R. N. Maddox
Leonard F. Sheerar Emeritus Professor

GAS PROCESSING:
Dr. Maddox received the B. Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arkansas in May 1948. He enrolled in graduate school at the University of Oklahoma in September 1948 and received the M. Ch. E. degree from O.U. in 1950.  He moved to Oklahoma State University (then Oklahoma A & M College) where he served as part-time instructor and research assistant for one academic year. 

In May 1951 he joined Black, Sivalls & Bryson, Inc. in Oklahoma City as process engineer.  There he performed the field test work that proved tetraethylene glycol (TRG) suitable for use as an agent for dehydrating natural gas.  He worked on the process design and start–up of the first glycol injection – field stabilization unit that was installed and operated successfully in Louisiana.  He was responsible for the design, construction oversight and start up of the first mechanical refrigeration–glycol injection unit.  The plant operated on a Kirkpatrick–Coates lease in Starr County, Texas.  This plant subsequently also became one of first to practice seasonal underground storage of LP–Gas during periods of low demand and price.

Dr. Maddox returned to graduate studies at Oklahoma State University in September 1952.  While in graduate school he participated in the design, construction and start-up of the Sterling gasoline plant near Garber, Oklahoma.

In 1955, immediately after receiving his Ph.D., he spent the summer with Humble Oil & Refining Company, in Baytown, Texas.  He shared with John Bonner responsibility for writing the first tray-by-tray distillation program for the IBM 650 Computer.  The program used relative volatilities and vapor and liquid enthalpies based on polynomial equations, but utilized rigorous tray-by-tray calculations and floating point arithmetic.  This experience led directly to the early leadership role of OSU Chemical Engineering in the use of digital computers for student classroom instruction.

Dr. Maddox has published more than 180 technical articles, a dozen handbook chapters and has authored or co-authored seven books.  His early publications dealt with computing stage-wise operations, because of computer storage limitations, frequently by short cut techniques.  This work culminated in the signing (with J. H. Erbar) in 1967 of a contract with General Electric Time-Sharing systems for GE to make the Maddox-Erbar original process simulator available to their users.  Many of the calculations were short-cut and nearly all utilized direct substitution or binary chop convergence, but the overall concept and program philosophy was essentially the same as those of current day process simulators.  This work has led to Dr. Maddox being described as "one of the fathers of modern day (computing) chemical engineering."

While Department Head he designed and laid out the physical facilities for Chemical Engineering quarters in new Engineering Building at Oklahoma State University.  One authority describes them as "the best arranged and most utilitarian design for faculty offices and services, undergraduate and graduate instruction and graduate research" that he has seen.  Chemical Engineering occupied their portion of the new building in August 1964.

As part of the move to new quarters for Chemical Engineering, Dr. Maddox supervised and directed the change in the Unit Operations Laboratory from traditional large, pilot scale laboratory equipment that took hours to start up, reach steady state and allow for taking of data to small, bench top units that stabilized in minutes but that allowed for taking of reliable data on physical and chemical phenomena.  Oklahoma State was one of the first U.S. departments to implement this important change in instructional procedures.

Oklahoma State was one of the first Chemical Engineering Departments to have an Industrial Visiting Committee.  The program was initiated by Dr. Maddox in combination with the move to new departmental quarters.  The first meeting of the Chemical Engineering Visiting Committee was held in the spring of 1965.  Membership of the committee numbered five, and members served three year terms.  Members may be alumni, or others among those interested in the OSU program.

In 1967 Dr. Maddox initiated the Phillips Petroleum Company Lecture in Chemical Engineering Education, the only such Lecture in the U.S. devoted solely to the education of Chemical Engineers.  Over the years of its existence, the Lecture has attracted some of the most prominent names in chemical engineering to share their views on the education of Chemical Engineers.  Each lecture is printed and distributed to all U. S. Chemical Engineering Departments.

