φ

WASTE TO WEALTH A History of Gas Processing in Canada by Fred Stenson (352 pages) Published by Canadian Gas Processors Association Calgary, Alberta, Canada ISBN 0-88925-583-0 1985 Excerpts... Canadian Fina Oil Ltd. enjoyed a reputation as a source of innovation in the Canadian gas processing industry, particularly through its operations at Windfall and Wildcat Hills. The company originated in 1950 when Petrofina S. A. of Belgium sent Trajan Nitescu to Canada to organize and run a subsidiary. Nitescu was Rumanian by birth and worked with Petrofina's Rumanian subsidiary from 1926 until the end of World War II. At that time, he resigned his post as General Manager of the Oil Department because the company, like the country, was being taken over by the communists. For this and other reasons, he was soon an enemy of the Rumanian state, forced into hiding. After six months of flight from the secret police, he and his wife swam the Danube River at night to the relative safety of Communist Yugoslavia. They were still prisoners under Tito's regime, but eventually were allowed to leave because of high level, indirect pressure from the United States and Belgium. Nitescu took up employment with his old company Petrofina after the War and came to Canada. Under Nitescu's guidance, Canadian Fina grew rapidly through takeovers. In a short time, it absorbed Western Leaseholds Ltd. ( a public company with large holdings controlled by Eric Harvie) and Calvan Consolidated. Canadian Fina's contribution to the understanding of sour gas begins with its involvement in the Whitecourt region, specifically with it interest in the Windfall cycling plant. Two of the key people involved at Windfall were, like Nitescu, Europeans who had suffered under communist rule. Dr. Alexander Petrunic, a Croatian scientist jailed by Tito after the War for his socialist involvements, escaped to Canada with Nitescu's help and was quickly employed by Fina. Nitescu knew Petrunic both as an established industrial scientist and a professor of considerable stature. When a bright young Hungarian student by the name of Joe Lukacs made his escape to Canada after Hungary's quickly repressed revolt of 1956, Nitescu snapped him up as well, offering Lukacs a scholarship to complete his studies at the University of Alberta, then hiring him in the summers and after his degree to work for Fina. Lukacs' Master's Degree Thesis on the water content in sour gas was based on his working experience at Windfall. ............................................. Another individual who contributed enormously to the understanding of sulphur recovery was Dr. Alexander Petrunic, a Croatian engineer who went to work for Canadian Fina after his escape from Tito's Yugoslavia. So many people remember Dr. Petrunic fondly and with admiration that it is hard to know whom to quote in that regard. It is probably enough to say that almost everyone who has made important contributions to sulphur research cites Dr. Petrunic as an important influence and friend. Dr. Petrunic's first work with Fina took place at the Windfall pilot plant. Trajan Nitescu believed that all his employees must experience the industry at first hand; consequently, the middle-aged ex-professor Petrunic found himself wading through the muskeg of Whitecourt along with other men. Always a teacher, Dr. Petrunic offered to run a school for the twenty or so men working at Windfall. Most of his superiors thought such a thing would fizzle out after a day or two, but they allowed him to go ahead. The real problem turned out to be that everyone wanted to attend and that interest did not wane. It was hard to run the opration with all hands in school. It was an example of Dr. Petrunic's powers as a teacher, his ability to inspire people with the desire to improve their knowledge. One of those encouraged by Dr. Petrunic at Windfall was young Joe Lukacs...After working ar Windfall, running lab tests often at Dr. Petrunic's request, Lukacs returned to university to do his Master's. The subject of his thesis was water content in high pressure sour gas, a problem which had devilled the Windfall project, and which Dr. Petrunic had suggested he investigate. Lucacs' thesis broke new ground for the industry, adding to the basis of information needed to solve various sour gas design problems. In the 1960's, Dr. Petrunic went to Fina's Wildcat Hills plant where he again worked with Joe Lukacs. It was there that Dr. Petrunic did his pioneering studies on the modified Claus process. He went through the plant, step by step, analyzing all aspects of performance and raising necessary questions. Could the catalyst be improved? What would the features of an improved catalyst be? Could they cycle the acid gases to get at the entrained sulphur? Dr. Petrunic's work is summed up in a paper on Wildcat Hills delivered to the CNGPA in the year of his tragic death. The major problem at Wildcat Hills was that it was required by the Conservation Board and the Department of Health to achieve a 93% recovery of sulphur and that it was not doing it. In his paper, Dr. Petrunic also explained why the industry was now eager to changed entirely, so that at the present time it could be said that the sweet gas is a welcome by-product, and producers are