IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FUEL BLOCKS FROM SLACK AND IN THE PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR THE SAME AND FOR UTILISING THE PRODUCTS
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Imray at the Office of the
commissioners of Patents on the 20th December 1881. A communication
from abroad by George Shepard Page of Stanley, County of Morris, New
Jersey in the United States of America.
JOHN IMRAY of No. 28 Southampton Buildings in the County of Middlesex
'IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FUEL BLOCKS FROM SLACK AND IN
THE PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR THE SAME AND FOR UTILISING THE PRODUCTS."
[A communication from abroad by George Shepard Page of Stanley, County of
Morris, New Jersey in the United States of America.]
Heretofore waste bituminous coal dust or culm has been utilised as fuel
by mixing it with other substances by agglomerating the same with bituminous
and resinous substances and pressing the same into blocks. It has also been
utilised to a limited extent as a coke but in the production of such coke no
provision has heretofore been made for the saving of the ammoniacal products,
gases and hydrocarbons.
The object of the present Invention is to receive the dust, culm, or slack as it is
daily produced at the mines or to use the present vast refuse accumulations, and
by the aid of certain appliances and mechanism to utilise every product contained
in the coal waste, in the most economical and effective manner, not only. in the
preparation of the fuel, but in the production of the various products for use
in the various arts. To this end this Invention consists in the manufacture
of fuel from the waste slack or culm of bituminous or semi-bituminous or other
coking coal, by coking the same at the mines as above stated, then crushing or
grinding and mixing it with about equal proportions of raw coal dust or culm
of any kind of coal, with the addition of enough pitch to cause the mass to
adhere and be formed into convenient-sized bricks or blocks. It consists further
in the arrangement of the coke ovens, gas receivers, tar receptacles, tar stills, and
receivers for the different products arising from the distillation of the coal tar,
together with the system of connecting pipes for the ready manipulation and
transfer of the said products.
In order to manufacture the fuel from waste coal, slack or culm and at the same
time save all the products arising from the manufacture of the coke, a convenient
arrangement of stills, receivers and connecting pipes, is as follows:-The coking
oven, of which there may be several is conveniently situated near the mouth of
the mine, or deposit of refuse dust, slack or culm, and receives its charge of slack
or culm through an opening in the top which is closed and sealed after receiving a
suitable quantity of slack or culm from a truck. The gases eliminated from the
.

page_text: slack or culm during the coking process, ascend and pass through pipes into
a deposit tank which is partially filled with water and in which the coal tar and
ammonia are separated from the illuminating gas, the tar and ammonia being
conveyed to a receiving tank while the gas is conveyed by a pipe to a gasometer.
The gases thus produced in the coking of the slack or culm are utilised as fuel for
carrying on the coking process and also for fuel in the distilling processes of the
coal tar, to be immediately described. The coal tar is run from the receiving tank
into a tar still through pipes on opening a suitable valve. The tar still contains
flues similar to the flue boilers used for generating steam, and is provided with an
opening in the botton through which the pitch or residuum is discharged. It is
heated by the gas from the gasometer derived from the coking of the slack or
culm as previously stated. In the distillation of the coal tar the vapours rise and
pass through pipes fitted with valves into a condensing tank provided with a coil
or several coils of pipes through which cold water is passed and by which tho
vapours are condensed. The condensed products flow through pipes into the
respective tanks which receive the light oils, the creosote, and the anthracene.
The "light oil" which comes over at a temperature under 250° Fah: is led into
the light oil tank as the temperature rises above 250° the valves are shifted to
allow the heavy creosote oil to pass into its tank; when the thermometer indicates
450° the valves are again shifted and the oil coming over between 450°
and 600°, called anthracene oil, is_deposited-in-its-tank. The condensation of
the light creosote and anthracene oils might be effected by lengthening the vapour
pipes without the use of the condensing tank. After the oils referred to have been
driven off and deposited in the various tanks assigned them, a liquid pitch yet
remains in the still; this pitch is drawn off from the still through a pipe into a
tank which is kept in a heated condition by a steam coil in order to retain tho
pitch in a fluid condition until ready for use.
The pitch thus produced is used as the binding material for the crushed coke and
slack and culm to form the same into bricks. A pipe leads from the pitch tank to
a mixer in which the pitch is mixed with the crushed coke and slack or culm.
The mixture is then pressed into blocks by any suitable machinery, such as is
used in the manufacture of bricks, that for example by which the clay is forced out
in a continuous column which is cut into bricks.
In order to utilise the creosote oil at the place of its manufacture, the oil
is passed through a pipe into a creosoting cylinder previously charged with timber
to be preserved which may be loaded on a truck. The process of creosoting which
is preferred is that known as the Bethell process, first used in England in 1838.
It may sometimes be advantageous to dispose of the surplus tar, not needed at the
works. In such cases the coal tar may be drawn from its tauk into a tank car for
transport and in a similar way creosote may be disposed of and also the light oil
and anthracene unless it is found advantageous to manufacture benzole, nitro-
benzole, naptha, carbolic acid and other products on the spot. The ammonia
generated in the carbonization of the dust, slack or culin, may besaved and converted
into sulphate of ammonia. The sulphur also can be saved in a well known manner
by passing the gas through oxide of iron which will gradually absorb the sulphur,
and when it has gained from 100 to 150 per cent. in weight of sulphur the oxide
can be burned in a furnace, and the sulphur fumes passed into an acid chamber
making sulphuric acid which can be used for making sulphate of ammonia. By
the method and means herein set forth every ingredient of the beretofore
comparatively valueless refuse of bituminous and semi bituminous coal dust, slack
or culm may be made of value, and put into practical form to be utilised in the
industrial arts.