Emilee Johnson, M.A.

#OTD in 1989, Charles Plank, co-inventor of a process that dramatically increased the efficiency of gasoline production, died at the age of 73. Plank was born in Calcutta, India to American Methodist missionary parents. As a child, he and his family returned to the US, settling in Lafayette, IN. Plank attended Purdue University, receiving a B.S. in chemistry, mathematics, and physics in 1936 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1942. While researching catalysts for Mobil Oil in the 1950s, Plank (pictured at right) and his chemical engineer partner Edward Rosinski (left) explored an idea to use zeolite, a porous clay-like material that contains microscopic channels approximately the same size as the desired hydrocarbon length for gasoline. The superior activity and selectivity of the zeolite catalysts produced dramatically higher gasoline yields. The process was patented in 1964. By the mid-1980s, around 35 percent of US gasoline was produced from zeolite catalytic cracking, saving the country an estimated 200 million barrels of oil per year. Today this process is now used in every major oil refinery in the world, saving consumers billions of dollars a year while extending the Earth's precious oil reserves. #ThisDayInAutoHeritage