Walter Joseph Podbielniak (1899-1978), known as 'Dr Pod'[1][2] was an American chemist, chemical engineer, and inventor of centrifugal devices for distillation and liquid-liquid contacting used in the petroleum industry and the production of penicillin.
[2] He stayed on to do research on distillation in association with Phillips Petroleum Company, earning a PhD entitled Vaporization of Complex Mixtures in 1928.
[1] For the low temperature fractional distillation apparatus, Podbielniak received the Hanlon Award of the National Gasoline Association of America in 1951, which was said to be "the most valuable single tool in the analysis of gas and liquid hydrocarbons ... familiarly known as the ‘Pod column’ in practically every oil company plant and laboratory," [1][6] In the 1930s they published a series of patents for centrifugal devices[7] for both fractional distillation[8] and for liquid-liquid extraction.
[9][2] The Podbielniak Contactor for liquid-liquid extraction was particularly successful and important in the production of penicillin during World War II.
[2][10] In 1961 Podbielniak Inc. was taken over by Dresser Industries[11] In 1959 the couple divorced,[4] and in 1966 he married Nancy Bruce.