text: FRI is a non-profit organization formed by petroleum, chemical and engineering companies to perform plant-scale research in distillation. It began in 1952, spearheaded by Dr. Karl Hachmuth and T. B. Hudson of Phillips Petroleum Company in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Hachmuth was noted for his research into the design of mass transfer equipment, He realized that the effort required would be beyond the resources of a single company, and proposed the formation of a cooperative organization to pursue this work. Hudson became the first president of FRI. In 1954, FRI contracted to use a simulation facility at the headquarters of C. F. Braun & Co. in Alhambra, California. Operations continued at Alhambra until 1989, when Braun was acquired by Halliburton, Inc., and merged into its Brown & Root subsidiary (now KBR). FRI then moved its facilities to Oklahoma State University (OSU) at Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1991. 
  FRI initially planned a five-year research program. However, the board of directors has voted extensions until the present.