The beginnings of industrial chemical research - in the sugar industry

The value of chemical analysis was clearly recognised by CSR's General Manager E. W. Knox and Sir Daniel Cooper,[21] one of its directors; it led them to employ around 1873 a Scottish chemist, Thomas Utrick Walton, and later, 1883, a German scientist, Dr. Gustav Kottman. Both men were to have a major impact on research in CSR, setting up laboratories and field stations and imposing upon them the disciplines and control methodology which are still evident in today's practice. Walton in particular laid down chemical process control which ensured that residual sugar in various residues, particularly bagasse, was recovered. Kottman improved crushing efficiencies further and developed the formulae by which extraction efficiencies are measured to this day. His most important contribution, however, was probably in field work, improving strains of sugar and nutritional value.

Chemistry and chemical engineering remained integral skills of CSR's sugar production, which is dealt with elsewhere in this book. Sugar by-products, however, also were to take CSR on into the heartland of the chemical industry and even the energy industry. Sugar by-products in later years led to a diversification of the company into production of ethyl alcohol, its derivatives, some pharmaceuticals, and ultimately to the joint development of a modern petrochemical factory at Rhodes, NSW, with the Distillers Co. Ltd. of the UK (1952) and ICI Australia Ltd. (1968).

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering