Improved Process of Distilling Petroleum. PROCESS OF DISTILLING PETROLEUM
Year: 1888

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Process of Distilling Petroleum.
We WILLIAM HUDSON PITT and GEORGE HENRY VAN VLECK, both of Buffalo, in
the County of Erie, and State of New York, United States of America, Gentlemen,
do hereby declare the nature of our invention for IMPROVED PROCESS OF DISTILLING
PETROLEUM, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
In some of the petroleum oils there is a strong odor somewhat like the smells of
garlic which escapes gradually from such oils if exposed to the air at the wells, in
open barrels, tanks and other receptacles which may be used to hold them. When
such garlicy petroleum is distilled according to the common processes now in use at
the oil refineries the distillates are affected with the disgusting odor existing in the crude
oil to such an extent as to render them unsuitable for the uses to which such products are
commonly applied. The series of liquid distillates or hydrocarbons under the familiar
names of naphtha, benzine, kerosene and lubricating oil having the garlicy odor is greatly
damaged for the market in consequence of which the distilling of the crude petroleum
containing the disgusting smell is greatly retarded at the present time or almost
abandoned.
The object of our invention is to so distil petroleum having the offensive odors, in
such a manner that the distillates may be marketable and made use of as solvents,
illuminants, lubricants, or for any other purposes to which the products of petroleum
not having the offensive odors may be appropriated.
Our invention consists broadly in passing the hot vapors arising from odoriferous
petroleum above described, through, around and among a heated metallic substance or
metallic compounds suitably divided or comminuted into parts which shall effectually
deodorize the vapors and cause the condensed and other products from offensive
crude oils, to be purified rendering them capable of use in the arts, sciences and
manufactures.

page_text: In the drawings,
Figuro 1, is a front elevation of our improved apparatus with portions broken away
to show interior construction, and figure 2, is a vertical section taken in the line x,,
of figure 1.
Referring to the drawings a furnace is seen having the two separate heating
compartments a and a provided respectively with the separate fire boxes b and bin
order that an independent fire can be maintained in each. In the compartment a and
resting upon girders c seated at their ends in the brick walls of the furnace, is the
receptacle or refort d in which is placed the offensive crude petroleum to be operated
upon. As will be seen in figure 2, the retort d is so placed as to permit the heat to
circulate freely around, above and below the retort.
In the chamber a¹ is similarly placed upon the girders e the receptacle in which
the filtration or deodorization is to be effected.
g is a pipe open at both ends and preferably bent at an angle as shown, its upright
portion resting vertically within the retort d, its upper open end reaching above the
level of the liquid oil in the retort. Its lower or horizontal portion passes out through
the side wall of the retort dat or near its bottom, through the division wall of the
two chambers a and a¹ and into the receptacle or filter, preferably at or near its
bottom as shown.
h is a condenser of any well known form connected by the pipe h¹ with the filter ƒ
at or near its top as shown.
The crude petroleum having the offensive odor referred to is placed in the retort d
and is there vaporized by the heat of the chamber a, such vapor passing down through
the pipe g, its heat being retained and condensation prevented by the hot liquid oil
surrounding such pipe. In this state it passes into the bottom of the filter fin which
receptacle the principal step of our improved process is carried out, viz.: the separation
of the sulphurous garlicy odors from the body of the vapor. To effect. this purpose
we place within the receptacle a substance suitably divided or comminuted so
as to present the vapors passing therethrough the greatest contacting surfaco
possible.
The substance employed as the deodorizer must necessarily be of such a nature as
to have a strong affinity for the sulphurous portion of the vapors in passing in contact
with the substance, which may be of different metals such as iron or copper or metallic
'compounds but preferably iron owing to its cheapness and durability. As the vapors
pass through and around the broken or finely divided particles of the substances, the
element or elements of the sulphur fumes are attracted and retained while the balance
of the vapors consisting principally of hydrogen and carbon (which go to form chemically
pure petroleum) pass out of the filter and are condensed.
The deodorizing metallic substance of whatever nature employed, is kept always at
about the same or a higher temperature than the vapors entering the filter by the
independent heat of the chamber f. The sulphurous odors of certain varieties of
petroleum, which in distilling it is the object of our invention to improve, are supposed
to arise mostly from the presence of sulphur in chemical union with an element or
elements in the composition of the oil. This sulphurous compound of whatever nature
existing in the oil and which chiefly causes the disgusting odor is broken up when in
a state of hot gas or vapour as it is diffused and filtered through the hot material which
is used as the chemical deodorizer. The deodorization is effected principally by the
sulphur uniting with the metallic substance of the filter at the same or a comparatively
higher temperature than the vapor itself as it leaves the retort on account of sulphur
having a greater affinity at this temperature for the substance or substances in the
deodorizer than for the element or elements entering into the chemical constitution of
the oil, which is understood to be principally bydrogen and carbon.
In employing a proper deodorizing material for the filter we do not wish to be
confined to metals, as metallic compounds in general would suffice, for example the
oxides of iron. The gist of our invention being broadly in the employment of any
metallic substance or compound whatever which possesses the requisite affinity for the

page_text: objectionable sulphurous vapors, which we seek in this way to separate from the body
of the hot vapor in the operation of cleansing the same.
The pipe need not necessarily enter the bottom of the filter for effective results
although this is our preferred arrangement.
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-
The process of distilling petroleum having sulphurous or other offensive odors
consisting essentially of vaporizing such liquid petroleum, then passing the vapors so
formed through a receptacle heated at about the same or a higher temperaturo than
the vapors coming from the still, said receptacle being filled with a metal or metals
such as iron or metallic compounds having an affinity for the sulphurous vapors and
other objectionable compounds whereby they are held and retained by such substance,
and conducting away and condensing the balance of the vapors substantially as shown
and described.
ALLISON BROS.,
Agents for the Applicants.