Improvements in the Distillation of Petroleum and other Oil, and in Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Sept., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 14th June, 1898-Accepted, 23rd July, 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Distillation of Petroleum and other Oil, and
in Apparatus therefor.
I, THOMAS CASSIENET PALMER, of the Firm of W. J. Fraser & Co., of 98, Commercial
Road, East, in the County of London, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to the distillation of oils and chiefly of crude petroleum oil and
to apparatus therefor.
Hitherto in distilling petroleum oil it has been the custom to apply fire heat
directly to the still, which plan is not only dangerous to those working the apparatus
but is also defective owing to the difficulty of maintaining a regular and uniform
temperature. The object of my invention is to overcome these disadvantages and to
this end I make use.entirely of steam, which is preferably superheated, for heating the
still in combination with a vacuum so as to work at the lowest possible temperature
for the distillation and thus obtain also a superior product.
In carrying out my invention I provide a distilling vessel of suitable shape in which
a congeries of tubes is arranged through which the oil to be treated can circulate and
around or through which the superheated steam can flow, a space being left below the
said congeries to which access is afforded through a man-hole for facilitating the
cleaning of the apparatus. The upper part of the vessel is connected by means of a
pipe with a "catchall" or receiver in which certain parts of the vapour condense.
This "catchall "is connected with a vacuum pump which is also connected with one
or a series of condensers so that any of the volatile products which come from the still
and which are not condensed in the said "catchall are conducted into the
condenser or condensers.
"
"
In conjunction with the still is arranged what is known as a "fore warmer in
which the crude oil is preliminarily heated to a certain extent before it enters the still.
This fore warmer contains a heating system or congeries similar to that in the still or
of other suitable construction, the heat which is employed being obtained from the
residual oil in the still which is pumped from the bottom of the latter into the heating
system of the fore warmer and after giving off its heat, flows to a store tank.
A con-
necting pipe is arranged between the still and the fore warmer for conducting the
residue oil in the former into the latter. The upper part of the fore warmer is in con-
nection with the "catchall" so that any vapours which are given off in the said fore
warmer may be drawn off by the vacuum pump.
In some cases two or more stills may be used in combination through which the oil
to be treated is successively passed.
Although I have described the use of superheated steam it is to be understood that
ordinary steam may be used; its use, however, is not so advantageous as it has to
have considerable pressure in order to obtain the required temperature.
Dated the 14th day of September 1897.

page_text: Improvements in the Distillation of Petroleum and other Oil, and
in Apparatus therefor.
I, THOMAS CASSIÉNET PALMER, of the Firm of W. J. Fraser & Co., of 98,
Commercial Road, East, in the County of London, Engineer, 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 :-
My invention relates to the distillation of oils, and chiefly of crude petroleum oil,
and to apparatus therefor.
Hitherto in distilling petroleum oil it has been the custom to apply fire heat
directly to the still, which plan is not only dangerous to those working the apparatus
but is also defective owing to the difficulty of maintaining a regular and uniform
temperature. The object of my invention is to overcome these disadvantages and to
this end I make use entirely of superheated steam, for heating the still in combina-
tion with a vacuum so as to work at the lowest possible temperature for the distilla-
tion and thus obtain also a superior product.
In carrying out my invention I provide a distilling vessel of suitable shape in
which a congeries of tubes is arranged through which the oil to be treated can circu-
late and around or through which the superheated steam can flow, a space being left
below the said congeries to which access is afforded through a man-hole for facilitating
the cleaning of the apparatus. The upper part of the vessel is connected by means
of a pipe with a "catchall" or receiver in which certain parts of the vapour condense.
This "catchall " is connected with a vacuum pump which is also connected with one
or a series of condensers so that any of the volatile products which come from the
still and which are not condensed in the said "catchall are conducted into the con-
denser or condensers.
-
In conjunction with the still is arranged what is known as a "fore-warmer" in
which the crude oil is preliminarily heated to a certain extent before it enters the
still. This fore-warmer contains a heating system or congeries similar to that in the
still or of other suitable construction, the heat which is employed being obtained
from the residual oil in the still which is pumped from the bottom of the latter into
the heating system of the fore-warmer and, after giving off its heat, flows to a
store tank. The upper part of the fore-warmer is in connection with the "catchall"
so that any vapours which are given off in the said fore-warmer may be drawn off by
the vacuum pump.
