Wars cause the “tides” to shift and facilitate humans’ potential (and industry) to the next level. An increase in demand for gun & engine lubricators, chemicals for making bombs, and gasoline forced the petroleum industry to attempt satisfying the decade long dream of breaking carbon bonds to reduce the size of the molecule and ultimately increase yield. World War II presented the petroleum industry with an unheard of opportunity that would not have resulted in the same process we use today. Competing refineries all across the World, from the United States, France, Great Britain, and Poland, collaborated in order to create the best possible chemistry and operations so that the Allies fighting against The Nazi Regime would prevail. They became obsessed with increasing the octane number of their gasoline products so much that they started adding TEL to their blend. Little did they know, they were setting themselves up for a “battle” twenty some years down the road with Clair Patterson who proved that the lead burned from their high octane gasoline in automobiles was poisoning humans and the environment. We could say, in an abstract way, that World War II indirectly lead to us discovering the toxicity of lead when burned in engines. The War also pushed the automobile industry to create more fuel efficient vehicles to match the quality of gasoline being produced from the catalytic cracking’s ionic reactions compared to thermal cracking’s free radical reactions. If wars are so influential to the petroleum industry, as history has proved, it makes me wonder what kind of changes would be made if a third world war were to break out within the next year.
Sources:
F. Self, E. Ekholm, and K. Bowers, Refining Overview – Petroleum, Processes and Products, AIChE, 2000, Chapter 6. [6.] M.R. Riazi, S. Eser2, J. L. Peña Díez, and S. S. Agrawal, “Introduction” In Petroleum Refining and Natural Gas Processing, Editors: M. R. Riazi, S. Eser, J. L. Peña, S. S. Agrawal, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2013, p.6
http://www.space.com/25579-cosmos-recap-earth-age-lead-poisoning.html