Treatment of Distillery Refuse commonly called "Pot Ale” or "Burnt Ale."
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Mar., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 17th Oct., 1899-Accepted, 25th Nov., 1899
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Treatment of Distillery Refuse commonly called "Pot Ale” or
"Burnt Ale."
We, THOMAS STORER, Technical Chemist, and ROBERT MCALLEY, Technical
Chemist, both of Bankside, Falkirk, in the County of Stirling, Scotland, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
"
Up to the present time the waste product of distilleries known as
'pot ale"
or "burnt ale" has been a source of serious inconvenience to distillers and to
riparian proprietors, on account of the nuisance which it causes by the pollution
of the streams and water courses into which it is allowed to run. and which
has given rise to much costly litigation. Many attempts have been made and
processes devised with the object of being able to treat this waste liquid in such
a manner as to make it fit to be discharged from the works in a condition which
would prevent its being a source of contamination to waters employed for
cattle-drinking or for fishing, but up till now none of these have been successful,
and distillers are still without a method by which it can be treated so as
to render it free from objection. Nor has any product been obtained from its
treatment which was of sufficient value to cover or partly cover the cost of dealing
with it.
As the result of a series of systematic investigations, we have discovered a
method of treating the "pot ale" or "burnt ale," whereby we obtain a product
of very considerable market value, and at the same time completely do away with
river pollution.
We treat the "pot ale" or "burnt ale" with milk of lime in proportion hardly
sufficient to neutralise its acidity.
We afterwards evaporate to dryness by any suitable means, and obtain thereby
a valuable marketable product containing potash, nitrogen and phosphates, the
proportions of which we have found to be such that the monetary value of it
covers or goes a long way to cover the cost of the treatment.
We have also discovered that these waste products can be treated without the
addition of lime, without detriment to the value of the product.
We have thus found that the method herein described of obtaining a valuable
marketable article from this waste product not only solves the difficulty that
has been experienced up to the present time with regard to the pollution of
streams and water courses, but that the price obtainable for the product covers
or nearly covers the cost of treatment, and in some cases leaves a clear profit,
the process consisting in the evaporation either with or without lime, of the
waste liquors from the spirit stills, and the drying, by heat, of the residue
obtained so as to form a suitable article for the market.
Jated this 23rd day of March 1899.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.

page_text: Treatment of Distillery Refuse commonly called "Pot Ale" or
"Burnt Ale."
We, THOMAS STORER, Technical Chemist, and ROBERT MCALLEY, Technical
Chemist, both of Bankside, Falkirk, in the County of Stirling, Scotland, 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 follow-
ing statement:-
6.
-
Up to the present time the waste product of distilleries known as "pot ale"
or burnt ale" has been a source of serious inconvenience to distillers and to
riparian proprietors, on account of the nuisance which it causes by the pollution
of the streams and water courses into which it is allowed to run, and which
has given rise to much costly litigation. Many attempts have been made and
processes devised with the abject of being able to treat this waste liquid in such
a manner as to make it fit to be discharged from The works in a condition which
would prevent its being a source of contamination to waters employed for
cattle-drinking or for fishing, but up till now none of these have been successful,
and distillers are still without a method by which this refuse can be treated so as
to render it free from objection. Nor has any product been obtained from its
treatment which was of sufficient value to cover or partly cover the cost of dealing
with it.
As the result of a series of systematic investigations, we have discovered a
method of treating the
pot ale $
or burnt ale," whereby we obtain a product
of very considerable market value, and at the same time completely do away with
river pollution.
"
We treat the "pot ale or "burnt ale" with milk of lime in proportion hardly
sufficient to neutralise its acidity.
We afterwards evaporate to dryness by any suitable means, and obtain thereby
a valuable marketable product containing potash, nitrogen and phosphates, the
proportions of which we have found to be such that the monetary value of it
covers or goes a long way to cover the cost of the treatment.
We have also discovered that these waste products can be treated without the
addition of lime, without detriment to the value of the product.
We have thus found that the method herein described of obtaining a valuable
marketable article from this waste product not only solves the difficulty that
has been experienced up to the present time with regard to the pollution of
streams and water courses, but that the price obtainable for the product covers
or nearly covers the cost of treatment, and in some cases leaves a clear profit,
the process consisting in the evaporation either with or without lime, of the
burnt or pot ale from the spirit stills, and the drying, by heat, of the residue
obtained so as to form a suitable article for the market.
For carrying out our invention various forms of apparatus may be used. In
practice we find it convenient to employ shallow iron trays set in brick-work and
heated directly by flues leading from coal or other fires. These trays are built
in such a way as to avoid over-heating, which would result in partial decom-
position of the product and consequent depreciation of its monetary value. Into
these trays we run the "pot ale' burnt ale," if possible directly from the
spirit stills where it is produced, and allow it to evaporate until it has assumed
the consistence of a thick paste, at which point we transfer it into other pans
of a similar construction and heated in a similar way, and dry it therein at a
moderate temperature. When the liquor is very acid we find it desirable to
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page_text: add 1 or 2 per cent. of lime or whatever proportion of lime is necessary to
render the liquid nearly neutral. In order to avoid decomposition as much as
possible the temperature should not be allowed to rise much above 100° Centi-
grade. The product thus obtained is so rich in potash, phosphoric acid in the
form of phosphates, and nitrogen equivalent to ammonia, in the form of
albuminoid bodies, that its market value as estimated by quotations from price-
current lists, for the ingredients it contains will pay all the costs of treatment,
including that of the fuel employed.
So far as we have been able to discover this product has been up to the present
time unknown commercially and we have been unable to discover that it has been
prepared, either with the object of preventing the pollution of water courses,
or of obtaining a product of high commercial value.
The product obtained by this new treatment is a light friable solid body,
easily reduced to powder, and from its chemical composition and mechanical
condition, it is admirably adapted for sowing as a manure.
It contains large
proportions of the only essential elements of plant life and growth, potassium,
phosphorus and nitrogen--and as these are all organically combined in the
product, they are in the best form for assimilation by the plant.
In districts where coal or other fuel is not too expensive, we prefer to accom-
plish the final drying of our product in a bath or chamber heated by steam or
by any known arrangement, by which the product does not undergo partial decom-
position by exposure to too high a temperature, but with ordinary care the drying
can be satisfactorily accomplished as previously described. The lime, when
employed, we run into the trays or evaporators simultaneously with the "pot
ale or
"burnt ale," or it may be first run into the pans by itself.
"
In the first stage we find that surface evaporation may be employed.
We are aware that methods have been proposed and devised of treating "pot
alo" or burnt ale" chemically by lime, salts of allumina and iron and other
"
chemicals, in order to precipitate organic matters and produce a more or less
purified effluent, but we disclaim all these and any other process by which an
effluent is produced. as it is chemically hopeless to obtain by any chemical treat-
ment an effluent fit to be turned into water courses, or any effluent that will
not putrify in a very short time. By our method no effluent is produced, and the
purity of running waters is at once and absolutely secured, at little or no cost.
and sometimes with a profit. Expensive litigation is thus avoided and injune-
tions or interdicts granted against producers of these obnoxious waste products
do not require to be applied. We are also aware that a process is in use by which
the "pot ale" or "burnt ale" is merely settled or filtered, and the portion that
precipitates naturally is separated dried and sold as a feeding stuff, while the
liquor, then somewhat clarified but as noxious as ever, is allowed to run away,
but we do not claim anything of this kind, nor any process or invention that
produces any effluent.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is:-
The new manure produced by evaporating to dryness pot or burnt ale with
or without admixture of lime.