To enable the invention to be fully understood I will describe it by reference to
the accompanying drawings, in which :-
Figure is a sectional elevation of apparatus made in accordance with the
invention:
Figure 2 is a plan thereof.
a is the distilling vessel which may be of any suitable shape and is here shewn
cylindrical and b is the congeries of tubes arranged within the lower part of the said
still and through which the oil to be distilled flows and around or through which
superheated steam can be passed; a¹ is the inlet for the crude oil, a² the inlet for
the superheated steam and a³ the outlet therefor; a is an inlet for conveying super-
heated steam into the body of the oil where desired. c is the space below the tubes
and c is the manhole by means of which access can be obtained to the said space
for facilitating the cleaning of the apparatus. The upper part of the still a is also
provided with a manhole d, glass gauge e and vacuum gauge f. g is the "catchall"
or receiver and h is the pipe by means of which the upper part of the still a is placed
in communication with the said "catchall.".
is the vacuum pump by means of which the necessary vacuum is produced in the

page_text: still a the said vacuum pump being connected by a pipe with the upper part of
the "catchall" g and by a pipe 2 with the upper part of the first of a series of con-
densers j, j. There may be any suitable number of these condensers of which,
however, two only are shewn in the drawing. The said condensers j, j are in the
form of cylindrical vessels having tubes through which water is caused to circulate
and around which the vapour is caused to pass. The water passes in at the bottom
of each condenser through the inlet and passes out at the upper end through the
outlet js.
The vacuum pump i can be connected behind the condensers instead of between
the catchall and condensers as shewn.
As above mentioned the crude oil is preliminarily heated before it passes into the
still, this preliminary heating being effected by means of the fore-warmer k. The
said fore-warmer k consists of a vessel, here shewn cylindrical, containing at its
lower part a congeries of tubes / similar to the congeries b in the still a although
the said tubes may be of any other suitable arrangement. It is also fitted with a .
gauge glass 2, vacuum gauge k³ and manhole k'. The crude oil is fed into the fore-
warmer through the inlet pipe land is heated by the residual oil from the still a
which is drawn therefrom through the outlet pipe a5 by the steam pump m and is
thence forced through the pipe n into the lower part of the fore-warmer around the
pipes k' of which it circulates, flows through the outlet o and is conducted to any
suitable store tank. The warmed oil in the fore-warmer is conveyed therefrom
through the outlet pipe p, the cock p' and the inlet pipe a¹ to the still a, above the
congeries of tubes 6 through which it flows in the manner above described. The
upper part of the fore-warmer is connected to the catchall by the pipe q which is in
connection with the pipe h.
The usual valves, cocks, sight-feeds and other fittings are provided.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows,-The crude oil is conveyed through
the inlet pipe into the fore-warmer k and is there heated by the hot residual oil
pumped into the lower end of the said fore-warmer in the manner above described,
and, when sufficiently warmed, is allowed to pass through the pipes p and a¹ into the
still a.
Any oil which may have been vapourized in the fore-warmer passes up
through the said fore-warmer and through the pipe q into the catchall g where it is
condensed. The warmed oil in the still a is heated by the superheated steam which
flows around the pipes b in the lower end of the still and is distilled, the vapours
passing through the pipe h into the catchall g where the light spirit may be con-
densed and drawn off through the pipe g¹ into a receiver as above described. The
uncondensed vapours then pass through the dry vacuum pump and into the
condensers j, j where they are gradually condensed and can be collected and
drawn off.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The described process for distilling crude petroleum and other oil, such process
consisting in heating the said crude oil in a vacuum by means of superheated steam,
substantially in the manner herein before described.
2. The described apparatus for carrying out the process claimed in the preceding
claiming clause, such apparatus comprising the still, "catchall," vacuum pump, con-
densers and fore-warmer combined arranged and operating as herein before described
and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
1
1000
Dated the 14th day
unc 1898.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.