A Process and Apparatus for Concentrating Liquids.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Aug., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 22nd May, 1896-Accepted, 22nd Aug., 1896
A Process and Apparatus for Concentrating Liquids.
I We, LOUIS MARIE HENRI ROBERT BAUDOIN, and PIERRE EMILE LAURENT
SCHRIBAUX, both of 58bs Chaussée D'Antin Paris in the Republic of France,
Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention consists of a process and apparatus adapted to condense any
liquids, containing, in the shape of useful matter, both fixed and volatile substances
and to reduce them to a small volume.
The liquids to which our invention relates are of two sorts:
1. Liquors used as beverages such as wine, cider, beer and the like, the normal
constituent elements of which (excepting water) it is desired to preserve; and
2. Solutions obtained by a treatment of a great variety of substances with
volatile solvents such as water, alcohol, ether, sulphuret of carbon and the like
which solvents it is in some cases useful to recover or re-produce after use.
The result of our invention is to reduce the cost of transport and to remove the
difficulties attending it as well as to save a cousiderable proportion of the cost
which is now incurred for storing while at the same time affording increased
facility for the preservation of the matters treated. The invention also enables
the same solvents to be used over and over again for the purposes of trade or
manufacture, for an indefinite period of time.
The
The process which forms the subject of this invention consists in converting into
vapours nearly the whole of the liquid components of the product to be treated,
by heating it in vacuo, so as to eventually reduce such product to the condition of
an extract, or in other words of a highly concentrated liquid in which are collected
and combined all the fixed (non-volatile) substances which it contains.
mixture of steam and volatile principles which it is desired to preserve are
conveyed into a series of apparatus which successively condense and collect, in
separate receivers, the water, on the one hand, and the volatile products, on the
other. Those of the latter products which had normally formed part of the
substance treated are combined with the extract and the mixture thus obtained
may be introduced into the market without any further manipulation. When once
the concentrated product has reached its destination, it is easy to reproduce it in
the original condition, by simply adding thereto a quantity of water equivalent to
that which had been at first removed. The water extracted from the matter under
treatment may either be rejected as waste or utilised for feeding the boiler; or,
after cooling, it may serve for condensing steam or vapours.
The apparatus which is adapted for the practical performance of the above
described process comprises :-
An evaporating pan wherein the liquid to be concentrated is brought to boiling
point; a separator provided with a froth-breaker wherein the heated liquid is
divided into two parts:
1. The extract which collects at the bottom of the separator where it is to be
mixed with the condensed volatile products; and-
2. The vapours mixed with water and alcohol, the various forms of ether and
other volatile products that may be contained in the liquid. These vapours
continue their course through the remaining parts of the apparatus ;

page_text: A retrograding concentrating apparatus comprising (a), an externally cooled
coil, and (b) a receiver capable of being heated by steam. The steam alone is
condensed within the coil and the product of condensation descends to the said
receiver. By heating this receiver, it is possible, if necessary, to convert the
condensation water into steam again and to cause it once more to pass into the
retrograding apparatus, if it still contain alcohol or another volatile product which
it is desired to retain.
This latter part of the apparatus may be replaced by an ordinary purifying
column which, in some cases, may be erected outside the vacuum apparatus.
Concentration then takes place at the ordinary pressure.
A condenser of useful volatile products, constituted by a cooled coil, in which
such products, after having been freed from steam by the retrograding, are
completely condensed.
An extracting pump adapted to draw in the various volatile products condensed
in the preceding parts of the apparatus, and to force them into the receiver
containing the extract, where they mix to form the concentrated product, or in a
separate receiver, if it be desired to regenerate or reproduce a solvent. This pump
operates at the same time as a vacuum pump.
The extracting pump employed for drawing off the condensed volatile products
causes the liquid under treatment to enter the apparatus by powerful suction.
It therefore maintains a partial vacuum which greatly facilitates evaporation and
enables the temperature required for converting the product into steam to be
reduced.
The water extracted from the product is cooled by means of a suitable condenser,
and caused to circulate by pumps, so that it may for an indefinite period be used
for cooling in the various coils.
The evaporator, according to the nature of the product to be treated, is heated
to a higher or lower temperature by means of the exhaust steam from the engine
which, operates the several pumps, or by means of a suitable water bath.
Dated this 24th day of August 1895.
We LOUIS MARIE HENRI, ROBERT BAUDOIN and PIERRE EMILE LAURENT
SCHRIBAUX both of 58 Chaussée d'Antin Paris in the Republic of France,
Engineers, 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:
+
This invention consists of a process and apparatus adapted to condense any
liquids containing, in the shape of useful matter, both fixed and volatile substances
and to reduce them to a small volume.
