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| == History ==
| | NOAA's research, conducted through the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), is the driving force behind NOAA environmental products and services that protect life and property and promote economic growth. Research, conducted in OAR laboratories and by extramural programs, focuses on enhancing our understanding of environmental phenomena such as tornadoes, hurricanes, climate variability, solar flares, changes in the ozone, air pollution transport and dispersion,[1][2] El Niño/La Niña events, fisheries productivity, ocean currents, deep sea thermal vents, and coastal ecosystem health. NOAA research also develops innovative technologies and observing systems. |
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| The industrial revolution of the early 1800's gave birth to many large-scale chemical plants including the Lead-Chamber method for producing [[sulfuric acid]]. The raw materials included a nitrate which, in the final stage of the process, was lost to the atmosphere as [[nitric oxide]] gas and had to be replaced by costly fresh nitrate imported from [[Chile]]. In 1827, the French chemist [[Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac]] developed a tower that recovered most of the [[nitrogen oxide]] gases formed and reduced the consumption of nitrate. The first Gay-Lussac tower was installed at a plant in France in 1837. However, it use was not widespread until a British chemist, [[John Glover]], invented an improved version of the tower, patented in England in 1859. By the 1870s, the Glover–Gay-Lussac system was used throughout Britain and Europe. Because Glover's tower was essentially a [[mass transfer]] tower, he is often considered to be the first chemical engineer.<ref>[http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/tcaw/10/i09/html/09chemch.html Chemistry Chronicles by David Kiefer]</ref> | | The NOAA Research network consists of 7 internal research laboratories, extramural research at 30 Sea Grant university and research programs, six undersea research centers, a research grants program through the Climate Program Office, and 13 cooperative institutes with academia. Through NOAA and its academic partners, thousands of scientists, engineers, technicians, and graduate students participate in furthering our knowledge of natural phenomena that affect the lives of us all. |
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| In 1791, a French physician, Nicholas Le Blanc, patented a method of producing [[sodium carbonate]] from sea salt.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Spencer Baynes|title=The Encylopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Science and General Literature|edition=Ninth Edition (Volume XXII)|publisher=Henry G. Allen and Company|id=}}
| | The Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) is one of the laboratories in the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. It studies processes and develops models relating to climate and air quality, including the transport, dispersion, transformation and removal of pollutants from the ambient atmosphere. The emphasis of the ARL's work is on data interpretation, technology development and transfer. The specific goal of ARL research is to improve and eventually to institutionalize prediction of trends, dispersion of air pollutant plumes, air quality, atmospheric deposition, and related variables. |
| </ref> By 1810, it was in widespread use. However, it produced hazardous byproduct [[hydrochloric acid]], [[nitrogen oxides]], [[sulfur]] and [[chlorine]] gas. In 1811, Augustine Jean Fresnel, a French physicist, discovered a cleaner process for producing sodium carbonate by bubbling [[carbon dioxide]] through an [[ammonia]]-containing brine. Attempts to build large-scale plants using Fresnel's process were unsuccessful. In 1863, some fifty years later, a Belgian chemist, Ernest Solvay, succesfully applied Fresnel's process using a tall gas absorption tower in which carbon dioxide bubbled up through a descending flow of brine, together with efficient recovery and recycling of the ammonia. Use of the Solvay process soon became widespread and it is still used today. Ernest Solvay's work is sometimes thought of as one of the first accomplishments of chemical engineering.<ref name=Chemsoc>[http://www.chemsoc.org/ExemplarChem/entries/2002/MartinPeck/history.html What is Chemical Engineering? An example of early Chemical Engineering]</ref>
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| Under the British Alkali Act of 1863, an Alkali Inspector and four subinspectors were appointed to curb the discharge into the air of hydrochloric gas from the Le Blanc sodium carbonate plants. During his long career, one of the Alkali Inspectors, George Davis, inspected many of the Lead Chamber, Le Blanc and Solvay plants in the Midland area of England. What he learned convinced him of the necessity for a new branch of engineering that combined applied chemistry and traditional engineering. In 1880, George Davis proposed the formation of a ''Society of Chemical Engineers'' which was failed. In 1887, he gave a series of 12 lectures on industrial chemical operations at the Manchester Technical School. His lectures can be regarded as the forerunner of the discipline of chemical engineering.<ref name=Pafco>[http://pafko.com/history/h_1888.html Setting the Stage for a New Profession, Chemical Engineering in 1888]</ref><ref name=UnivMass>[http://www-unix.ecs.umass.edu/che/che110/che_general_history.html Highlights of Chemical Engineering History] (From the website of the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst</ref> In 1901, Davis published a ''Handbook of Chemical Engineering''.<ref>{{cite book|author=George Edward Davis|title=A Handbook of Chemical Engineering|edition=|publisher=Davis Brothers|year=1901|id=}}</ref> He is considered to be the father of modern chemical engineering.
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| In 1888, the first chemical engineering curriculum, designed by Lewis Norton, began at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT). In 1892 and 1894, respectively, the [[University of Pennsylvania]] and [[Tulane University]] in [[Louisiana]] also began chemical engineering programs.<ref name=UnivMass/>
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| In 1908, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers was formed and, in 1922, the Institute of Chemical Engineers was founded in England.
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NOAA's research, conducted through the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), is the driving force behind NOAA environmental products and services that protect life and property and promote economic growth. Research, conducted in OAR laboratories and by extramural programs, focuses on enhancing our understanding of environmental phenomena such as tornadoes, hurricanes, climate variability, solar flares, changes in the ozone, air pollution transport and dispersion,[1][2] El Niño/La Niña events, fisheries productivity, ocean currents, deep sea thermal vents, and coastal ecosystem health. NOAA research also develops innovative technologies and observing systems.
The NOAA Research network consists of 7 internal research laboratories, extramural research at 30 Sea Grant university and research programs, six undersea research centers, a research grants program through the Climate Program Office, and 13 cooperative institutes with academia. Through NOAA and its academic partners, thousands of scientists, engineers, technicians, and graduate students participate in furthering our knowledge of natural phenomena that affect the lives of us all.
The Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) is one of the laboratories in the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. It studies processes and develops models relating to climate and air quality, including the transport, dispersion, transformation and removal of pollutants from the ambient atmosphere. The emphasis of the ARL's work is on data interpretation, technology development and transfer. The specific goal of ARL research is to improve and eventually to institutionalize prediction of trends, dispersion of air pollutant plumes, air quality, atmospheric deposition, and related variables.