Draft:Avraham Baniel

Professor Avraham Baniel (November 27, 1918 – January 6, 2022)

Summary

Professor Avraham Baniel (November 27, 1918 – January 6, 2022) was a global leading expert in Chemical Industrial Research and Development. He was known for combining free thinking with a disciplined thought process. Baniel created novel and revolutionary concepts such as: (i) selective separation (solvent extraction is one example) for shifting equilibrium of reactions between water-soluble reagents (KNO₃ is one example); (ii) using CO₂ as a displacing acid (enhancing its acidic power by extraction of the displaced acid, as done for lactic acid); (iii) water removal via extraction (instead of energy-consuming evaporation); and (iv) operating close to equilibrium (rather than using stronger forces) gaining in reversibility and saving thereby on energy, as in acid-base extractants.

Baniel revolutionized research, development and industrial implementation of new technologies worldwide and was a highly recognized expert in managing research work to obtain best results. He was often called upon by leading multinationals, not only for his knowledge of facts in a given field, but mostly for his novel, creative thought process for solving problems. He was a great teacher in classrooms and a great mentor when working with students and colleagues individually—one-on-one.

His innovative ideas, knowledge and ability to lead large research groups generated solvent-extraction-based technologies implemented in areas such as biotechnology, fertilizer production, and food-tech ingredients. Many of Baniel's inventions contribute to the reduction of energy use, minimization of environmental hazards and providing tools for effective use of renewable resources. Avraham Baniel's contributions to solvent extraction science and technology also derive from generations of his disciples in academia and industry.

Baniel was Co-founder, CEO and CTO of TAMI (IMI)(https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%AA%D7%9E%D7%99_%D7%90%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%99_%D7%9E%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%9F_%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%97%D7%A7%D7%A8_%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%A4%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%97), Israel's National Laboratories for Industrial Chemicals Research for almost 30 years. At TAMI he recruited and led a team of over 200 researchers that developed and implemented many industrial processes worldwide in the food and beverage, and agricultural spaces. Baniel's innovative methods for making potassium nitrate by using potash and pure nitric acid and his unique processes for producing citric acid still fuel the world's most advanced industries.

Early Life and Education

Professor Avraham Baniel was born on November 27, 1918 in Lodz, Poland. At the age of seven, Avraham was sent to a boarding school in Ben Shemen, Palestine under

British Mandate rule at the time. His family followed and set up their home in Tel-Aviv. Avraham excelled throughout his studies in high school (Gimnasia Herzliya, Tel-Aviv), at the Faculty of Chemistry, Montpellier, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and later at the Sorbonne.

He self-funded his higher education by teaching private lessons to special-education students. This is how Avraham met his future wife Malka Yelenik. They married in 1944, moved to Haifa and had 2 children—Eran and Anat, four grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Academic Credentials

• 1939- Licencié ès Sciences in Chemical Engineering, Montpellier, France

• 1941- M.Sc. in Chemistry, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

• 1954- Docteur ès Sciences, Sorbonne, Paris

• 1961-1962- Visiting Professor at University of California, Berkeley, and at the Technion in Israel

• 1978-1986- Full Professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry

Industrial Career

1941-1944: Co-founder and Manager, Astra Chemical Works

In 1941-44, Professor Avraham Baniel co-founded and managed Astra Chemical Works, offering custom manufacturing of organics and inorganics for the British Army in the Middle East. Some of these products were solvents, such as methyl-ethyl ketone (MEK) replacing Ethyl Acetate, and the production of Food Grade Phosphoric Acid from Fertilizer Acid.

1944-1951: R&D Director, Zevah Oriental Paints Industry

In 1944-51, Baniel was the R&D Director of the Zevah Oriental Paints Industry, providing synthesis and manufacturing of replacement resins and pigments mainly sold to the British Navy coming to Haifa for maintenance visits. In parallel, during the nights he led the development and production of various explosives for the precursor organizations of the Israeli military.

