Improved Apparatus for Subjecting Neutral Fatty Bodies to the Action of Water at High Temperature, and for the Direct Production thereby of Fatty Acids and Glycerine.
Year: 1885

page_text: Improved Apparatus for Subjecting Neutral Fatty Bodies to the
Action of Water at High Temperature, and for the Direct
Production thereby of Fatty Acids and Glycerine.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane in
the County of Middlesex, Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SUBJECTING
NEUTRAL FATTY BODIES TO THE ACTION OF WATER AT HIGH TEMPERATURE, AND
FOR THE DIRECT PRODUCTION THEREBY OF FATTY ACIDS AND GLYCERINE" to be
as follows:
"
This invention has for its object to enable the operation termed "aqueous
saponification' to be practically applicable to industrial purposes, this having
heretofore been impossible on account of the difficulty of effecting the intimate
molecular contact between the fatty body and the water, which is absolutely
necessary for the operation.
In all proposed arrangements it has not been possible to avoid the cessation of
the agitation of the liquids as soon as the maximum useful pressure has been
attained, it being necessary at that time to restrict the heating, which alone produces
the motion of the materials in the closed recipient, because, in continuing the
heating, the temperature and consequently the pressure would be increased, which
might result in serious accidents.
According to the present invention this difficulty is overcome by applying to the
materials a system of fractional heating by successive increments, and by absorbing
the excess of pressure, as soon as it is produced, by means of a condensing
apparatus, the effect of which is to draw continuously the caloric current through
the materials treated, which are thus heated and agitated in a continuous manner,

page_text: result.
For this purpose the following descriptions of apparatus are employed.
1. APPARATUS WITH DIRECT HEATING.
In this apparatus a closed vessel or digester communicates by an upper and
lower branch pipe with a boiler, by preference consisting of a tubular coil, situated
inside a furnace, so that the liquid materials contained in the digester in circulating
through the branch pipes and boiler, are continuously heated. The steam or
vapours given off in the top part of the digester pass thence through a pipe
provided with a safety valve and shut-off cock to a condensing apparatus con-
sisting of a small coil contained in a closed receptacle into which cold water can
be admitted through a cock or valve that is governed by a piston in a cylinder
communicating with the above named pipe. The condensing coil communicates at
bottom with the one branch pipe leading from the digester to the boiler, and the
piston and cold water admission valve are so adjusted, that so long as the pressure
in the digester does not exceed the required maximum the valve is kept closed and
no condensation of the steam takes place. When the maximum pressure is
exceeded, the piston, being raised more or less thereby, causes the valve to open
and allow cold water to circulate through the condenser, thus condensing the steam
and causing the resulting cooled liquid, in flowing from the coil back into the
digester, to reduce the temperature and consequently the pressure therein to the
desired maximum again. The piston in descending again will then stop the cold
water supply and the condensation will be stopped.
The before mentioned branch pipes, besides their connection with the boiler, also
communicate with a pipe connecting them with each other, and stop cocks are
provided on each of these connections, so that when the working of a charge in the
digester has been completed, the cocks on the branches leading to it are closed and
the cocks on the pipe connecting the branches are opened, so that the circulation of
the liquid in the boiler can go on uninterruptedly through the said pipe while the
digester is being discharged through a cock at bottom.
2. APPARATUS WITH INDIRECT HEATING OPERATING WITH STEAM FROM
INDEPENDENT GENERATORS.
According to one arrangement for this purpose, there is substituted for the boiler
in the before described apparatus, a closed chamber having a number of small tubes
through which steam is made to circulate from a generator, while the branches
from the digester communicate with the space in the chamber surrounding the
tubes, so that the liquid from the digester, in circulating through the chamber, is
heated by contact with the steam-heated tubes. The other parts of the apparatus
are arranged the same as before described, the condenser coil being made to
discharge into the beating chamber. In place of operating with water in the
condenser, glycerine liquor proceeding from previous operations may be used, so
that the surplus heat is usefully employed in evaporating the watery constituents
of this liquor so as to bring it to the areometric degree of commerce.
According to another modification, the chamber containing the steam heated
pipes (which may also be a steam coil) is contained in the digester itself, the
chamber or casing being provided with openings at the upper and lower ends, so
that the liquid in the digester can circulate freely through it. The discharge pipe
of the condenser in this case communicates directly with the digester.
According to another modification, steam is admitted directly from a generator
to the digester through a pipe leading down to the bottom thereof, where it issues
through numerous perforations into the contents of the digester. The steam pipe

page_text: is surrounded by a tube through which a continuous current of the contents of the
digester is thus made to pass upward in close contact with the steam pipe. As in
this arrangement there would be a continuous increase in the volume of the
materials in the digester due to the steam admitted, the top of the digester is in
free communication with the condenser coil, which has a discharge cock at bottom
by which a regulated quantity of the condensed vapour corresponding to the
increment in the digester can be discharged. The glycerine liquor is supplied to the
condenser from a tank into which the vapours given off by the evaporation in the con-
denser are led back, and are partly condensed therein and partly flow through a coil
situated in a vessel, over which coil the glycerine liquor supply is caused to trickle,
so as to condense such vapour and at the same time be itself to a certain extent
concentrated by evaporation by the heat given off. This liquor is then made to
flow into the supply tank of the condenser.

