(78a) Life and Legacy of Professor Kem Porter Bsc, PhD, Ceng, FIChemE “Shining the Path for Distillation Engineers”

In 2023 the global distillation/absorption community lost one of the greats from the pre-World War 2 generation: Professor Kenneth Edwin Porter. Ken stands along aside the modern era greats, including Professors S.R.M. Ellis, F.J. Zuiderweg, J.R. Fair, R.G.H. Prince, R. Billet, among others. Passionate for mass transfer both in academia and industry, Ken worked tirelessly in the field for over five decades.

Ken began his career as a technician Midland Tar Distillers Ltd. This paper will feature select research and industrial landmark achievements from Ken’s outstanding contributions over the last 55 years. They include:

• Published ‘The Rivulet Model’ Trans IChemE 1968 – Senior Moulton Medal Winner.
• Invention of the IMTP, together with Ralf Strigle (US Patent 1981).
• UMIST (1970’s) – Porter and Locket research, the SRM.
• FRI consultant (1980’s): Point efficiency studies with aqueous-alcohol systems.
• Aston University – Department of Chemical Engineering, Full Time Professor, 1984 - 2000.
• Aston: Gas Distribution in large diameter Shallow Packed Beds research (1984 – 1991).
• Aston: Liquid Flow Patterns (1.22 & 2.44m diameter) on sieve trays; effect on tray efficiency, water-cooling, direct observation (1987, 1990 – 1996)
• Collaborative research with Prof. K.T. Yu and Tianjin University (1990s). Research on trays and New Tianjin Structured packing.

In 1995 the AICHE awarded Ken an honors session in the Distillation 8 Topical Conference held in Dallas, Texas. Thirty years later it is rather fitting to honor Ken again at the 2025 AIChE Meeting in the same city Dallas.