Vladimir Haensel

Vladimir Haensel (1914 to 2002) was an American chemical engineer who invented the platforming process, a platinum catalytic method for reforming petroleum hydrocarbons into high octane gasoline. Born in Freiburg, Germany, he grew up in Moscow and emigrated to the United States in 1930, studying at Northwestern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the Universal Oil Products Company in 1937. He reasoned that only the surface of a catalyst mattered, so he put tiny amounts of platinum on an alumina support, which made the process economic and allowed lead to be removed from gasoline while also yielding hydrogen and aromatic chemicals. From 1956 to 1974 he directed the research programs at UOP that led to automotive catalytic converters. He held 145 United States patents, later taught chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and received the National Medal of Science in 1973 and the Charles Stark Draper Prize in 1997.