1951-1978: Co-founder, Chief Scientist and Managing Director at IMI (TAMI)

In 1951, Baniel was asked by Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel (himself a chemical engineer), to be the Co-founder, Chief Scientist and Managing Director at IMI (TAMI), the National Laboratories of Industrial Chemical Research developing new chemical technologies and processes to put to profitable use the opportunities hidden in the Israeli ground, such as new developments for creating Pure Phosphoric Acid directly from phosphate rock by HCl using the tool of Solvent Extraction.

This process was first implemented by Toyo Soda Japan in 1957 and has since been implemented in other countries. Baniel was Co-founder, CEO and CTO of TAMI (IMI) for

almost 30 years. At TAMI he recruited and led a team of over 200 researchers that developed and implemented many industrial processes worldwide in the food and beverage, and agricultural spaces.

Baniel's innovative methods for making potassium nitrate by using potash and pure nitric acid and his unique processes for producing citric acid still fuel the world's most advanced industries.

1978-1986: Professor, Casali Institute at Hebrew University

After leaving TAMI, Avraham joined the Casali R&D center of Applied Chemistry (https://openscholar.huji.ac.il/casali/home) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1978-86) as a Professor, and in parallel served as consultant for Bayer, Cargill, ADM and Tate & Lyle.

2008: Co-founding HCl CleanTech (later branded as Virdia)

In 2008, at the age of 90, Baniel co-founded HCl CleanTech (https://finder.startupnationcentral.org/company_page/virdia) with his son Eran Baniel, a startup company developing a new technology for the production of fermentable carbohydrates and lignin from wood chips and other agricultural waste products. The process involves high-yield hydrolysis by ~42% HCl to form HCl-containing hydrolyzate and a lignin stream wetted with highly concentrated acid.

Recovery of the acid from the hydrolyzate and from the lignin and recycling it with no dilution is key to the commercial success of this process. Solvent extraction processes were implemented and worked well for those purposes. Following successful pilot work in North Carolina, the startup rebranded as Virdia, was sold to Stora Enso and a commercial factory was built in Louisiana.

2014: Co-founding DouxMatok (later branded as Incredo)

That same year, at the age of 96, with 75 years of world experience in industrial chemical research, father and son Eran Baniel co-founded DouxMatok (today Incredo). DouxMatok/incredo is a global food-tech company, pioneering Efficient Delivery of ingredient Flavors, such as sugar, optimizing taste receptors to enable reduced intake consumption by 30-50%.

Incredo® Sugar is the flagship ingredient product based on Prof Baniel's research and development, designed to help combat the global epidemics of obesity and diabetes with great tasting real sugar-based sugar reduction solution that enhances perception of sweetness while consuming 30-50% less sugar with no aftertastes.

Major Discoveries and Innovations

Targeted Flavor-Delivery System

Developed the first ever targeted flavor-delivery system for sugar and other ingredients, reducing sugar intake by 30-50% while retaining its taste with no off-notes. Co-founded DouxMatok (today Incredo) with his son Eran Baniel for the development and

commercialization of this food-tech breakthrough in 2014 and won international food-tech innovation awards and recognitions for its flagship product concept proof: Incredo® Sugar.

Some of these acknowledgments include:

• The Prime Minister of Israel Innovation prize awarded by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli Conference on Innovation in 2018

• EIT (European Innovation Technologies) Food's RisingFoodStar

• "One of the highest potential sugar reduction technologies in the world" by Lux Research

Purification of Fertilizer Phosphoric Acid to Food Grade

The purification of fertilizer phosphoric acid to food grade by solvent technology, now replacing most of the traditional burning of expensive elemental phosphorus.

Creation of Potassium Nitrate

The creation of Potassium Nitrate from Potash and Nitric acid. Haifa Group established a factory for the production of potassium nitrate based on Baniel's process and it has served as a unique fertilizer in agriculture, making Haifa Chemicals a prominent star in the international fertilizer market. This process has now become a standard across global markets. The by-product HCl is used to make phosphoric acid, thereby solving profitably a major hazardous material disposal problem.

