Industrial Research 



151 



oil Uio iniirkcl, wore particularly effective on certain 

 characteristics. Tluis, lead tctractliyl, until sonu', 20 

 years ago a laboratory curiosity, is now being enijjloycd 

 to the extent of over 0.02 percent in more than 2 

 billion gallons of gasoline per year. The manufacture 

 of lead tetraethyl has, therefore, necessarily grown to 

 become a sizable industry. 



It has already been mentioned that among lubricants, 

 addition agents can be used to improve viscosity- 

 temperature characteristics, oiliness, and resistance to 

 o.xidation. The pour point — or congealing point of an 

 oil — may also be improved without resort to excessive 

 dewaxing by addition of a suitable pour depressor. 

 In many cases, addition agents remain in the experi- 

 mental stage, but in other cases they arc being produced 

 on a commercial scale. A pour depressor, for instance, 

 has been available to the industry for several years. 

 Without addition agents, the petroleum industry might 

 well find itself imable to meet the demands placed 

 upon fuels and lubricants by modern engines and other 

 mechanical equipment. High engine operating pres- 

 sures generally mean also high bearing loads and high 

 temperatures. Under these conditions straight petro- 

 leum lubricants may fail, however well they are refined. 

 On the other hand, by means of addition agents the 

 lubricants can be made to perform satisfactorily. It 

 is now evident that the demand for addition agents will 

 grow, and that their preparation gradually is creating a 

 new branch in the chemical and in the petroleum 

 industries. The extent of this branch can be seen from 

 the large number of patents issuing in the field. Over 

 200 patents on lubricating oil additives are known to 

 have been issued in the United States in 1938-39.* 

 And, in view of the complicated chemical nature of 

 some of the additives, it is not surprising that many of 

 the patents were issued to chemical concerns rather 

 than to petroleum refining concerns. The future may 

 well be expected to see both a considerable grow^th in 

 volume in the manufacture of addition agents already 

 in use, and the development of many more agents for 

 specific puri)oses. 



Corollary Effects of Petroleum Research 



Having reviewed some of the more important tech- 

 nical results of petroleum research, we now are in a 

 position to consider their bearing on related develop- 

 ments in other industries and, in general, to examine 

 the broader aspects of the subject with emphasis on the 

 social and economic effects that these activities have 

 produced. 



New Discoveries and Conservation 

 of Crude Supplies 



From time to time, alarming reports have appeared 

 to the effect that our supply of crude oil was faced with 



» Van Voorhis, M. G. 200 lubricant additive patents Issued in 1938 and 1939. 

 National Petroleum News, St. No. 10, R-66 (March 6, 1910J. 



a serious decliiic, or even that it was threatened with 

 exhaustion within a very limited number of years. 

 The best answer to these reports is given by the two 

 curves in figure 32, which show that the industry by and 

 large has been able to add to its reserves through new 

 discoveries and improved production methods. In 

 recent years, increases in reserves have considerably 

 exceeded the volume of crude taken out of the ground 

 over the same periods of time. How long it will be 

 possible to maintain such a favorable balance is ob- 

 viously impossible to tell. However, the fact that it 

 has been done so far is to the credit of the technologists 

 responsible for the location and efficient recovery of 

 crude. From the standpoint of more complete utiliza- 

 tion of a valuable raw material, we have here additional 

 developments supplementing those in the cracking 

 process and related operations, which aim in the same 

 general direction. Without the increased light-end 

 production by cracking, today we should require be- 

 tween twice and three times as much crude oil as at 

 present to meet our country's demand for gasoline. 



The fear of a crude oil shortage appeared particularly 

 imminent in the late twenties, when it was predicted 

 that a shortage would begin to be felt within the 

 next decade. As we have already seen, this situation 

 was relieved by discoveries of new oil reservoirs. Had 

 this not been the case, however, alternative sources of 

 oil could have been made available by means of high 

 pressure hydrogenation by extending the research that 

 had led to its development. By means of hydrogen- 

 ation, crude oil can be converted into gasoline in better 

 than 100 percent yield by volume. As yet the need for 

 a widespread application of hydrogenation has not 

 developed, but here is a process that — whenever the 

 need may arise — would be able to expand greatly the 

 available gasoline supply, admittedly at the expense of 

 heavier fuels. 



Effect on Automotive Developments 



It has so often been repeated that it seems trite to 

 mention once more that the present-day automobile 

 engine would be totally incapable of operating on the 

 fuels in use in the early twenties. Yet, one can hardly 

 avoid referring back to the early twenties, the time of 

 the discovery of the antiknock value of tetraethyl lead, 

 a discovery which was destined to have such an im- 

 portant bearing on engine design and performance. 

 Nor can one avoid referring to the even more significant 

 gradual progress in cracking, reforming, stabilization, 

 and treating operations that has taken place since that 

 time. These and all other contributions to improve- 

 ment in fuel quality have been parts of the cooperative 

 efforts that have led to the present-day high compression 

 automobile engine. The general improvement in per- 

 formance is familiar to every driver from personal 



