Father of Chemical Engineering

From the 1700s, sodium and potassium carbonate were in great demand in the manufacture of a wide range of products including glass, soap and textiles. A frenchman, Nicholas Le Blanc, invented a method for converting sea salt into sodium carbonate which was in widespread use by 1810. However, the process produced hazardous by-products including hydrochloric acid, nitrogen oxides, sulphur and chlorine gas, which often escaped or were released to the atmosphere where they damaged public health and the environment.

Widnes in Cheshire in the early 1800s, under the cloud of the Leblanc process the IChemE

A. J. Fresnel developed new, clean chemistry in 1811, but attempts to build large scale factories using it failed until, over 50 years later in 1863, a Belgian, Ernest Solvay applied it in what became known as the Solvay process.
The Solvay process featured an 80 foot tall high-efficiency carbonating tower, in which ammoniated brine was poured down from the top while carbon dioxide bubbled up from the bottom, producing the desired sodium carbonate. The new process operated continuously, free of hazardous by-products and with an easily purified final product. Solvay's process relied on intimate contact between the gas and liquid. Although it was not established as a profession at the time, Solvay's work is thought of as one of the first triumphs of Chemical Engineering.

The Father of Chemical Engineering

George Davis (1850-1907). Founder of the profession the IChemE

In the 1800s, the chemical industry was compartmentalised; plants were designed and run by specialists. George E Davis, adopted as the father of Chemical Engineering, identified broad features in common to all chemical factories. He was author of A Handbook of Chemical Engineering, published a famous lecture series defining Chemical Engineering in 1888 and was founder of the concept of unit operations.
Whilst Chemical Engineering took off as a distinct profession in America, in the U.K. it is only since the second world war that the value of chemical engineers has become truly appreciated. This change has been driven to a large extent by the expansion of the oil industry; the first oil refinery in the U.K., and still the largest, was built by Esso at Fawley after the war. Chemical engineers have subsequently played a key role in the growth of the petrochemical and plastics industries.