Improvements in Apparatus and Arrangements for Distilling Mineral Oils.
Year: 1886

page_text: Improvements in Apparatus and Arrangements for Distilling
Mineral Oils.
I, WILLIAM MILLIGAN FRASER, of Howden House, Mid Calder, in the County
of Mid Lothian, North Britain, Managing Director of the Pumpherston Oil
Company, Limited, 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, that is to say :-
'
My said Invention has for its object to simplify and improve the existing
processes and apparatus for distilling mineral oil, more especially in its crude state
as it is got from the primary retorts, and when fractionation of the oil is not
required or desired. In my improved apparatus the oil is operated upon con-
tinuously, and so that increased quantities are operated on with plant of diminished
cost and with reduced working expenses.
My improved apparatus and arrangements are shown on an accompanying sheet
of explanatory drawings, figure, 1, being an end elevation, figure, 2, a transverse
vertical section, and figure, 3, a plan. In these drawings the same reference
numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
In carrying out my Invention according to one modification and with the
apparatus and arrangements as shown in the accompanying drawings, I supply
the required heat by means of a furnace, 1, of the kind described in my Patent
Specification No 15686 of 1885, in which furnace liquid fuel is used in an improved
manner; and by so doing I obtain a heat which is constantly maintained of a
suitable uniform intensity, and is very advantageous when the distilling operation
is carried on in a continuous manner. The main part of my improved distilling
apparatus is a horizontal cylindrical vessel, boiler, or still, 2, of iron or steel which
may be of any convenient size, and which is supported and enclosed with brick-
work constructed with suitable heating flues. The main heating flue, however, is
an internal cylindrical flue, 3, extending from end to end of the still, 2; and the
liquid-fuel furnace, 1, is erected at one end of the still, 2, and in such a way that
its combustion chamber, 4, communicates directly with one end of the internal
flue, 3, of the still. At the other end of the still, 2, the internal flue, 3, commu-
nicates through a space, 5, enclosed by the brickwork with two external return
flues, 6, which act on the sides but not on the bottom of the still; and these return
.

page_text: flues communicate, one directly, and the other by a cross flue, 7, (figure, 2,) with
a flue space, 8, which is beneath a horizontal cylindrical vessel, 9, provided for
utilising the partly exhausted fire gases in heating the oil before it enters the
still, 2, the fire gases finally passing off to the chimney by a flue indicated at, 10,
in figure, 3.
The crude oil to be operated on is supplied by a pipe, 11, to one end of the
feed-heating vessel, 9, and is led from the other end of that vessel by a pipe, 12,
to the still, 2, this pipe, 12, dipping down in the still to a point a little below the
surface of the oil in the still. The volatilised oil leaves the still, 2, by preference
by three curved branch pipes, 13, as shown, these pipes joining a single pipe, 14,
which leads by branch pipes, 15, to condensers, 16. The residuary oil is led from
the bottom of the still, by a pipe, 17, to a closed tank or vessel, 18, placed at a
lower level than the still, 2, and can be periodically removed therefrom by means
of a pipe, 19. Or the residuary oil may be led from the main still, 2, directly to
another still for further treatment.
The internal flue, 3, in which the most intense heat acts, being placed as shown
in the middle of the body of the oil and at a suitable distance above the bottom of
the still, 2, the apparatus is thereby rendered quite free from the liability which
exists in ordinary stills for coke or residuary carbonaceous matter to be deposited
upon and adhere to the bottom of the still. My improved apparatus consequently
involves much less labor and time for cleaning out than ordinary stills; and is also
free from the danger caused by the adherence of carbonaceous matter.
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 improved combination of apparatus and arrangements for distilling
mineral oils substantially as hereinbefore described and as shown in the accom-
panying drawings.
2. The improved still with its internal and external heating flues arranged
substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore described.
3. The combination of the liquid-fuel furnace and the internal heating flue.
substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore described.
Dated this twenty-third day of March 1886.
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicant's Agent.