The Sunbury Research Centre -- also known as ICBT Sunbury—is a main research institute of BP in north-east Surrey.
History
Origination 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.
Early petroleum refining 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.
Discovery of the alkylation process 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.
Second World War As well as the Abadan Refinery, oil came from the Haifa oil refinery in Mandatory Palestine, a British-run territory, which was of great importance until Italy (Sicily) was invaded in July 1943, so allowing more exports from Iran again. There was also the Alwand refinery in Iraq. The Llandarcy Oil Refinery was bombed by the Luftwaffe on 10 July and 1 September in 1940, and 18 February 1941. By July 1941 oil supplies from Iran were rapidly dwindling, so the BP head office required around 100,000 tonnes of crude oil, to be sourced from within England. Only around 25,000 tonnes was being found each year, from within England. By September 1942, Eakring in Nottinghamshire was producing the 100,000 tons, with a field at Caunton discovered in March 1943, with production from May, and another field at Nocton, in Kesteven, also discovered in 1943, with production from December. Onshore oil in the UK, in 1943, produced 115,000 tons. From work at Sunbury, more aviation fuel could be made at Abadan from 1943, with a new patented process. From work by Merrell Fenske of Pennsylvania State University, known for the Fenske equation, Sunbury chemists developed superfractionation, for aviation fuel manufacture at Abadan, from 1943. Manufacture of 100-octane aviation fuel at Abadan went from around 70,000 tons in 1941 to over a million tons by 1945. But it was the Baton Rouge Refinery, in Louisiana, owned by Standard Oil (Esso), that provided most high-octane aviation fuel (British Air Ministry 100 octane) for the RAF during the Battle of Britain, from July 1940. The fuel was developed at the Standard Oil Development Company in Linden, New Jersey and at the Esso Research Centre in England, by chemical engineers Bill Sweeney and Alexander Ogston, who was British. Rod Banks had made the first calculations of effect of the better fuel in the Merlin engine. The Luftwaffe Me 109 pilots such as Adolf Galland, who had 87-octane fuel, could not comprehend where such a sudden increase in power of the RAF fighter aircraft came from. 100-octane fuel allowed the Merlin engine to reach maximum horse-power on take-offs and climbs, giving the engine 30% more power, than previously possible. Additionally, the Spitfire could make the type of tight manoeuvres that would cause the Me 109 airframe to disintegrate, such as when pulling out of dives. Staff were around 200 in 1939, but was much reduced until 1944. In 1943 an aero-engine test facility was built, with a Bristol Hercules engine. Until 1943, many head office staff had moved to the Sunbury site. Sunbury also developed the Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation system for RAF airfields.
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