CHEMICAL INVENTIONS THAT REVOLUTIONIZED THE HYDROCARBON PROCESSING INDUSTRY

摘要

For almost a century, innovation has been part of our DNA in the Baker Hughes Downstream Chemicals product hne. In 1914, William S. Barnicke! was awarded a pat-ent for the first crude oil demulsifier. Melvin DeGroote's inventions of chemical demulsifiers contributed to the development of the modern oil industry by making more types of crude suitable for refining. At retirement in 1960, DeGroote had earned over 900 U.S. patents, making him the most prolific inventor of his era, second only to Thomas Edison. Scientist Charles M. Blair looked more closely at problems associated with crude oil refining. In the early 1 930s, crude units would have to be shut down for cleaning every few weeks. Blair combined the use of chemical demulsifiers with settling vessels, and then extended that to electrical desalters. Blair also developed a salt-in-crude analytical method, published in Industrial Engineering Chemistry, Analytical Edition in 1938, which became the basis for future industry standards. In 1949, Blair received a patent for the use of imidazolines as corrosion inhibitors both in the oilfield and the refinery-a technology "first." Before Blair, the idea of protecting equipment with chemical inhibitors was unprecedented.