Haifa Chemicals (now known as Haifa Group) produces ~400,000 tons of potassium nitrate a year implementing Baniel's process, where KCl is reacted with HNO₃ to form KNO₃ and HCl. The equilibrium of the process is shifted to the products by selective extraction of the formed acid, using alcohols as extractants.

Other plants in Israel and in other countries have adopted Baniel's processes, where high grade phosphoric acid is produced by reacting phosphate rock with HCl to form phosphoric acid and CaCl₂. The reaction equilibrium is shifted by extraction of the acid from the reaction mixture, using alcohols as extractants. The extracted phosphoric acid is back-extracted from the extractant at high quality. Transition metals contaminants are extracted out of the product as chloride complexes, using an amine as the extractant.

The selective extraction of H₃PO₄ in the presence of HCl was then implemented in several industries also for upgrading fertilizer-grade phosphoric acid to a food grade one, saving significant energy and solving environmental challenges created by older processes based on elemental phosphorus.

Solvent Citric Acid Recovery

The enablement of Solvent citric acid recovery from fermentation broths, now a technology dominating this crucial ingredient for the food and beverage industry.

Prof Baniel revolutionized the production of citric acid, a key biotechnological product. About one million tons of citric acid are produced annually, applying Baniel's innovative

process discovery. The extraction of carboxylic acid by amines is selective, efficient and significantly dependent on temperature. Citric acid is extracted from the fermentation liquor at about ambient temperature and back-extraction at an elevated temperature. Final crystallization from the back-extract provides the required food-grade quality. This process replaced, in most productions, the former less efficient and environmentally unattractive liming/acidulation process.

Acid-Base Couple Extraction

Baniel introduced the concept of acid-base couple extraction for the selective and reversible extraction of mineral acids. The extractants are composed of a mixture of water insoluble amines and organic acids in a carrying solvent. Proper selection of commercially available amines and acids provides attractive solutions to needs, such as recovering mineral acids from waste streams (instead of neutralization leading to contaminating byproducts) and shifting the equilibrium in the production of various fertilizers and other mineral products.

Pump-Mix Liquid-Liquid Contactor/Separator

A Pump-Mix liquid-liquid-contactor/separator used in many of the above mentioned processes.

Patents

Prof Baniel invented and developed many processes that have become mainstream applications worldwide today and was granted around 200 patents. Much of his contribution was in improving the quality and economics of production using Solvent Extraction processes. The following is a selection of his major patents (partial list):

• A process for the preparation of sulfonic acids (1955, No. 6156)

• A process for the preparation of phosphoric acid (1956, No. 9661)

• A process for removal of water from aqueous systems (1957, No. 10970)

• A process for the recovery of phosphoric acid from aqueous reaction mixtures (1961, No. 15920)

• Process for the separation of a strong mineral acid from an aqueous solution (U.S. Patent 4,291,007, September 22, 1981)

• Extraction of organic acids from aqueous solutions (U.S. Patent 4,334,095, June 8, 1983)

• A process and extractant for removing fluorine compounds from aqueous phosphoric acid (U.S. Patent 4,439,408, March 27, 1984)

• Extraction of citric acid from fermentation broth (U.S. Patent 4,994,609, February 19, 1991)

• Process for isolating Lactic acid (U.S. Patent 6,472,559, October 29, 2002)

• Process for producing 1,3-propanediol (U.S. Patent 7,572,376, August 11, 2009)

• Sweetener compositions (IL169678, July 4, 2005)

• A Process for the Production of HCL Gas from Chloride Salts and for the Production of Carbohydrates (IL200646, August 31, 2009)

Advisory Boards and Consulting Roles

Professor Avraham Baniel was an Advisor on the National Board for Corporate Policy Studies and associated projects, consulting the production operations and implementations of recommended improvements. He introduced novel processes in competitive technologies. He also served as an advisory member on the following boards:

• The National Research Council

• The Center for Industrial Research established in the Technion, Haifa, where he served as the Managing Director to the Research Council (1966-71)

• Advisory Group on Science Policy to Israel's President Ephraim Katzir during his office (1973-1978)

• Kaiser Aluminum

• IMC (International Minerals and Chemicals)

• Miles Laboratories Inc., USA – Consultant to the CEO

• Bayer (after it acquired Miles)

• Air Products

• W.R. Grace

• CARGILL

• Rhone Poulenc, France

• Tate & Lyle PLC (and previously E. I. Staley)

Personal Life

Avraham was a passionate lover of classical music, a devoted practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method, and a collector of modern art and vintage furniture.

