Improvements in the Manufacture of Illuminating Gas.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Aug., 1891-Accepted, 10th Oct. 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Illuminating Gas.
I, PAUL DVORKOVITZ of 98 Queen's Road, Finsbury Park, in the County of
Middlesex, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to the production of illuminating gas from steam and
hydrocarbon oils, and has reference especially to the quantitative and qualitative
out-put of gas, and also to the continuous working of the apparatus, and to the
saving of the subsidiary products.
In working out my invention, I have sought to secure in my apparatus regularity
of temperature, which, as experience shows, has a very marked influence on the
out-put, both as regards quantity and quality, varying temperatures of necessity
producing uncertain and unequal results.
One point of importance to which I have given attention, is the gasification of the
hydrocarbon oil, separately, and at the very beginning of the process, so that it is
introduced in a highly heated gaseous state into the presence of continuously formed
water gas and has therefore no tendency to cause a reduction of temperature in the
mixing or carburetting chamber.
The apparatus for making the oil gas is constructed with a view to simple and
ready cleaning, so as to remove expeditiously, from time to time, the carbon deposit
which would otherwise choke the apparatus.
After the mixing and fixing of the illuminating gas, the use of an efficient
condenser is essential to remove the tar and other heavy material which contains
valuable substances, before these are removed in the scrubbers, and taken up by
the water, from which it is difficult again to separate them.
According to my invention, I provide in the same furnace setting, a system of
superheaters in which atmospheric air and steam are separately superheated, and
hydrocarbon oil is converted into gas. In connection with the air and steam
superheaters, are arranged a pair of retorts or generators filled with coke.
Superheated air is blown into one of these generators until the fuel has reached
a sufficient heat, the air is then blown off from this generator, and admitted to the
second, while superheated steam is admitted to the first generator. There the
superheated steam is converted into water gas, while at the same time the second
generator is being heated up. After some minutes, the second generator being
sufficiently heated, the superheated steam is cut off from the first generator, and
admitted to the second, and at the same time the superheated air is again forced
through the first generator, to which fresh fuel is supplied as required.
During the operation of heating up the generators to bring the fuel contained
therein to a state of incandescence, generator gas is formed, and this is used for
heating the carburetters, wherein the oil previously rendered gaseous in a gasifying
apparatus hereinafter described, and the water gas, are mixed and combined into a
fixed oil water illuminating gas.
The carburetters are filled with porous brickwork or similar refractory material,
and are enclosed within a casing, through which the flaming gas from the generators
passes, thereby maintaining the carburetters at a high temperature. This source
of heat is practically continuous, as one or other of the generators is always producing
generator gas under the influence of the heated air blast, while the other is producing
water gas.
From the carburetters, the gas passes to condensers which I prefer shall be of
the construction presently described, and therein most of the heavy material, such
as tar, is condensed and removed from the gas before the latter passes on to

page_text: scrubbers to be subsequently treated. Thus, a large percentage of the tar, which
before was mixed with water in the scrubber, and therefore practically lost, is saved,
with many valuable products to be found therewith.
In the accompanying drawings,
Fig.
illustrates diagrammatically, in plan, gas-making apparatus arranged
according to my invention.
Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation thereof, and
Fig. 3 is a detail, shewing the construction of the oil superheater.
Fig. 4 is a front elevation of a modification embodying the same invention
(condensers not shown), suitable more particularly for small plant, and in adaptations
of existing horizontal retorts.
Fig. 5 is a sectional plan, and
Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation.
The superheaters A, B, and gasifier C, for the air, steam and oil respectively,
consist of pipes arranged in a furnace setting with fire box and chimney.
The superheaters A and B may be ordinary coils of metal pipes, but the oil
gasifier C must be so constructed as to permit of the easy introduction of a
cleaning tool for removing the carbon which is sure to be deposited. In Fig. 3
I have illustrated the device which I prefer to employ for gasifying the oil. This
device is composed of straight lengths of piping e, connected into a continuous
length by rectangular junction pieces c', provided with removable plugs c², which
give access to the interior at every turn, and permit of the cleaning tool being used
on any portion of the apparatus.
