Kotaro Shimomura

Kotaro Shimomura (下村 孝太郎, Shimomura Kōtarō^?, October 29, 1861 – October 21, 1937) was a Japanese chemical engineer known for many famous inventions.

When about 12 years of age, he attended the Kumamoto Yogakko where American soldier Capt. L. L. James was engaged. In 1876, he was studying theology in Doshisha. He went to America in 1885 when 25 years of age, and he entered the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He took the degree of B.S. He went to Johns Hopkins University where he worked in organic chemistry under Prof. Ira Remsen. He also obtained practical technique of Solvay in Bruxelles.

Dr. Shimomura was the first to produce coke on a large scale in quality and hardness equal to best English and German coke by suitable blending of materials and suitable method of heating, which eventually superseded the foreign articles entire

He erected the first by-product ovens in Japan, and when built and started, the enterprise was considered to be a reckless endeavor. But gradually the number of ovens has increased and there were more than a thousand coke-ovens of by-product type. This method of blending was adopted by all the subsequent manufacturers.

Shimomura was one of the earliest workers on ammonium sulphate to produce it on a large scale and put it on the market as a fertilizer in the days when its superiority to sodium nitrate in Japanese soils was not very well recognized. He was not an expert in tar distillation and was among the first to produce naphthalene in powder, balls and cakes at a time when its smell was objected to as something unbearable.

He was the first to put up a plant to extract benzene from coke-oven gas, when it was thought that it would not sell. This fear was subsequently contradicted by increased demand for benzene as solvent, motor oil and also an important raw material for dyestuffs. In the time of the world war, Japan was amply provided with benzene obtained from coke-oven gas to make the manufacture of dyestuffs independent of foreign supply.

...
Wikipedia