Background
Houdry was born near in Domont, France, on April 18, 1892. He was the son of Jules Houdry and Emilie Thais Julie Lemaire. His father was a wealthy structural steel manufacturer.
Houdry was born near in Domont, France, on April 18, 1892. He was the son of Jules Houdry and Emilie Thais Julie Lemaire. His father was a wealthy structural steel manufacturer.
Intending to join his father's business, Houdry studied mechanical engineering at the École des Arts et Métiers in Paris. In 1911 he received the French government's gold medal for the highest scholastic attainment in his class.
After graduation he began as an engineer with his father's firm, soon becoming the junior partner of Houdry and Son. During World War I, Houdry served as a lieutenant in the French tank corps. He was seriously wounded in the battle of Juvincourt (1917), and for his actions won the Croix de Guerre and became a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. After the war Houdry resumed his engineering career.
By the early 1920's he was a director of several industrial companies, one of which manufactured automobile parts. Houdry had been an avid automobile racing fan for more than a decade, and his association with the manufacture of automobile parts served to further his interest in improving the performance of automobile engines. He pursued this interest in 1922 by coming to the United States to see the Indianapolis 500 and to visit the Ford Motor Company plant in Detroit.
World War I proved to the French government the need to develop an indigenous supply of automotive fuel. Although France lacked significant oil deposits, oil shale and bituminous coal existed in abundance. In December 1922, the government invited Houdry to participate in laboratory experiments aimed at the synthetic production of oil from these sources. He accepted the assignment, and in early 1923 organized a research syndicate to investigate the possibilities of producing gasoline from lignite by means of a catalytic process. After two years of research and experimentation, Houdry developed a successful catalytic process. It proved a commercial failure, however, since synthetic oils could not be produced at costs competitive with oils made from crude petroleum.
Houdry's experience with catalytic research led him to abandon his career in the steel industry. In 1925 he expanded his work in catalysis to the transformation of crude petroleum into automotive fuel. In April 1927, after months of diligent laboratory work, Houdry discovered a method of catalytically "cracking" low-grade crude oil into high-test gasoline. Although his laboratory and pilot plant results attracted the attention of several oil companies, Houdry was unable to find the financial support needed to expand to full commercial production.
Backing was finally given by an American refiner, the Vacuum Oil Company, which brought Houdry to the United States in 1930 for further development of his catalytic cracking process. In the following year he became president and director of research of the newly formed Houdry Process Corporation, in which Vacuum Oil held one-third interest in the patents and ideas. Houdry sold another one-third interest in his corporation to the Sun Oil Company in 1934. The Houdry Process Corporation put its first catalytic cracking unit in operation at the Socony-Vacuum refinery in Paulsboro, N. J. , in 1936. Its first commercial unit came on stream at Sun Oil's Marcus Hook, Pa. , refinery in the following year.
Houdry's catalytic cracking process revolutionized the art of making gasoline. It enabled refining companies to produce twice as much high-quality gasoline per barrel of crude oil as simple distillation. Moreover, it allowed the utilization of even the poorest grades of crude oil. Within a decade catalytic cracking became the standard process for petroleum refining companies worldwide.
With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the French government invited Houdry to visit France in order to assist in the production of high-octane aviation gasoline. His patented catalytic cracking process offered the only feasible way to produce large quantities of aviation gasoline. Within a year fourteen Houdry process plants were producing aviation fuel in the United States for France and Great Britain. By 1942, 90 percent of all aviation gasoline produced in the United States was catalytically cracked. After the Nazis overran France, Houdry again came to the aid of his native land. In June 1940 he founded France Forever, to generate American support for the cause of the Free French under General Charles de Gaulle.
Houdry became an American citizen in January 1942, and further directed his research activities to aiding the Allied cause. His most important contribution during the war was his development of a single-step butane dehydrogenation process – a catalytic method for producing synthetic rubber. In 1943 a special division of the Houdry Process Corporation was formed to investigate some of the chemical problems important to cancer research. As a result of this research, Houdry became convinced that the large increase in lung cancer was due primarily to the carcinogenic hydrocarbons emitted into the atmosphere by the growing number of automobiles and industrial activities.
Finding that he was unable to devote all his efforts to this endeavor at the Houdry Process Corporation, he left in 1948. In the following year he formed another company, Oxy-Catalyst, to develop oxidation catalysts for the elimination of carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons from industry and automobile exhausts. His most successful development was a catalytic muffler that was granted a patent in 1962. Up to the time of his death at Upper Darby, Pa. , Houdry continued to combine his expertise in catalysis with his concern for health matters. By analogy, he saw the human body as a sophisticated catalytic converter. As with industrial converters, he believed that additional oxygen was highly beneficial to the aged human body. He therefore invented an ozone converter to increase the oxygen content in the air during sleeping hours, reasoning that this would increase longevity.
Houdry married Genevieve Marie Quilleret on July 1, 1922. They had two sons.