page_text: pipe E. Lastly the cock R³ is also closed, so as to entirely cut off the vessel A
which can then be emptied and charged again through the opening J while the
circulation of the liquid in B is kept up through pipe E. The vessel A having
received a fresh charge of fatty matter and water, the cock R₁ is opened for
establishing an equilibrium of pressure between A and O¹; the cock R³ is then
opened and, after this, the cock R²; lastly the cock r is closed. The circulation
from the coil B is then effected through the vessel A containing fresh matter to be
acted upon. As soon as the pressure exceeds the desired amount, the piston C,
being raised, effects the opening of the cock H. Water then enters the refrigerator D
and, taking up heat from the steam that passes from A. into the coil c, condenses
and cools such steam, thereby effecting a reduction of pressure in the vessel A and
causing the piston C to drop again and so to turn the cock H into the position in
which the contents of D are discharged. The refrigerating and condensing action
will then cease until a fresh increase of pressure in A takes place. The cooled
water of condensation from the coil c passes back into the vessel A through the
pipe E and branch T and so assists in the reduction of temperature and pressure
therein. S is a safety valve on the pipe M for preventing too great a rise of
pressure in A.
II. APPARATUS WITH INDIRECT HEATING OPERATING WITH STEAM FROM
INDEPENDENT GENERATORS.
a. Heating with steam by conduction, Fig. 3. In this case there is substituted
for the direct heating by fire heat an arrangement for fractional heating by steam
by successive increments for the purpose of producing the motion and molecular
contact of the fatty matters and of the water which is an essential feature of this
avention. For this purpose a cylindrical vessel B is employed containing a group
of tubes through which passes the steam entering at K. and passing out at L, these
tubes being entirely immersed in the liquid compound that circulates through the
vessel A by means of the lower tube T. The liquid being heated by its contact
with the tubes rises and passes through the upper connecting pipe TT back into
the vessel A in which it produces the heating effects and the movement of the
particles described. The arrangement and action of the refrigerating vessel D,
condensing coil c piston C and cock H is the same as previously described.
Instead of employing water in the refrigerator, a current of glycerine liquor
proceeding from previous operations is employed. By this means the excess of
heat is utilised for evaporating the water from the glycerine liquor and so reducing
them to the desired degree of concentration.
b, Another arrangement for heating with steam by conduction is shewn at Fig. 4.
In this case the heater B of the previous arrangement is entirely dispensed with
and, in place thereof, either a group of tubes or a tubular coil B, through which
steam is made to circulate is placed, is placed inside the vessel A and is sur-
rounded by a casing M open at bottom and provided with perforations at top in
order to produce an upward current of liquid therein through the heating effect of
the coil B and thus causing the desired circulation of the liquid in A as indicated
by the arrows. By employing steam for heating the liquid, as in this and the
foregoing arrangement, a more uniform heating thereof will be attained. The
refrigerator D and condensing coil c are arranged as before, the condensed steam
being made to flow back into the vessel A. through the pipe F. When high
temperatures are required, low pressure steam is by preference employed, super-
heated to the required degree. In this case there would be applied a superheating
furnace to the steam pipe leading into the apparatus B Figs. 3 and 4, between this
and the steam generator. The steam on issuing from the heating apparatus B may
still be used as motive force in the workshops. If steam at high pressure is
employed this may be led back into the generator.
c, Heating by the injection of steam, Fig. 5. In this case steam is made to pass
from the pipe D down to the bottom of the digesting vessel A through the pipe P,

page_text: where it issues from the perforated shield Q into the vessel A. Surrounding the
pipe P is a tube M with trumpet mouth opening at bottom and perforations at top,
so that the steam issuing through the perforations at Q, in rushing up through the
tube M, will carry with it the liquid of the vessel A. and thus cause a continuous
circulation thereof through the vessel as indicated by the arrows. The pressure in
the vessel A is regulated by the condenser B. In this arrangement the volume of
liquid in the vessel A tends to increase continually owing to the continuous supply
of steam. In order to compensate for this increase, the steam condensed in the
coil of B is not conducted into the vessel A but is discharged externally, such
discharge being regulated by a valve F. The apparatus for regulating the pressure
in A such as was described in the previous arrangement is here dispensed with, the
condenser being simply connected to the vessel A by a pipe E so that the pressure
in A is freely transmitted to the coil of the condenser where the refrigerating
effect of the glycerine liquids circulating through the condenser tends to reduce the
pressure. The condenser B is fed with glycerine liquor from the tank C in which
its level is regulated by a float acting on a cock J on the supply pipe. The steam
resulting from the evaporation of water from the glycerine liquor in the con-
denser B is led through the pipe H into the feed tank C, this pipe serving also to
allow any liquid to pass over from B in case its contents are subjected to violent
ebullition. The steam issuing from the tank C passes through the pipe I into
a coil K in the open vessel L, while the supply of glycerine liquor is made to flow
into this vessel through pipe V and through a perforated distributing plate O on
to the coil K so as to take up heat from this coil before passing through the cock J
into the tank C. The condensed steam and water passes off from the coil.K
through the pipe S. By this means the glycerine liquors are already concentrated
to a certain extent before entering the tank C.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is :-
1. The herein described construction of apparatus for treating fatty bodies by
means of heat, whereby the heating of the liquid matter is effected fractionally
by successive increments producing an effective movement and contact of the
particles operated upon, while any excess of pressure generated by such heating is
absorbed as soon as produced by a refrigerating and condensing action substantially
as herein described.
2. In apparatus such as is referred to in the previous claim, the use as the refri-
gerating medium of glycerine liquor, whereby this is simultaneously reduced by
evaporation to the required degree of concentration.