IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAnufacture OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL BLOCKS
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Denton Abel at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 28th November 1872.-A communication from abroad by
Leon Gailbordt, of St. Petersburg, in the Empire of Russia,
Technologist.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAnufacture
OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL BLOCKS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the manufacture of artificial fuel
blocks from coal and coke dust, breeze, cinders, and carbonaceous dust
from furnaces, by admixture therewith of lime water, either alone or
together with other known binding materials, for binding together the
separate particles of carbonaceous matter to a solid mass.
It has been discovered by my foreign correspondent that lime water
acts as a most efficient binding material for binding together the separate
particles of carbonaceous materials so at to produce artificial fuel blocks
of good quality, while at the same time it offers great advantages on

page_text: account of its cheapness, over the resinous and bituminous binding
materials heretofore employed for this purpose.
The lime water may either be employed alone or together with a
small per-centage of other known binding materials or fluids, such as
resinous substances or tar. Experiments have shown that the lime
water effects a more perfect moistening and consequently a more
other
intimate cohesion of the particles of carbonaceous matter than any
binding material heretofore employed, and also that the best results are
obtained if the substances are mixed together in the presence of heat;
in consequence whereof it is preferred to heat the materials to from 176°
to 212° Fahrenheit during the process of incorporation with the
lime water.
In manufacturing artificial fuel blocks from coal dust or small coal
the use of other binding materials that the lime water is unnecessary, as
the products of dry distillation which exude from the surface of the.
particles of coal on the application of heat during the process of
incorporation themselves assist in binding together the particles.
Fuel blocks may also be produced from coke dust, cinders, breeze, or
unconsumed carbonaceous dust from furnaces according to this Inven-
tion without the addition of any other binding material than the lime
water, but on account of the absence of volatile constituents in such
carbonaceous materials it is preferred to add resinous or bituminous
substances in the proportion of about one-twentieth part of the weight
of the carbonaceous materials. In the latter case ordinary gas tar may
be used as the additional binding material.
In employing the carbonaceous dust collected from beneath furnaces
for the above purpose, this must first be freed from foreign substances
such as ashes and slag, which is readily effected by mixing the dust
with water when the carbonaceous particles will separate from the other
substances by virtue of their greater specific gravity, and can then be
collected and utilized as above described.
1
In manufacturing fuel blocks according to the present Invention the
carbonaceous material is introduced in layers into a suitable closed steam
jacketed vessel provided with a stirring apparatus by which the material
is continually stirred up; the separate layers are moistened on their
introduction into the vessel either with the lime water alone or (according
to the nature of the carbonaceous material employed), together with

page_text: some other known binding material such as gas tar, and the whole is
then thoroughly incorporated by means of the stirring apparatus, being
at the same time maintained at a constant temperature of from 176° to
212° Fahrenheit as before stated.
The apparatus employed may be similar in construction to a clay
pugging mill such as is used in the manufacture of bricks, which
apparatus effects not only a stirring up but also a pressing of the
compound before its removal from the incorporating vessel.
After thorough incorporation the compound is either forced out or
otherwise removed from the vessel (according to the construction of the
apparatus employed), and it is then conveyed to presses such as are
usually employed for forming artificial fuel blocks of any desired shape
and size.
The formed fuel blocks are then dried either in the air or by any
suitable known artificial means, and they are then ready for use as an
efficient fuel.
It will be readily understood that various descriptions of incorporating
machines and presses may be employed for manufacturing fuel blocks
according to this Invention, and I do not claim any particular con-
struction of such apparatus for this purpose.