A New or Improved Process and Apparatus for Removing Fatty Matters from Wool-washing and other Waters.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Apr., 1892-Accepted, 13th Aug., 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Process and Apparatus for Removing Fatty
Matters from Wool-washing and other Waters.
I FRANK HUGHES, of the firm of Hughes Eli and Hughes of 76 Chancery
Lane, London, W.C. Patent Agent do hereby declare the nature of this invention
(a communication to me from abroad by Alfred Motte and Company of Roubaix,
Nord, France Manufacturers) and in what manner the same is to be performed
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Hitherto the fatty matters contained in the water used for washing wool have
been won by treating such water with a sufficient quantity of acid to neutralize
the same and then removing the grease therefrom, either by pressure or by means
of solvents.
This invention has for its object to remove the fatty matters from wool washing
water by a combination of mechanical means with a much smaller quantity of acid
than hitherto required.
According to my invention the process for removing or winning the fatty matters
from wool washing water comprises four stages as follows:
1. The washing water is subjected without being previously allowed to settle to
a beating operation by means of suitable beaters having for their object to produce
a froth or foam containing about 30% of the fatty matters, this 30% representing
the purest part of the fat that is to say a substance such as lanoline which cannot
be readily saponified and is very sparingly soluble in alcohol; very little earthy or
sediment matter is carried away at this stage of the process.
2. The froth or foam produced during the first stage of the process having been
removed and subsequently treated in the manner hereinafter set forth, the water is
allowed to settle for a period of from 2 to 3 hours when a suitable quantity of
sulphuric acid is gradually added being about half the quantity heretofore used.
The beating operation is now recommenced and a froth or foam formed containing
another 30% of fatty matters which is of inferior quality to that first obtained
and contains more earthy or sedimental matter than the former.
3. This foam or froth being removed and the water allowed to settle for a period
of from 2 to 3 hours a fresh quantity of sulphuric acid equal to that used in the
old process is added thereto and the beating operation recommences whereby 30%
of fatty matter more or less loaded with earthy or sedimental matter
obtained.
IS
4. The water being again allowed to settle the remaining 10% of fatty matter
is extracted directly by means of a filter press as hereinafter more fully set forth.
The product last obtained contains all the inferior rancid fat which can be easily
saponified and is readily soluble in alcohol. The above described process permits
of obtaining a pure product at a much lesser rate than hitherto, there being con-
siderably less acid used and there being less loss of time involved in allowing the
liquid sedimental matter to settle, since this water can be treated directly without
the use of acid during the first stage of the process when the purest fat is
obtained.
The froth or foam may be removed from the surface of the water in any suitable
manner by hand or by means of a travelling screw and allowed to settle in suitable
vats when it forms a mass of suitable consistence to be first decanted then filtered
through an open filter and finally subjected to the action of hydraulic filter press
which will express the fat and leave a caky residuum the latter being treated in the
usual manner with sulphide of carbon. Or the froth may be reconverted into
water after its removal by allowing the same to fall in a receiver wherein operates
a suitable blower having for its object to burst the bubbles constituting the froth

page_text: and reduce the latter to an aqueous condition. The water thus produced is placed
in a decanting receptacle which is heated to a temperature of froin 60° to 70° when
nearly of the fatty matter ascends and. is removed. A sufficient quantity of
sulphuric acid is now added to the remaining water as well as to the water left after
the froth has been removed therefrom during the course of the process, to cause
the remaining fatty matter to ascend and be removed as before, these fatty matters
being first filtered 'through an open filter and then placed in a filter press which
expresses the fat therefrom the expressed fat which is obtained during the first
stage of the process i.e. without the use of acid is heated for some time at a
temperature of 80° when the scum being removed the grease produced is ready for
further treatment in oil mills and the like.
The expressed fat obtained during the subsequent stages of the process i.e. with
the use of acid requires aftertimes to be clarified if turbid. This fat is boiled with
2% of sulphuric acid, or merely raised to a temperature of 80° with a similar
quantity of the same acid and kept agitated by the air supplied from a blower.
The earthy or sandy residuum from the above process is either allowed to run off
with the clear water exhausted by the above process from its fatty contents or
allowed to drop through openings formed at the bottom of the tanks or basins
wherein it settled in order to be carried away in suitable trucks or waggons. Or
it may serve to form bricks and be used as artificial manure.
In the accompanying drawings
Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation showing by way of example suitable plant for
carrying the above described process into practice.
Fig. 1 is a continuation of Fig. 1.
Fig. 2 is a plan of Fig. 14.
Figs. 3, and 4 are respectively an end view and a plan of my improved form of
beater.
The wool washing water arrives through the conduit a and is conveyed through
the channel into a very long tank c divided by the bars or valves d into a number
of smaller tanks in each of which is arranged a beater e.
The bars d do not
extend to the bottom of the tank but leave a passage for the water to run off
while aiding in detaining the froth which is removed by hand with the aid of a
rake or otherwise over the said bars or valves d. During the first stage of the
process the froth is discharged into the receptaclef and conveyed thence by an
injector into the pipe j into the vat 1, while the froth produced during the
subsequent stages of the process is discharged into the receptacle g and conveyed
thence by an injector through the pipe into the vat from the vats 1/1 'the
frothy mass is subsequently allowed to drop in the decanting vessel m.
The beaters e may have the form shown in Fig. 1^ and consist of a polygonal
core or drum of wood e or other suitable material mounted on an iron axis e² and
furnished with paddles e. But I prefer the construction of beater shown in
Figs. 3 or 4 as being more efficient and consuming less power. This beater consists
likewise of a polygonal core of wood k mounted on a suitable axis K and furnished
with a row of inclined points k¹ converging towards the centre of the said core.
Each beater carries a pulley e¹ upon which moves an endless band t, while one of
the beaters carries another pulley à driving all the beaters and receiving a motion
from the main pulley w mounted on a shaft secured to the building B and set in
rotation by a driving belt y connected to another pulley mounted on the engine
shaft, m is the decanting vessel and n au open filter wherein the liquor is conveyed
from the said vessel, o is a hydraulic filter press operated by the screw press p
which is driven by the pulley q. As it issues from the press o the expressed fat is
on veyed into the receiver r and thence into the clarifying vat s.
u
"
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I déclare that
what I claim is :-
:―
1. The process for the removal of fatty matters from wool washing and other

page_text: waters by the action of mechanical means combined with an acid treatment
substantially as herein described and shown.
2. In the above process the improved form of beaters for producing a froth
containing a large percentage of the fatty matters in suspension in the washing
water substantially as herein described and shown in Figs. 14, 2, 3 and 4.
Dated this 6th day of February 1892.
HUGHES, ELI & HUGHES,
76, Chancery Lane, W.C., Agents for Applicant.