The liquids to which our invention relates are of two sorts:
1. Liquors used as beverages such as wine, cider, beer and the like, the normal
constituent élements of which (excepting water) it is desired to preserve; &
2. Solutions obtained by a treatment of a great variety of substances with,
volatile solvents such as water, alcohol, ether, sulphuret of carbon and the like
which solvents it is in some cases useful to recover or reproduce after use.
.
The result of our invention is to reduce the cost of transport and to remove the
difficulties attending, it as well, as to save a considerable proportion of the cost
which is now incurred for storing, while at the same time affording increased

page_text: facility for the preservation of the matters treated. The invention also enables
the same solvents to be used over and over again for the purposes of trade or
manufacture, for an indefinite period of time.
The process which forms the subject of this invention consists in converting into
vapours nearly the whole of the liquid components of the product to be treated,
by heating it in vacuo, so as to eventually reduce such product to the condition of
an extract, or in other words of a highly concentrated liquid in which are collected
and combined all the fixed (non-volatile) substances which it contains.
The mixture of steam and volatile principles which it is desired to preserve are
conveyed into a series of apparatus which successively condense and collect, in
separate receivers, the water, on the one hand, and the volatile products, on the
other. Those of the latter products which had normally formed part of the
substance treated are combined with the extract and the mixture thus obtained
may be introduced into the market without any further manipulation. When once
the concentrated product has reached its destination, it is easy to reproduce it in
the original condition, by simply adding thereto, a quantity of water equivalent to
that which had been at first removed. The water extracted from the matter
under treatment may either be rejected as waste or utilised for feeding the boiler;
or, after cooling, it may serve for condensing steam or vapours.
The apparatus which is adapted for the practical performance of the above
described process comprises :-
-
An evaporating pan wherein the liquid to be concentrated is brought to boiling
point; a separator provided with a froth-breaker wherein the heated liquid is
divided into two parts :-
1. The extract which collects at the bottom of the separator where it is to be
mixed with the condensed volatile products; and
2. The vapours mixed with water and alcohol, the various forms of ether and
other volatile products that may be contained in the liquid. These vapours
continue their course through the remaining parts of the apparatus.
A retrograding concentrating apparatus comprising, (a), an externally cooled
coil, and (b), a receiver capable of being heated by steam. The steam alone is
condensed within the coil and the product of condensation descends to the said
receiver. By heating this receiver, it is possible, if necessary, to convert the
condensation water into steam again and to cause it once more to pass into the
retrograding apparatus, if it still contain alcohol or another volatile product which
it is desired to retain.
This latter part of the apparatus may be replaced by an ordinary purifying
column which, in some cases, may be erected outside the vacuum apparatus.
Concentration then takes place at the ordinary pressure.
A condenser of useful volatile products, consisting of a cooled coil, in which
such products, after having been freed from steam by the retrograding, are
completely condensed.
An extracting pump adapted to draw in the various volatile products condensed
in the preceding parts of the apparatus, and to force them into the receiver
containing the extract, where they mix to form the concentrated product, or into
a separate receiver, if it be desired to regenerate or reproduce a solvent. This
pump operates at the same time as a vacuum pump.
It
The extracting pump employed for drawing off the condensed volatile products
causes the liquid under treatment to enter the apparatus by powerful suction.
therefore maintains a partial vacuum which greatly facilitates evaporation and
enables the temperature required for converting the product iuto steam to be
reduced.
The water extracted from the product is cooled by means of a suitable condenser,
and caused to circulate by pumps, so that it may for an indefinite period be used
for cooling in the various coils.
The evaporator, according to the nature of the product to be treated, is heated

page_text: to a higher or lower temperature by means of the exhaust steam from the engine
which operates the several pumps, or by means of a suitable water bath.
The invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying
drawings, showing by way of example, a complete concentrating apparatus
constructed and fitted up in accordance with our invention, in the form or
condition which we consider it to be best fitted for practical purposes; though it
will, of course, be understood, that we do not confine ourselves to the particular
mode of performance of our invention which the drawings represent, or to the
details and accessory parts shown, or to the method illustrated of combining or
connecting the several parts of the apparatus; all of which features may vary
extensively without any departure from the principle of our invention:
Figure 1 is a diagram of the main parts of the apparatus illustrating its general
operation, -or the co-operation of its several parts, as it takes place during one
cycle of operation.
Figure 2 is a diagram representing a modification of the construction of certain
parts of the same apparatus.
Figure 3 is a plan of the concentrating apparatus such as we prefer to construct
it, and
Figures 4, 5, 6 and 7 are elevations of the apparatus, viewed from its four
different sides A, B, C, D, Fig. 3 respectively.