DD are the generators, alternately heated by the superheated air, with the
assistance of the furnace d d beneath the generators, so as to bring the coke
contained within the generators into a state of incandescence.
The superheater for air A, is merely a coil of piping, at one end of which a is the
inlet, and at the other a' the outlet; a and a³ are branch pipes leading respectively
to the generators D and D' (see Fig. 1). a' and a are cocks for closing alternately
the branch pipes a² and a³. is the steam inlet pipe to the superheater B; the
outlet, with branches 23 to the generators D D. and are stop cocks.
The gasifier for oil C is built, as before explained, of straight pipes connected
with rectangular unions, which extend outside the furnace setting, so as to admit of
the casy introduction of a rod for removing the deposited carbon. e* is the oil inlet
to the superheater, and ** the outlet for conveying the gasified oil to the mixing
chamber or carburetter E. E' is a chamber in connection with the chamber E,
and arranged in the same setting, and both are filled with open brick-work, or other
porous refractory material.
The generators D D' are both connected by pipes de d³ with the interior of the
chamber E, and by pipes with the hollow casing surrounding the chambers E
and E. The chambers E E are heated from the generators by the pipe d³ ³, and
additional heat may also be obtained, when required, from the furnace e beneath
the chamber E (see Figs. 1 and 2). e¹ is a flue for the escape of waste products
from the hollow casing of the chambers E El.
In the modification shown at Figs. 4, 5, and 6, the superheater, generators, and
carburetters, are all arranged in one setting, which renders the apparatus very
compact, and makes one furnace available for applying heat to all the parts.
FF are condensers connected together by the pipe f: they are formed in the
annular space between the concentric cylinders fƒƒ³/^; and, f, are water
pipes for circulating cold water between the upper and lower chamber f. 7 is a
space within the inner cylinder for the free circulation of air, thereby securing the
aid of both air and water in one condensing apparatus. is a pipe leading from
the condenser to the scrubber, and g' is the outlet for the tar.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-
Both the generators D D being charged with fuel, superheated air from the
superheater A is blown through one of them, say D, and the fuel therein is brought
to an incandescent mass. The generator gas thus formed is conveyed by the pipe d

page_text: to the casing of the chambers E E', and there utilized as fuel for heating those
chambers.
As soon as the generator D is well heated, the air blast is transferred to the
generator D', which is in turn heated up, and the generator gas therefrom con-
veyed through the pipe to maintain the heating of the chambers E E. Meantime
superheated steam is admitted to generator D, and water gas therein formed.
The pipe is now open, and the water gas passes through it from the generator to
the carburetters E E, in the former of which it meets the oil gas delivered by the
perforated pipe c*** from the gasifier C.
When the generator D' is sufficiently heated up, all the cocks are reversed, and
the air again is blown into D, while fresh fuel is added thereto. D' meantime
carries on the continuous production of water gas, to meet the supply of oil gas in
the carburetter.
The function of the second carburetter E is rather as a fixing chamber where
the oil water gas is fixed after mixing in the chamber E. The action and use of
the condensers F F' has already been explained.
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. Producing oil water gas continuously, as described, by passing superheated
steam alternately through one or other of a pair of generators, and causing it to
meet in a carburetting apparatus a stream of previously gasified hydrocarbon oil,
with which it combines and becomes a fixed gas.
2. In apparatus for the continuous production of oil water illuminating gas, the
combination of an oil gasifying apparatus with air and steam superheaters, a pair
of alternately employed generators, a gas mixing and fixing apparatus, and a
condenser, substantially as described.
3. The construction of oil gasifying apparatus illustrated at Fig. 3 of the
drawings, consisting of straight tubes joined with rectangular junctions and provided
with removable plugs to facilitate cleaning, substantially as described.
4. Condensing apparatus for gas-making, consisting of concentric cylinders with
a central air space and tubular passages for water, substantially as shown and
described.
Dated this 10th day of August 1891.
Agents for the Applicant.
NOS & NOTAUINT