His wife Malka died in March 1994. A year later, Avraham met Sarah Kagan and they shared their lives until his death in January 2022. He was buried in his beloved city of Jerusalem.

Eran Baniel, his son, continues to work for and with Incredo Sugars and mentor a selection of startups in the FoodTech space and his daughter, Anat Baniel has developed the Anat Baniel Method for NeuroMovement following years of work with Prof. Feldenkrais (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldenkrais_method).

Selected Publications

Prof Baniel published numerous articles in leading scientific journals. The following is a selection of his publications (partial list):

• Baniel, A., Frenkel, M., Friedrich, I., Katchalsky, A. (1948). "The preparation and condensation of polymerization of higher alkyl esters of alpha-amino acids." J. Org. Chem., 13, p.791.

• Baniel, A., Blumberg, R. (1957). "Nouveaux procedes de preparation des acides et des sels par l'emploi des solvents organiques." Chimie et Industrie, 78(4), p. 3.

• Baniel, A. (1958). "Water transfer between aqueous systems by a partially miscible solvent." J. Appl. Chem., 8, 611-616.

• Baniel, A., Blumberg, R., Alon, A. (1959). "Phosphoric acid by liquid-liquid extraction." British Chemical Engineering, 4, 223-224.

• Baniel, A., Blumberg, R., Alon, A., El-Roy, M., Goniadski, D. (1962). "The IMI phosphoric acid process." Chem. Eng. Prog., 58, 100-104.

• Baniel, A., Blumberg, R. (1963). "Concentration of aqueous solutions by liquid-liquid extraction." Ind. Chemist, 39, 460-464.

• Baniel, A. (1975). "New techniques in solvent extraction and in ion-exchange." Is. J. of Chem., Vol. 14, pp. 252-266. 25th IUPAC Congress, Jerusalem.

• Eyal, A., Baniel, A. (1982). "Extraction of strong mineral acids by organic acid-base couples." IOEC Process Design & Development, Volume 21, April, pp. 334-337.

• Eyal, A., Mizrahi, J., Baniel, A. (1985). "Potassium nitrate through solvent separation of strong acids." Chem. Proc. Des. Dev., 24, 387.

• Eyal, A., Hajdu, K., Baniel, A. (1984). "Wet process phosphoric acid defluorization by amine-based extractants." Solvent Extraction of Ion Exchange, 2, 659.

• Eyal, A.M., Baniel, A.M. (1991). "Recovery and concentration of strong mineral acids from dilute pollutions though LLX." Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange, 9, 195.

• Baniel, A., Eyal, A., Edelstein, D., Hajdu, K., Hazan, B., Ilan, Y., Zamir, E. (1990). "Porogen derived membranes: 1. Concept description and analysis." Journal of Membrane Science, 54, 271.

Legacy

Professor Avraham Baniel passed away on January 6, 2022 at the age of 103. His legacy lives on through the processes and technologies he developed, which continue to power industries worldwide. His contributions to materials science, industrial chemistry, and food technology have left an indelible mark on modern industry.

Generations of his students in academia and industry continue his work, proving that the true legacy of a great scientist is measured not only in patents and publications, but also in the inspiration he provides to others. Throughout 75 years of scientific activity, Baniel continued to innovate, create and influence—even in the final decades of his life, when he founded new companies and developed breakthrough technologies.

Prof. Baniel's work reflects Israel's success as a powerhouse of innovation and science, and proves that creative thinking, scientific discipline and dedication to problem-solving can change the world. His remarkable longevity and continued productivity well into his tenth decade of life stand as testament to the power of intellectual curiosity and the impact one individual can have when combining brilliant scientific insight with tireless dedication to solving real-world problems.