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Sunbury Research Centre
The Sunbury Research Centre -- also known as ICBT Sunbury—is a main research institute of BP in north-east Surrey.
It began in 1917 as the Sunbury Research Station. Research began with the employment of two chemists to look into the viscosity of fuel oil for the Navy in the First World War, and the production of toluene.
The two first organic chemists were Dr Albert Ernest Dunstan and Dr Ferdinand Bernard Thole, in the basement of a country house called 'Meadhurst', formerly the home of Sir George William Kekewich. Both of these chemists had together worked at East Ham Technical College. Albert received a PhD in Viscosity from UCL in October 1910, working under the Irish physicist Frederick Thomas Trouton FRS, and Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay. Together they had written 'A Text Book of Practical Chemistry for Technical Institutes', published by Methuen in November 1911, and 'The Viscosity of Liquids', published by Longman Green in 1914. Thole was awarded the OBE in the 1960 Birthday Honours. Albert died aged 85 in 1963, having been Chief Chemist of BP for thirty years. His son, Bernard Dunstan, grew up in the 'Meadhurst' house, and died aged 97 in 2017; Bernard's wife Diana Armfield is 104. Albert's grandson is David Dunstan, Professor of Physics at Queen Mary University of London. In the 1950s, Dr Thole worked for the Ministry of Fuel and Power. Both left the technical college in September 1917.
In the 1920s research took place into cracking, at the plant at Uphall in Scotland (West Lothian). The first new building opened in July 1931. 76 staff were there in 1929, 99 in 1934 and 197 in 1939.
The first laboratory was demolished in July 1936. The main refinery of the company was at Abadan in Iran. Removing sulphur, from the refining process, was developed from the early 1930s, but this would additionally cause corrosion. Thermal cracking of refinery products would move to catalytic cracking methods from 1937, after work by Eugene Houdry in the US.
Leaded petrol was introduced as 'BP Plus' on 15 April 1931, taking the octane number from 66 to 74, becoming 'BP Ethyl' in August 1933. Aviation fuels were difficult to make, as a high octane number was required. By making di-isobutene, an 88-octane fuel could be made, with production at Abadan from 1937. By adding hydrogen under pressure, with a catalyst, it made the saturated iso-octane (2,2,4-Trimethylpentane), made at Abadan from 1938 for high-octane aviation fuel.
In July 1936, at the research centre's annual conference on chemistry, ways to make iso-octane were looked at, with a chemist Dr Thomas Tait accidentally inventing the alkylation process, via the addition of sulphuric acid in a pentane solvent, which was much quicker than hydrogenation over a catalyst.
This process is still an important part of aviation and automobile fuel refining. It was discovered that isobutane would react with the butenes present. It was largely an accidental discovery, but an important one. Sunbury patented the process in January 1938, and had built an experimental production facility by December 1936, being first made at Abadan from January 1939. The process was given the name 'alkylation' in December 1939.
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Sunbury Research Centre
The Sunbury Research Centre -- also known as ICBT Sunbury—is a main research institute of BP in north-east Surrey.
It began in 1917 as the Sunbury Research Station. Research began with the employment of two chemists to look into the viscosity of fuel oil for the Navy in the First World War, and the production of toluene.
The two first organic chemists were Dr Albert Ernest Dunstan and Dr Ferdinand Bernard Thole, in the basement of a country house called 'Meadhurst', formerly the home of Sir George William Kekewich. Both of these chemists had together worked at East Ham Technical College. Albert received a PhD in Viscosity from UCL in October 1910, working under the Irish physicist Frederick Thomas Trouton FRS, and Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay. Together they had written 'A Text Book of Practical Chemistry for Technical Institutes', published by Methuen in November 1911, and 'The Viscosity of Liquids', published by Longman Green in 1914. Thole was awarded the OBE in the 1960 Birthday Honours. Albert died aged 85 in 1963, having been Chief Chemist of BP for thirty years. His son, Bernard Dunstan, grew up in the 'Meadhurst' house, and died aged 97 in 2017; Bernard's wife Diana Armfield is 104. Albert's grandson is David Dunstan, Professor of Physics at Queen Mary University of London. In the 1950s, Dr Thole worked for the Ministry of Fuel and Power. Both left the technical college in September 1917.
In the 1920s research took place into cracking, at the plant at Uphall in Scotland (West Lothian). The first new building opened in July 1931. 76 staff were there in 1929, 99 in 1934 and 197 in 1939.
The first laboratory was demolished in July 1936. The main refinery of the company was at Abadan in Iran. Removing sulphur, from the refining process, was developed from the early 1930s, but this would additionally cause corrosion. Thermal cracking of refinery products would move to catalytic cracking methods from 1937, after work by Eugene Houdry in the US.
Leaded petrol was introduced as 'BP Plus' on 15 April 1931, taking the octane number from 66 to 74, becoming 'BP Ethyl' in August 1933. Aviation fuels were difficult to make, as a high octane number was required. By making di-isobutene, an 88-octane fuel could be made, with production at Abadan from 1937. By adding hydrogen under pressure, with a catalyst, it made the saturated iso-octane (2,2,4-Trimethylpentane), made at Abadan from 1938 for high-octane aviation fuel.
In July 1936, at the research centre's annual conference on chemistry, ways to make iso-octane were looked at, with a chemist Dr Thomas Tait accidentally inventing the alkylation process, via the addition of sulphuric acid in a pentane solvent, which was much quicker than hydrogenation over a catalyst.
This process is still an important part of aviation and automobile fuel refining. It was discovered that isobutane would react with the butenes present. It was largely an accidental discovery, but an important one. Sunbury patented the process in January 1938, and had built an experimental production facility by December 1936, being first made at Abadan from January 1939. The process was given the name 'alkylation' in December 1939.