For the purpose of illustration, we will suppose that it is desired to concentrate
wine. The wine to be treated is drawn in by the alcohol and air pump (hereinafter
more fully described) into any suitable receiver or chamber (not shewn) through a
tube 1 (Fig. 1) provided with a rose and a controlling valve or cock, which tube
conducts it into the various component elements of the evaporating or wine-heating
apparatus. This apparatus is formed with a simple continuous pipe, forming an
extension of the tube 1 and bent at several points of its length, as indicated in
dotted lines in Figure 4, within two long sleeves, 2, 3, connected by their ends and
in which there circulates the exhaust steam from the steam engine 4 (Figures 3,
6 & 7) which drives the pumps, or the water for the water bath to be used. This
bent tube is thus heated for a considerable portion of its length, and the wine
circulating therein is brought to the boiling point before it can enter the separator
or " froth-breaker" 5, consisting of a single elongated cylindrical receiver, provided
at its upper part with a vacuum gauge. In this receiver, the vapours are separated
from the liquid which redescends in the condition of hot extract to the bottom of
the separator, whence a pipe 6 (Figures 3, 5 & 6) conveys it to the pump 7, which
draws it in, and, through the pipe 8, forces it into the receiver 9, where the extract
is mixed with alcohol.
Or the constituent portions of the apparatus may be arranged in the manner
illustrated in Figure 2, which arrangement differs from the one first described in
the following particulars :-
1. The liquid before entering the coil 3, passes through a receiver 11, wherein a
special air pump, (not shown) connected to the suction pipe 23' maintains a partial
vacuum, the extent of which is determined by means of a vacuum gauge 5', and
which remains constant owing to the action of a spring controlled pressure
regulator 6'; and
2. The liquid to be heated passes through the coil in the downward direction
(instead of upwardly, as it does in the arrangement shown in Figure 1). The
heating process is thus rendered more methodical. The liquid, after this, reaches
the separator 5; the remaining parts of the apparatus being the same as those
shown in Figure 1.
At some suitable position along the course which the extract is to follow in
flowing from the separator 5 to the pump 7, there is interposed a test glass for
ascertaining the condition of the extract. This test glass consists of a glass
globe 10 firmly secured on to a horizontal dish or plate. Through the transparent
walls of this globe (or dome,) the extract which is caused to pass through it on its

page_text: way, is visible, whereby a reliable check is placed on the operation of the
apparatus. The pipe 11 (Figure 5), which connects the separator 5, with the
interior of the dome or globe 10 serves to balance the pressure within the two
receivers or chambers.
"
The vapours, being a mixture of water and alcohol, ether, and other volatile
products, hereinafter referred to as
"alcoholic vapours which have been
separated from the extract in the separator 5, pursue their course and thus
arrive at the pipe 12 provided at the top of a receiver 13 (Fig. 5) which is
fitted with a water gauge and is capable of being heated internally by a
steam coil.
A portion of the steam is condensed in this receiver, while the remainder passes
through the pipe 14 into the retrograding or concentrating apparatus, being an
extension of the said pipe wound in the shape of a rising serpentine coil and
enclosed within an outer casing 15 wherein there circulates a current or jet of
water, the temperature and quantity of which should as far as practicable be
regulated in such a manner that the steam alone may condense within the coil.
The condensation water descends into the receiver 13. This receiver is at its lower
part provided with a short test tube which enables samples of the condensation
water to be drawn off, to ascertain the proportion of alcohol which it contains.
Unless this proportion is quite insignificant, the receiver 13 is heated by sending
vapour or steam through the coil wbich it contains. The alcoholized water is thus
recouverted into steam and conveyed back to the retrograding apparatus, the
cooling power of which is so controlled that the water as it drops into the
receiver 13 should contain no more alcohol.
A pump 16 (Figure 3) draws in the water, as it is freed from alcohol and
collected in the receiver 13, by means of a pipe 17, and forces such water through
the pipe 18, into the hot water tank or trough 20.
The vapours which have passed through the retrograding apparatus without
condensing, and which issue from the pipe 21 (Fig. 3) are carried by that pipe
into the alcoholic vapour condenser, which is formed by a serpentine coil, cooled
externally by a current of water circulating through the tank 22. The whole of
the alcoholic vapour is condensed within this coil, and the resulting liquid, drawn
along with air into the pipe 23, by the pump 24, is next forced through the pipe 25
into the receiver 9 where it becomes mixed with the extract contained therein.
its way from the condenser 22 to the alcohol and air pump 24, the liquid passes a
device for testing alcohol, 26, placed upon the pipe 23, similar, to the extract
testing glass 10, which arrangement enables the speed of circulation of the said
liquid and the rate at which the apparatus delivers or supplies the final product at
the time, to be at any moment readily ascertained.
