Waters, into Fertilizers and other Useful Products.
Year: 1886

page_text: Waters, into Fertilizers and other Useful Products.
I JOSEPH VAN RUYMBEKE of Chicago in the State of Illinois, United States of
America 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 :—
The conversion into a fertilizer and other useful products of the waste liquids,
technically termed tank waters, usually produced under high temperature and
pressure in the process of rendering meats, fish and fatty substances has been,
heretofore, unsuccessful in securing practical results, because the fertilizer pro-
duced from such waste liquids by evaporation and the application of a limited
degree of heat to the residuum, has usually been sticky and difficult to handle and
the resultant by-products contained in the liquids have been allowed to escape or
have been of such a character as to be almost valueless.
:
This unprofitable and partial utilization of tank liquids has been caused, mainly,
by a failure to understand the changes produced in their organic constituents by
the heat and pressure to which they have been subjected during the process of
rendering and as a consequence the further application of heat about from 149° to
177° C. has been only far enough to produce partial chemical changes, without
effecting complete decomposition and therefore failed to destroy the viscidity and
deliquesence of the article produced or on the other hand the heat has been carried
to such destructive limits that much of the nitrogen has been lost and the residual
products rendered of little value.
When these liquids have been treated within the limits of about 177° C. of heat,
a brown and brittle substance is produced, which, before exposure to the action of
the atmosphere, can be reduced to a powder, but which, upon exposure to atmo-
spheric influences becomes viscid and deliquescent and the entire mass melts into
a solid lump, a fault which renders the substance practically useless and unsuitable
as an article of commerce. The degrees of heat which were employed in its
production being insufficient to decompose the albuminoids and without the
decomposition of the albuminoids their viscidity and deliquesence cannot be
destroyed but will be only temporarily masked,

page_text: My object is to produce an improved concentrated, antiseptic, insecticide
fertilizer free from such undue viscidity and deliquesence and to pass over the
by-products of decomposition in a collectable form. I have found that by con-
tinuing the heat to a certain point above. 177° C. and holding it within certain
limits this before mentioned brown solid product becomes a dry and stiffened mass
which as the heat advances beyond 204° C. liquifies to a consistency similar to hot
tar, and, when the layer of the material is about four inches in thickness, if the
heat be carried to from 232° to 249° C. and there continued for about 3 to
4 hours, a substance is produced which, while hot, is capable of flowing out of the
vessel in which it is prepared; but when cold solidifies into a substance which
resembles asphalt, is brittle and easy of pulverization and which when pulverized
remains free from the said defect of undue deliquesence and viscidity.
This application of the said higher degree of heat is made preferably in are
tight vessels, so that the by-products may be collected.
When the temperature has advanced beyond 193° C. decomposition sets in and
continues while the heat is increased to from 238° to 260° C. whereby a certain pro-
portion of carbolic acid and pyrol is produced in a collectable form.
If this advanced degree of heat be continued until the larger proportions of the
more volatile and deliquescent products of decomposition are driven off the product
remaining will be permanently freed from undue viscidity and deliquesence and
the volatile products so released may be collected in suitable apparatus, as
by-products in the form of sulphates, aniline tars and illuminating gases.
The apparatuses used may be either stationery or revolving, provided with
suitable openings for the introduction of the material and the evacuation of the
products, when finished connected also with such subsidary apparatus as may be
best adapted for the collection and utilization of the various by-products obtained.
My invention will be fully understood by the following description and claims
and consists in manufacturing from the aforesaid and similar liquids by the
application thereto of a decomposing degree of heat, a concentrated, antiseptic,
insecticide fertilizer free from the said undue deliquescent and viscid properties
having carbolic acid uniformly distributed throughout its mass; also of the by-
products of said manufacture; namely: Ammonia Compounds, Amines, ignitable
gases, Aniline and Carbolic tars.
The carbolic acid here referred to is formed from the original constituents of
said liquids by the chemical changes produced in the process of its manufacture
together with nitrogenous substances in largely increased quantities obtained by
driving off the more volatile compounds but leaving in the material the largest
part of its nitrogen, thereby increasing in the concentrated product, the original
percentage of nitrogen.
In doing this, proportionate quantities of nitrogen will also be released, varying
however according to the character of the liquids treated and the quantity of the
fertilizer to be produced.
When the nitrogenous products begin to pass over, the material liquifies,
permanently losing its viscidity and undue deliquesence.
In the manufacture of this product these liquids may be evaporated and finished
in the same apparatus, but the use of a separate evaporator and finishing machine
is most convenient and profitable; the reduced bulk being much more cheaply and
easily handled in separate finishing apparatuses prepared for this purpose.
When a separate evaporator is used these liquids may first be reduced to
dryness, or until they contain about twenty-five per cent of moisture; the latter
however is the most convenient condition for removal to the finishing apparatus
where they are subjected to a degree of heat, as above stated, sufficient to
decompose their original albuminoids continuing such heat until all the deliquescent
products of decomposition are driven off, when its viscidity and undue deliquesence
will be permanently destroyed and can never be restored as in the case of the
brown brittle substance first above mentioned. My product first becomes solid at
a temperature of 149° to 177° C. and as the heat is advanced the mass becomes dry

page_text: and stiff until the temperature reaches the decomposing point about 193° C. beyond
which liquifaction begins and the deliquescent and viscid properties commence to
separate themselves, the heat meanwhile being raised to from about 232° to 260° C.
and so continued for 3 to 4 hours for a layer of about 4 inches thick of material
but by variations in the thickness of the material the degree of heat and length of
time it is applied must also be varied, but the degree of heat must be always such
as will produce decomposition and liquifaction of the material.
By this treatment of the material there is driven off from 25 to 50 per cent of
the nitrogen contained in these liquids thus producing a concentrated product
having a higher percentage of nitrogen than these tank waters originally contained
and which can be melted without decomposition thereby proving that the original
albuminoids have been completely decomposed into new products not decomposible
at a temperature ordinarily affecting such albuminoids while it has also obtained
the property necessary for the absorption of ammonia thus preventing a too rapid
escape of nitrogen during the period of fermentation in the soil.
The organic constituents of the liquids are thus chemically changed into less
complicated molecular structures, such as: Amines, salts of ammonia and phenols.
Carbolic acid is one of the phenols produced through the gradual decomposition
of the original albuminoids, and is, consequently intimately mixed with the general
mass thus constituting an homogenious compound, the phenols of which are always
in the presence of Ammonia Compounds, whose neutralizing effect renders accidents
to plants impossible, while at the same time their antiseptic and insecticide
properties are preserved.
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:
1st The above described non-viscid and non-deliquescent fertilizer consisting of
concentrated and partially decomposed tank waters containing carbolic acid and
other phenols without the additions or artificial mixture of said phenols.
2nd The by-products resulting from the concentration and partial decomposition
of said tank waters for the production of a non-viscid and non-deliquescent
fertilizer.
3rd A non-viscid, non-deliquescent fertilizer with its by-products when the same
are produced from tank waters by reliquifying decomposition.
Signed April 24, 1886, and
acknowledged before me
WM ZIMMERMAN,
Notary Public.
JOSEPH VAN RUYMBEKE.