Houdry, Eugene cracking process

Enos, J. L. (1962). Petroleum Progress and Protits Allistoiy of Process Innovation. Cambridge, MA MIT Press. Mosely, C. G. (1984). Eugene Houdry, Catalytic Cracking and World War II Aviation Gasoline. Journal of Chemical Education 61 655—656. 

The story begins in the early 1930s. Our researchers were trying to develop a catalytic cracking process, and they learned that Eugene Houdry was doing similar work in France. His work was further advanced and Houdry was persuaded to join our lab in Paulsboro, New Jersey. 

The announcement of the commercialization of the Houdry cracking process was made at the annual meeting of the American Petroleum Institute held in Chicago in November 1938. The paper was titled "Catalytic Processing by the Houdry Process," authored by Eugene J. Houdry of Houdry Process Corp., Wilmington,... 

Eugene Houdry patented the Houdry Catalytic Cracking (HCC) process in 1934. HCC was commercialized in 1937. With amazing foresight, Houdry also invented the catalytic converter, which started appearing on automobiles in the 1970s. 

The application of catalysis to the production of motor fuel by cracking of less volatile petroleum oils was first investigated in France by Eugene J. Houdry in the period 1927 to 1930. The results from these investigations clearly established the superiority of catalytically cracked gasoline over that made by the thermal processes the economic possibilities were also indicated. 

Twenty years ago, the first catalytic cracking unit, the brainchild of Eugene J. Houdry, went on stream in this country. Catalytic polymerization was also adopted by the industry at about this time. In the subsequent twenty years, the application of catalysis in the xietroleum industry has gone on at a fantastic rate, until today there are 42 different catalytic processes in use. Almost all of these processes have been invented in this country, and they make upwards of one billion lb. of products a day. 

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