Eugene Houdry Eugène Jules Houdry ( Domont , April 18 , 1892 - Upper Darby , Pennsylvania , July 18 , 1962 ) was a French , later naturalised American , mechanical engineer ( graduated from École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers in 1911 ) who invented catalytic cracking of petroleum feed stocks . Life . Born near Paris , France , on April 18 , 1892 , Eugene Houdry was the son of a wealthy steel manufacturer . He studied mechanical engineering at the Ecole des Arts et Métiers in Chalons - sur - Marne . He graduated in 1911 , earning the French government ' s gold medal for the highest scholastic achievement in his class . He was captain of his school ' s soccer team , which won the championship of France that same year . Houdry joined his father ' s business , but left for military training right before the outbreak of World War I . He served in the French army as a lieutenant in the tank corps and in 1917 was seriously wounded in the battle of Juvincourt , winning the Croix de Guerre for his actions and later becoming a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor . Houdry had served as a lieutenant in a tank company in the French Army during World War One . He was awarded the Howard N . Potts Medal in 1948 and the French Legion of Honour . After the war , Houdry rejoined his father at Houdry et Fils , but by 1922 was making his way in the field of catalytic processes for the conversion of coal and lignite to gasoline . His interest in high - octane gasoline was fueled by his avid interest in automobile engines and in road racing , where he competed in a Bugatti racing car . In America from 1930 . Houdry moved to America in 1930 . Houdry was outspoken in his opposition to wartime collaboration with the Germans by the French Vichy government of Marshall Henri P¸tain . On May 3 , 1941 , the Vichy government declared that Houdry had lost his French citizenship . He then became president of the U . S . chapter of “ France Forever ” : an organization dedicated to the support of General Charles de Gaulle , the nominal head of the French government in exile and in January 1942 , he became a United States citizen . His two sons , Jacques and Pierre , served in the United States Army during World War II , and Houdry directed his efforts toward industrial processes crucial to the war effort . Houdry ' s colorful life was full of great ambitions . His unusually productive career was characterized by unique foresight , bold imagination , creative leadership , persistence and , above all , action . Houdry ' s contributions to catalytic technology were recognized by numerous awards , including the Potts Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1948 , the Perkin Medal of the Society of Chemical Industry ( American Section ) in 1948 , the E . V . Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry of the American Chemical Society in 1962 , and posthumous election to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1990 . He was awarded honorary Doctor of Science degrees by Pennsylvania Military College in 1940 and by Grove City College in 1943 . In 1967 , the Catalysis Society of North America established the Houdry Award in Applied Catalysis . Houdry died on July 18 , 1962 , at Upper Darby , Pennsylvania at the age of 70 , survived by his sons and his wife , Genevieve Quilleret . At that time he was actively working on creative ideas for using catalytic processes to improve human health . Inventions . Coal to gasoline . He originally focused on using lignite ( brown coal ) as a feedstock , but switched to using heavy liquid tar s after moving to the United States in 1930 . Although others had experimented with catalysts for this purpose , they were stymied by the fact that the catalyst ceased to work after a time . Houdry diagnosed the nature of the problem and developed a method to regenerate the catalyst . The first Houdry unit was built at Sun Oil ' s Marcus Hook , PA oil refinery in 1937 . Many more units were built by the 1940s and were instrumental for US wartime aviation gasoline production . Among others at the company who helped Houdry in the development of the catalytic cracking process was Alex Golden Oblad . The process was further developed by two MIT engineers , Warren K . Lewis and Edwin R . Gilliland , under contract to Standard Oil of New Jersey , now ExxonMobil . They developed the process into fluid catalytic cracking , which solved the problem of having to shut down the process to burn the coke off the catalyst by using a continuously circulating fluidized catalyst made of a fine zeolite powder . This process is still in widespread use , especially in the US where gasoline is in high demand compared to other refined products . Houdry later became interested in automotive catalysts , and the catalytic converter was one of approximately 100 patents that he received . but nothing came of it until the 1970s because the tetraethyl lead that was still in use in the 1950s and 1960s poisoned the catalyst . Butadiene . In addition to the process for high - octane gasoline , Houdry also invented a catalytic process for the production of butadiene from the butane gas derived from crude oil production . Butadiene became an important resource during World War II . It was one of the two components used in the production of synthetic rubber . Oxy - Catylyst . After World War II , Houdry formed the Oxy - Catalyst Company and turned his attention to reducing the health risks associated with the increasing amounts of automobile and industrial air pollution . His generic catalytic converter , which greatly reduced the amount of carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons in automobile exhausts , was granted U . S . Patent 2 , 742 , 437 in 1956 . Today , catalytic converters made by various companies are standard devices on all American cars .