On
The mixture of extract and alcohol, ether and other useful components of the
wine being treated, with the exclusion only of the water it contained, constitutes
that which is the object of the apparatus to produce viz.: concentrated wine,
capable of being introduced into the market in a compact shape or in a small
volume.
We may, if desired, substitute for the retrograding apparatus already described,
a purifying column of any ordinary or well known type (such as Dubrumfauts
Savalle's and others) employed in distilleries, and place such column outside the
vacuum apparatus.
The apparatus just described thus comprises means for circulating steam, for the
purpose of heating the liquids to be treated, and means for circulating water, for
cooling the condensing coils.
The steam which is employed in heating the apparatus is preferably exhaust
steam from the driving engine 4. Upon the exhaust pipe 27 (Fig. 4) of this
engine there is arranged a small reservoir 28 from which start (1) a steam-supply
tap and pipe 29 adapted to feed the two sleeves 2 & 3 of the evaporator or wine
heater. The water condeused in these sleeves is discharged through the pipe 30
into the hot water trough or tank 20. (2) A steam supply tap and pipe 31

page_text: admitting steam into the coil of the receiver 13. The water condensed in this coil
descends through the bent pipe 32 into the said hot water tank, and (3) a discharge
tap and tube 33 enabling the condensed water, collected at the bottom of the
reservoir 28, to be discharged into the said hot water tank.
All the hot water or lyes, resulting from the operation of this apparatus are,―as
will be herein after explained-brought back to the trough or tank 20. They have
to be cooled down before being again allowed to circulate about the serpentine con-
densers. To this end, a centrifugal pump 34 (Figs. 4 & 7) operated by the steam
engine draws a supply of hot water through the pipe 35, at the bottom of the
tank 20, and forces the same through the pipe 36, into an air-cooler 37, of ordinary
construction the water being cooled by the action of a current of air supplied by
the fan 38 (Fig. 5). This fan receives motion through the medium of a counter
shaft 39 (Fig. 6), from the engine 4, a strap being passed for the purpose over the
pulleys 40 & 41, such shaft transmitting the motion to the cranks of the pumps by
means of straps passing over the pulleys 42, 43, 44 and 45 (Figs. 5 & 6). Part of
the water thus cooled, which is contained in the air cooler 37 (Fig. 4), descends
down into the chamber or casing 15 of the retrograding apparatus through the
pipe 46 and is heated by the heat which it absorbs from the coil, redescending to
the pipe 47 into the hot water bath or tank 20.
Another portion of the cold water from the air-cooler passes through the pipe 48,
to the bottom of the condenser 22 of alcoholic vapours, traverses such condenser in
the upward direction, cooling the coil, which it contains, on its way, and is eventually
discharged, whilst still hot, through the pipe 49, into the bath or tank 20, and the
overflow from the air-cooler, redescends through the pipe 50 into the said tank.
These hot liquids are then again drawn in by the centrifugal pump 34, in the
same way as before, and the same cycle of operation is repeated over and over
again, as many times as may be required.
The loss of water resulting from evaporation on the surface of the tank or
trough 20 is compensated for partly, by the continual afflux of water, as it is
extracted from the wine, and forced, as already stated, by the pump 16 into the
hot water trough or bath 20; and partly by the discharge, into the said trough
through the pipes 30, 32, 33, (Fig. 4) of the condensation water obtained from the
-condensation of the exhaust steam used for heating the evaporator and coil
contained in the receiver 13.
This process is applicable, not to wine only, but to other beverages as well, such
.as beer, cider perry, and the like and generally to all liquors containing valuable
non-volatile substances or both volatile and non-volatile substances worth saving.
Or extracts, soluble in water, alcohol, ether, sulphuret of carbon and other similar
solvents, may be manufactured by the same process.
If desired a number of vapourizing or steam producing chambers may be connected
to form double or treble-acting apparatus.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is :-
1. A process for concentrating wine and other analogous liquids or liquors,
consisting in converting into vapours the volatile components of such liquor or
liquid, so as to reduce the same to the condition of an extract, in condensing
separately and successively the steam and the alcoholic vapours, and in mixing
the product of condensation of the alcoholic vapours with the extract, substantially
as described.
2. Apparatus for carrying out the process as claimed in Claim 1 consisting in
the combination of an evaporator or wine-heater, a retrograding apparatus or
serpentine coil adapted to condense the steam, a receiver or chamber heated by a
steam coil enabling the condensation water to be reconverted into steam if required,
an alcoholic vapour condenser, an alcohol extraction pump and a mixing chamber
for mixing the extract and alcohol, with pumps and coolers capable of cooling

page_text: and setting in motion the water which is to circulate about the coils for the
purpose of cooling them, substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore
described.
3. The general arrangement and combination of parts constituting apparatus for
concentrating wine or the like substantially as hereinbefore described and
illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 22nd day of May 1896
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.