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Inventors & Scientists

Norbert Rillieux

1806 – 1894

New Orleans, Louisiana, United States and Paris, France

New Orleans-born engineer, educated in Paris, whose multiple-effect vacuum evaporator, patented from 1843, reused steam heat to boil cane juice, cutting fuel costs and replacing a dangerous open-kettle process.

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Harvested sugarcane loaded into high dump trailers in Bunkie, Louisiana, headed for a sugar mill
Credit: David Nance, USDA Agricultural Research Service. License: Public domain (U.S. government work).

Content pending: verified research needed.

Sources

  1. Smithsonian Institution (National Museum of American History), "Patent Model, Multiple Effect Vacuum Evaporator" (Primary source)
  2. National Inventors Hall of Fame, "Norbert Rillieux" (Primary source)
  3. The Chemical Engineer (IChemE), "Edward Charles Howard and Norbert Rillieux – Sugar plantation slavery and the birth of chemical engineering" (Reference)

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