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In 1843, Norbert Rillieux revolutionized sugar production [1]

['Tammy C. Barney', 'More Tammy C. Barney', 'Verite News']

Date: 2024-03-04  

Norbert Rillieux. Credit: National Inventors Hall of Fame

When it came to sugar production, chemist and engineer Norbert Rillieux found the sweet spot.

Born in New Orleans in 1806 to a white plantation owner and a free woman of color, Rillieux invented the multiple-effect evaporation system. The American Chemistry Society (ACS) says his invention revolutionized the sugar industry, because it was safer, cheaper and improved sugar quality.

Before Rillieux’s system, Black enslaved people transferred boiling sugarcane juice by ladling it from one open kettle to another, a dangerous process known as the Jamaican Train Method. According to ACS, the heat in the kettles could not be regulated and a lot of sugar was lost while transferring the juice from kettle to kettle.

Patented in 1843, Rillieux’s system uses a container with reduced air to lower the boiling point of liquids. Several pans are stacked to contain the sugarcane juice. As the bottom pans heat, they release steam to transfer heat to the pans above, which prevents the sugar from being burned and discolored.

Today, the evaporation system also is used to produce soap, gelatin, condensed milk and glue, and to recover waste liquids in factories and distilleries.

“It is perhaps most extraordinary that Rillieux invented his device before the Civil War, at a time when the vast majority of African Americans were enslaved,” ACS states on its website. “He was successful because he understood the principles of thermodynamics and latent heat and applied that knowledge to the technical needs of the sugar industry.”

Educated at École Centrale Paris, one of the top engineering schools in France, Rillieux returned to the country in the 1850s. He died in Paris in 1894. In 2002, the ACS designated Rillieux’s system as a National Historic Chemical Landmark. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2004.

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