Houdry, Eugene process

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,... 

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. 

Historians sometimes point to Earth Day 1970 as the beginning of the modern environmental movement. And in some important ways, they are correct. But many people were worried about the dangers posed by polluted air decades before that event. One such individual was the French-born American chemist Eugene Houdry. Houdry spent much of his professional career studying the nature of catalysis, the process by which the rate of a chemical reaction is changed by the addition of a nonreactive substance. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

In 1967, the Catalysis Society of North America proposed the establishment of two prestigious awards to be given once every two years. A committee comprised of A. H. Weiss and Heinz Heinemann obtained sponsorship for the "Paul H. Emmett Award in fundamental catalysis and the "Eugene J. Houdry Award in applied catalysis—the former to carry a 2,000 prize, and the latter a 2,500 prize. Emmett Award has been sponsored since its inception by the Davison Division of . R. Grace Company the Houdry Award was originally sponsored by the Houdry Process Corporation, Sun Oil Company, Oxycat Corporation, and the Houdry family. More recently. Air Products and Chemicals Corporation has taken over the sponsorship. Award winners for the first ten years were ... 

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. 

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