Heinz List was a German engineer. In the 1940s, Germany’s biggest chemical industry conglomerate established a committee to explore screw technology in mixing and kneading applications. Three men who served on that committee would go on to become founding fathers of modern processing technology. One of them, Heinz List, became the first engineer to seriously explore the feasibility of concentrated solid-fluid reactions. Until then, such processes had been thought to be impractical due to the presence of highly viscous, solid, and crusty phases. Heinz List believed he could overcome these difficulties, and that the future lay in solvent-free processing. Background During World War II, BAYER-Werk, part of the former IG Farben Company (IG Farben was founded on December 25, 1925 as a merger of six companies including BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, and Agfa), initiated research to explore screw technology in mixing and kneading applications. Three men who served on that committee would go on to become the founding fathers of modern processing technology. Rudolph Erdmenger would later develop the co-rotating twin screw machine, the ZSK-Extruder. Siegfried Kiesskalt went on to pioneer special counter rotating screw extruder designs. A third committee member, Heinz List, was assigned the study of “special designs”. It was here that he first developed the concept for a single-screw-machine that combined oscillation with screw rotation. This design ultimately evolved into the continuously operating Ko-Kneader. Coincidentally, the introduction of the Ko-Kneader corresponded with the rapid development of the plastics industry. To date, over 3000 Ko-Kneader systems have been sold worldwide. During this time, Heinz List also became the first engineer to seriously explore the feasibility of solid-fluid reactions. Until then, such reactions were thought to be impractical due to the highly viscous and solid phases. List, however, believed that the answer lay in developing technology for concentrated, solvent-free processes. Inventor of the Co-Kneader List’s first design was a single-screw machine that combined oscillation with rotation, and ultimately evolved into the commercially successful Co-Kneader. By 1965 he had developed the twin-shaft All Phases processor, the first machine that could reliably and safely process highly viscous, pasty and crust-forming products. High Viscosity Processing In 1966, Heinz List established his own company to further develop the field of high-viscosity processing. Heinz List established the LIST Dry Processing Group based on the following: Machines that can handle multiple phase transitions (wet, pasty, viscous, powdery, granular) in one working step provide maximum energy efficiency