AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF AZOTIC OR NITROGENOUS FERTILIZING COMPOUNDS WITH A CARBONACEOUS RESIDUUM
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Harris Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th May 1880. A communication
from abroad by David Clovis Knab, Chemist, and Louis Paul Trouilloud, both
of Paris, France.
HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF AZOTIC OR
NITROGENOUS FERTILIZING COMPOUNDS WITH A CARBONACEOUS RESIDUUM."
[A communication from abroad by David Clovis Knab, Chemist, and Louis Paul
Trouilloud, both of Paris, France.]
This Invention relates to an improved manufacture of azotic or nitrogenous
fertilizing compounds with a carbonaceous residuum.
Humus is an indispensable and absolute constituent of all manures for agricultural
purposes. Good dung is a perfect manure, for the reason that besides containing
azote, potash, phosphoric acid, and the like, it also contains a large proportion of
humus; unfortunately however the production of this manure is limited.
On the other hand chemical manure, phosphates, ammoniacal salts, salts of
of potassa, and even guano, whether employed singly or combined, do not constitute
perfect manures; they deteriorate or exhaust the soil, as none of them contain
assimilable humus.
This fact is now becoming recognized by all agriculturists who have abused the
use of chemical manures and even guano and nitrates.
The object of this Invention is the manufacture of humus soluble in water and
assimilable.
According to this Invention, decomposed vegetable detritus is preferably employed
as a basis, whose decomposition, although leaving intact the azote or nitrogen the
detritus contains, destroys to a great extent its ligneous fibres. This product is the
opposite to that selected as the principal ingredient in the manufacture of paper pulp..
The best vegetable detritus is well matured peat or turf, which on being submitted
to analysis in a dry state gives the following results, taking 100 parts as a
whole :-
01

page_text: The organic substance, ulmic acid and the like, contain azote or nitrogen from
2 to 3 per cent. of the whole weight of the dry peat.
Pulverized dry peat may also be used in carrying the said Invention into practice,
but for economical reasons fresh cut peat is preferable, and which coming from damp
localities contains from 70 to 80% of water. This frest cut peat whilst still damp
is submitted to a suitable refining process, by which roots, branches of unsuitable
size, pebbles, sand, and the like are eliminated. The peat after undergoing this
preliminary process is suitable for the purpose of the said Invention, and then
contains from 20 to 30% of dry material, and is of sufficient consistency.
°
In carrying the said Invention into practice, the material is first repeatedly
introduced between two pairs of crushing cylinders which reduce it into a very fine
homogeneous paste. On issuing from the said crushing cylinders the paste enters a
vertical pug-mill provided with a number of blades.or iron knives. On entering
the upper part of the pug-mill the material receives a regulated flow of a solution
of caustic alkali, and preferably caustic potash, in chemical proportion with the
composition of the peat. If for instance fresh cut peat containing about 30% of
dry matter is employed, and the said dry matter contains as above mentioned 31°.
of ulmic acid, and 7% of resin, and the other constituents heretofore quoted, the
chemical equivalent of these organic bodies being very high, that is to say,
about 4400, that of the potash 589, or when soda is employed 300.
There is required for every ton of fresh cut peat 300 kilogrammes of dry matter
× 31 + 7 38114 kilogrammes to be saturated.
-
4400 589 114: x = 15 kilogrammes of pure potash per 1000 kilogrammes of
4400 390: 114: x = 10 kilogrammes of pure soda. 5 fresh peat.
In practise this weight is increased by a slight percentage. Instead of using the
said caustic alkalies, I in some cases employ the carbonates of the said alkalies; tbe
latter process is more lengthy and requires greater heat, but on the other hand it
is more simple, as it obviates the process of corrosion, and the use of carbonates is
proportionately more economical. The mixture of the pulverized carbonates with
the fresh peat is effected before it is crushed between the rollers. When the
alkalified is introduced into the pug-mill in a state of paste, a continuous jet of
steam is introduced at a suitable point into the lower part of the said pug-mill in
such a manner as to raise the temperature of the mass or mixture to 100° centigrade.