In the mid 1960's the interest and publications of Dr. Maddox turned to removal of acid gases (hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide) from natural gas streams. This work culminated in publication (1971) of his book Gas and Liquid Sweetening. Now in its fourth edition (co-authored by D. J. Morgan) it is recognized world-wide as the most authoritative in the field. It is still the only book devoted solely to the sweetening of gases and gas-liquids.  Short courses covering the subject matter of the book have been offered 35 times by Dr. Maddox in ten (10) different countries to more than 500 practicing engineers in the oil and gas industry.  The citation for the Hanlon Award (presented annually for contributions to natural gas industry - first academic to receive award since D. L. Katz in 1951) stated "--(Dr. Maddox is) one of the world's foremost authorities on gas and liquid sweetening, and sulfur recovery."

The seminal work Dr. Maddox and his students carried out with digital computers, process simulation and equations of state resulted in publication (1981 with John Erbar) of the book Gas Conditioning and Processing Vol. 4 - Computer Techniques and Applications.  It has been revised and reprinted three times and the second edition (with L. L. Lilly) was published in December 1990.  He has taught short courses based on this book fifteen (15) times in five (5) countries.  As part of this work he discovered, (with John H. Erbar) the phenomenon of low pressure retrograde condensation of natural gas (as part of work on Frigg Field in North Sea) streams containing butane and/or heavier components at pressures less than 1000 psia.  Also, the work on Frigg Field in the North Sea (1973) was among the first, if not the first, to use the Soave-Redlich Kwong equation of State in practical industrial applications to natural gas processing.  He was the first (1977) to practice industrial use of the principle of free energy minimization for predicting yields of industrially utilized chemical reactions.  He also pioneered the incorporation of equations of state into two-phase vapor-liquid flow pipeline pressure drop calculations (1982) and the use (1983) of steady state long-line pressure drop calculations to predict behavior of gas lines in unsteady flow and for pipeline network analysis.

Short courses in Gas Conditioning and Processing have been taught by Dr. Maddox more than fifty (50) times in fourteen (14) countries to more than twelve hundred (1200) engineers in the oil and gas industry.

His background and publications in physical properties and equations of state caused Fluid Properties Research, Inc. (FPRI) to establish their laboratories at Oklahoma State University in 1973.  FPRI is a research consortium of leading processing, engineering and manufacturing firms seeking better physical and transport properties to improve design and operation of plants and processes.  Dr. Maddox served as Administrative Vice President and Technical Director of FPRI until retiring from Oklahoma State University.  (FPRI is now located at Georgia Institute of Technology.)  Measurement and prediction of physical properties were also a part of the Hanlon Award citation for Dr. Maddox.

In 1972 Dr. Maddox served as National President of Omega Chi Epsilon, national chemical engineering scholastic honorary fraternity. He is the author of their initiation ritual. In 1987 Dr. Maddox was awarded the Citation for Service by the Gas Processors Association, the first person ever to receive both the Citation for Service and the Hanlon Award.  In October 1987 the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Arkansas established the Dr. Robert N. Maddox Student Reference Center to recognize his contributions to the field.  In May 1988 he was inducted into the Hall of Honor of Sigma Nu Fraternity to recognize his many contributions, including service as Regent and revision of the Initiation and Meeting Rituals.  Chemical Engineering magazine presented Dr. Maddox the Award for Outstanding Personal Achievement in Chemical Engineering in December 1988.

The Gas Processors Suppliers Association, to recognize many years of outstanding contributions to the gas processing industry through research, teaching and engineering, in February 1989 announced endowment of the Dr. Robert N. Maddox Professorship in Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University.

He was inducted into the University of Arkansas Engineering Hall of Fame May 1989.  He was awarded an Sc. D. honoris causa by the University of Arkansas in May 1991 for his contributions to natural gas and petroleum. He received the Founders Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 1994, for his contributions especially for pioneering the use of digital computers in the engineering classroom and in process simulation.  In 1996 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.