'History of research in British Gas' by Chris Hodrien

The British gas industry has a long and proud history of technical innovation, but very little is known or appreciated by the general public.

Town gas production technology for gas lighting by the carbonisation (destructive heating) of coal was invented by William Murdoch in Redruth in 1793 and subsequently developed by him in Boulton & Watt’s Soho Foundry in Smethwick during 1795-1805, initially for the gas lighting of factories and mills. This was the first industrial scale example of what is nowadays termed the Process Industry, and long predated the better-known chemical industry.

The basic production technology remained unchanged into the 1950s, with gradual evolutionary equipment improvements, but formal R&D on both production and utilisation was considerably accelerated first during WorldWar 2, then by the nationalisation of the industry in 1948 and again with the formation of British Gas Corporation in 1973, forming a powerful fully vertically-integrated organisation covering all aspects of gas technology. This led to two successive and very successful total technical revolutions, from coal carbonisation to steam reforming of light oils in the 1960s-70s followed immediately by the conversion to North Sea natural gas in the 1970s-80s.

By the time of the privatisation in the early 1990s , British Gas was one of the most powerful, modern, technically advanced and profitable industries in the UK, with an R&D budget of c. £55M/year and a long term 25-year R&D strategy.

About the Speaker

Chris Hodrien is the son of two industrial chemists who met in the laboratory. He formed an intent to become an industrial Chemical Engineer at about age 11 and had by far the largest home chemistry set in the neighbourhood! Chris graduated with an M.A. in Chemical Engineering from Pembroke College, University of Cambridge in 1973 and went straight to work in cutting-edge world-class gas production R&D at Midlands Research Station, Solihull.

One important role (1974) was the introduction of brand-new computer-aided gasification process simulation methods, another (1980-83) was as team leader of the initial pilot plant for the world’s highest efficiency coal gasification process. A project for advanced low-cost drying of natural gas (1996-2000) won an internal Chairman’s Award for Chris.

Subsequently, the work was relocated to a new integrated national Gas Research Centre at Loughborough after privatisation in 1993, under the new banner of Advantica plc.

Chris is a visiting industrial tutor on biotechnology scale-up, industrial design and costing, bioenergy and process egineering for the University of Warwick.