This steam jet facilitates to a great extent the working up and combination of the
alkalies with the ulmic acid and other constituents. When the temperature is
sufficiently raised, an orifice at the lower part of the pug-mill and opposite that
through which the steam jet enters on the one side is opened. The said orifice
which is circular may be closed when desired by an ordinary screw. When the
material is sufficiently heated, the manufactured humus passes out through the said
orifice in a continuous mass in the form of a firm and homogeneous paste. Nothing
is therefore required but to regularly feed the pug-mill with the alkalified peat
paste, and to regulate the exit orifice of the mixture so as to maintain the mass of
material in the mill at a sufficiently high temperature. Moreover the mass of
material flows with ease and regularity, and has a fine black color only when the
mixing and the temperature are sufficient.
The said mixture when dried and pulverized constitutes humus which contains
potash suitable for direct application for agricultural purposes. This humus
contains all the almic acid combined with the potash and is completely soluble in
water, and also contains the azote of the peat. This is an excellent product for
mixing with guano, salts of ammonia, or with phosphates or nitrates, to all of which
it imparts that which they principally lack, namely, humus.
The humus containing potash is excellent for improving the growth of wheat, of
the vine, and of many other crops.
A powerful azoted manure may be extracted from this product by the following
process, that is to say:-The pasty material in à boiling condition (100°) issuing in
a continuous stream from the pug-mill is directed at once into wooden vats heated
by the direct injection of steam. A quantity of water sufficient to render the said

page_text: paste very thin is then added, and the paste is systematically submitted to hot
lixiviation, thence passes through a turbine to a filter press or to any other suitable
device for separating the solutions.
This systematic lixiviation operates on the one hand to completely exhaust or
separate all the mould or humus from the material, and on the other hand to obtain
sufficiently concentrated solutions.
The solutions thus obtained are submitted to evaporation by any well known
means, such as those used in the treatment of saccharine syrups, or simply by
exposure to the atmosphere, as the mould or humus is not liable to decompose like
saccharine juices; this evaporation leaves a pasty residuum, which when dried
contains in addition to the entirely soluble humus all the azote in an assimilable
condition originally contained in the primary substances. Thus by employing
potash as a dissolvent, the gross weight of the substance when dry is reduced, say,
by a third; the concentrated manure will be rich in potash, very rich in humus, is
entirely soluble, and will contain moreover if manufactured from peat having from
2 to 3% of azote, three times more, that is to say, from 6 to 90% of azote. This
improved manure is very advantageous, as it lacks nothing but phosphoric acid,
which may be easily added to it, as the production of superphosphates is a distinct
manufacture or process.
In some cases a proportion of caustic soda is used so as to lower the cost of
production of the manure, which is only provided with the quantity of potash
necessary. Besides the above valuable manure or fertilizer, there is a residuum rich
in carbon, and minutely triturated by the chemical process it has undergone, and
which is very suitable for mixing with animal matters, blood, and the like, as
animal charcoal.
This calcined residuum is an active disinfectant, and in some cases serves as a
bleaching agent.
The said carbonized residuum may moreover be used as fuel to replace or constitute
a cheap substitute for charcoal or Paris coal.
These two products, that is to say, the highly azoted alkaline humus and the
finely divided assimilable carbon may be obtained in any quantity by one and the
same operation.
In the method heretofore employed of distilling peat in a closed vessel and at a
high temperature, three-fourths of the azote are destroyed, and all the humus so
valuable for agricultural purposes, and this process necessitates very costly plant,
and the expenses attending its working are more costly still, the gas evolved during
the process being useless for lighting purposes.
The apparatus employed according to this Invention on the contrary is of the
greatest simplicity, being never heated higher than the temperature of the steam, and
entails but slight expense for repairs.