Norbert Rillieux was born in New Orleans to an African captive lady who had been raped by her captor, an engineer. Rillieux's intelligence was noted at an early age by his father who decided he would send Norbert to school. Since the law stated that white people would not allow Blacks to be educated in America Norbert's father sent him to France. Norbert excelled over his fellow French classmates and was appointed engineering teacher at L'Ecole Centrale. When Rillieuz was young, he would watch gangs of men on his father's plantation laboriously ladled sugar-cane juice from one kettle to another.

He began working on a better method to refine sugar. He utilized the physics he had learned and invented the first practical multiple-effect vacuum evaporator. The machine used an improved process to remove water from sugar cane. He published papers on the steam engine and steam economy while in France.

Rillieux returned to Louisiana to become the most sought-after engineer in the state. However, he could not take part in official meetings unless he was invited formally by white officials. He accepted these conditions until whites required him to carry a pass during his travels. He refused to submit to this humiliation.

The machine invented by Rillieux reduced the production cost and provided a better quality sugar. In one chamber of the machine, the sugar cane juice was boiled until it became syrup. In another chamber, the hot vapor from the first chamber boiled the syrup until it became grains of sugar. The double use of the same heat is what reduced the cost and improved the sugar.

Sugar manufacturers were forced to hail the process as a monumental invention. Rillieux reorganized sugar refining plants all over the United States, even though he was constantly humiliated by Whites. This humiliation only happened in America not in Cuba and Mexico, where he was treated royally. Other industries needing liquid reduction process adopted his process.