women in the foggy, twisting London streets.
With all the hype, sensationalism, and overblown coverage surrounding the
world's first serial killer, it seemed that the emergence of chemical
engineering might slip past unnoticed. However, the blueprint for the
chemical engineering profession, as laid down by George Davis (see
Davis above), was
recognized and fully appreciated by a few.
MIT's "Course X"
Only a few months after the lectures of George Davis, Lewis Norton
(see Norton
below) a chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) initiated the first four year bachelor program in chemical engineering
entitled "Course X" (ten). Soon other colleges, such as the University
of Pennsylvania and Tulane University (see
Penn & Tulane
below), followed MIT's lead starting their own four year programs. These
fledgling programs often grew from chemistry departments which saw the
need for a profession that could apply the chemical knowledge that had been
accumulated over the last hundred years. These pioneering programs were also
dedicated to fulfilling the needs of industry. With these goals in mind, and
following Davis' blueprint, they taught their students a combination of
mechanical engineering and industrial chemistry with the emphasis most defiantly
on engineering.
From its beginning chemical engineering 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. Competition between
manufacturers was brutal, and all strove to be the "low cost producer."
To reach this end some unscrupulous individuals stooped so low as to bribe
shipping clerks to contaminate competitor's products. However, to stay ahead of
the pack dishonest practices were not enough. Instead chemical plants had
to be optimized. This necessitated things such as; continuously
operating reactors (as opposed to batch operation), recycling and
recovery of unreacted reactants, and cost effective purification of
products. These advances in-turn required plumbing systems (for which
traditional chemists where unprepared) and detailed physical chemistry
knowledge (unbeknownst to mechanical engineers). The new chemical engineers
were capable of designing and operating the increasingly complex chemical
operations which were rapidly emerging.
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