happy to have a high concentration of H2S in the gas." The difficulty in achieving high sulphur recovery at Wildcat Hills (common to many plants) was that the raw gas contained more carbon dioxide than it did hydrogen sulphide, making the acid gas mixture almost incombustible. Dr. Petrunic remedied the problem with a series of adjustments to the front combustion chamber. Among other things, he made it longer, creating more time for the difficult combustion reactions to take place. Perhaps the most important of the many other refinements Dr. Petrunic made at Wildcat Hills was his work on catalysis. The bauxite used at Fina, when he came, seemed to break down readily, and the bauxite fines were hampering the rest of the process. He used the plant's two identical sulphur trains to compare different catalysts and found that activated alumina did dramatically better than either granular or pelletized bauxite. Although Dr. Petrunic's actual contributions helped the industry immensely, Joe Lukacs suggests it was only the beginning of what he could have done had he been designing plants rather than improving on existing ones. For Lukacs, Dr. Petrunic's greatest contribution was the spirit of analytical inquiry that he instilled in those with whom he worked. He proved that a working plant could be a highly effective laboratory, and that engineers working in Canada could be - indeed had to be - innovators in sour gas chemistry and engineering. In 1969, the year of Dr. Petrunic's death in an Air France crash in the Bay of Caracas, the CNGPA initiated its Research Fund. One of the biggest projects ever promoted by CNGPA Research Fund was a pilot plant situated inside an actual gas plant (first at Petrogas and then at Gulf Nevis) to study catalysts. It was a project after Dr. Petrunic's own heart, one in which he might have been involved had he lived. The CNGPA also honoured Dr. Petrunic's memory by creating a University of Calgary engineering scholarship in his name. ............................................. DR. ALEXANDER PETRUNIC When asked whom they would like to see given special recognition in this history, a great many informants suggested Dr. Alexander Petrunic. By deed and example, they felt Dr. Petrunic had improved Canadian processing as much as any single person. Before he came to Canada from his native Croatia in the mid-'50's, Dr. Petrunic achieved a great deal of respect in Europe as both a professor and a chemical engineer. He had also been a victim of that continent's realignments and political swings. Prior to World War II, Dr. Petrunic had been active as an advocate of socialism and that made him unpopular with the Nazis and just as unpopular with Tito's communists when they came to power. After the communist take-over in Yugoslavia, Dr. Petrunic was jailed. His salvation was his engineering acumen. Prior to being imprisoned, he had been teaching in the university at Zagreb and also serving as a technical director at a carbon black plant. A disasterous explosion at that plant during Dr. Petrunic's imprisonment seems to have made the politicians recalculate the cost of keeping such a man in jail. He was released, given an apology and asked to resume his position at the plant. Back in Yugoslavian society, Dr. Petrunic repeatedly refused requests that he join the communist party. His life became increasingly dangerous until, finally, he left for Canada and employment with Trajan Nitescu's Canadian Fina. Nitescu and Petrunic had met as engineers before the war, and again as victims of political repression after it. Nitescu had been pursued by the Rumanian communists, and had passed through Yugoslavia on his road to freedom. In many ways, the similarity between the men ends there. Nitescu was a free-enterpriser with no love for the Left, and the friendship between them must have been an interesting one, based on a common belief in the free expression of political views whatever they were and a common love for Canada. Dr. Petrunic worked for Canadian Fina from his arrival in Canada until his untimely death in 1969. In Fina's plants, he set about improving the efficiency of various processes. His interest and ability as a teacher never left him and he informed his co-workers on subjects from chemistry and engineering to personal conduct and the presentation of technical papers. In his private life, he was renowned for his sense of humour, his concern for Canada and his assistance to Croatian immigrants making their adjustment to Canada. Dr. Petrunic and his greatly respected wife Draga were killed in an Air France crash in the Bay of Caracas in 1969. ............................................. In 1969, not long after he had delivered what would, by the end of the year, be recognized as the best member paper, Dr. Alexander Petrunic was killed in an air crash. Prior to emigrating to Canada, Dr. Petrunic had been a distinguished professor at both the University of Vienna and the University of Zagreb. It was fitting, then, that the CNGPA honour his memory and his contributions to the Canadian processing industry by creating a university scholarship in his name. The Dr. Alexander Petrunic Memorial Scholarship is presented annually to a second-year student of engineering at the University of Calgary.