An Improved Artificial Asphaltum or Pitch, and Process of Making same.
Year: 1893

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Artificial Asphaltum or Pitch, and Process of Making
same.
I, REGINALD HADDAN, of the Firm of Herbert Haddan & Co., of 18 Buckingham
Street, Strand, W.C., London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention a communication to me from abroad by Giles Rendell Anderson, Arthur
Herbert Shotter, William Kochler, and Charles Henry Dorer, all of Cleveland,
State of Ohio, United States of America, and in what manner the same is to
be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The invention relates to an artificial asphaltum or pitch and
of
process
making the same; and it consists of the features herein described and more
especially pointed out in the claims, it being understood that the invention is not
in any way limited to the proportions of the ingredients of the product nor to
the specific steps set forth in carrying out the process, but embraces the use of
any and all equivalents which may enable the production of the product as
instanced in this description. To this end the invention consists, primarily, in the
manufacture of asphaltum or pitch from hydro-carbon oils or their products,
especially the heavy distillates and the residuum from distillation which may or
may not have been previously treated with acids by the addition of suitable
resinous products, preferably the resinous products of the pine tree, and, if sufficient
acid be not already present, the addition of a suitable amount of a suitable
acid, preferably sulphuric acid, and subjecting the same to heat and partial
distillation.
This invention enables the production of an asphaltum or pitch which is dry,
hard, lustrous, and brittle, adapted, the same as natural asphaltum, for use in the
manufacture of varnishes, carbon points for electric lighting, paving and roofing
compounds, electric insulating materials, etc., etc., and which is a staple article of
trade and in every particular the equivalent of the natural product.
The manufacture of such a staple article from ingredients so abundant and
available will tend to cheapen the cost, and increase the consumption of those
products in which the native asphaltum is now an element, the demand for which
has been rapidly increasing for many years past.
Under the process herein described the hydro-carbon products are placed
preferably in a still, with a suitable proportion of resinous matter, such as
pinestar, or rosin, with an addition of suitable acid, such as sulphuric acid, in
suitable quantity; the whole being then subjected to heat until any excess of
acid, and the elements of the hydro-carbon and resinous matter which are most
volatile, have passed off by distillation, at which point, if the distillation be
arrested, the residuum, upon being drawn off and cooled, will be found to be an
asphaltum or pitch, homogeneous, hard and brittle, having a conchoidal fracture,
and entirely different in all particulars, from any of the ingredients, or from the
average of all the ingredients.
The invention, as already indicated, is not limited to any definite proportion of
the hydro-carbon products, resinous and acidulated elements, since the mixture or
compound, within certain limits, can be changed and varied to suit the require-
ments of different products, some of which would be better adapted for one use,
and others for other uses. For instance the ingredients used may vary from ten
to ninety per cent, to each other according to the product required, which require-
ment differs with nearly every consumer. The manufacturer submits samples for
:

page_text: testing and after results are reported makes the article harder or softer as desired,
more resin being employed to harden the product and the latter softened by using
less resin. In the refining of petroleum oils the usual treatment with sulphuric
acid precipitates a sludge from which a portion of the free, unspent acid has
been recovered and restored, but the remainder of said sludge has been hereto-
fore regarded as entirely worthless, and, moreover, a great nuisance. Said residual
sludge may be used to good advantage in the production of the aforesaid artificial
asphaltum or pitch or compound, for as said sludge usually contains sufficient acid in
excess of what can be practically removed for restoring purposes, it only needs
the addition of the resinous element to prepare it for direct manufacture in the
still or in a digester or any suitable tank.
For a
If this carbonaceous sludge be placed in a still, digester or tank together with
a portion of rosin or pure tar, or its equivalent, and cooked over a moderate
fire until the excess of water, acid, and the more volatile portions of the oil
be distilled or driven off, the remaining elements unite into a homogeneous pitch
that upon cooling becomes hard and brittle, with a conchoidal fracture, resembling
in all essential points native asphaltum or the pitch made from coal tar.
comparatively hard pitch three to five barrels of resin may be used to one ton of
carbonaceous sludge, but the invention is not restricted to the use of any definite
proportions of sludge and resinous products nor in the percentage of oil and acid as
found in said sludge, for the mixture can be greatly varied to thereby obtain
sundry products of the same general character but varying in hardness and other
qualities which make some better adapted for one purpose and others better
adapted for other purposes.
It should especially be understood that the invention as herein described utilizes
a product (sludge herein before referred to) which heretofore has been entirely
useless and worse than useless on account of the continued accumulation of it at
petroleum refineries, necessitating the increase of storage space and handling
facilities, without any compensating advantage.
The invention utilizes this sludge and produces therefrom a commercial article.
The invention is not limited to the use of any particular hydro-carbon product,
for it has been found that untreated petroleum, either as crude or reduced, or as a
distillate, in combination with the pine tree or other resinous products and a suitable
acid, such as sulphuric acid, after being subjected to heat and partial distillation,
may be converted into an artificial commercial asphaltum or pitch.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. An artificial asphaltum, pitch or product consisting of hydro-carbon oil or its
products, such as petroleum; acid, such as sulphuric acid, and resinous products,
such as those obtained from the pine tree, all compounded and treated substantially
as set forth.
2. An artificial asphaltum, pitch or product composed of the precipitate or
sludge obtained in the treatment of hydro-carbon oil or its products with acid, and
suitable resinous products suitably compounded with said precipitate or sludge,
substantially as set forth.
3. An artificial asphaltum, pitch or product composed of the precipitate or
sludge obtained in the treatment of petroleum or hydro-carbon oil with acid,
and the resinous products of the pine tree suitably compounded with said
precipitate or sludge, substantially as set forth.
4. An artificial asphaltum, pitch or compound consisting of the product obtained
by the distillation or heating of the mixture of the precipitate or carbonaceous
sludge obtained in the treatment of hydro-carbon oil or its products with acid
together with suitable resinous products, substantially as set forth.
5. An artificial asphaltum, pitch or compound consisting of the product obtained
by the distillation or heating of the mixture of the precipitate or carbonaceous

page_text: sludge obtained in the treatment of petroleum or hydro-carbon oil with acid,
together with the resinous products of the pine tree, substantially as set forth.
6. The process herein described of making artificial or hydro-carbon oils with
suitable resinous products in suitable proportions and adding thereto a suitable
quantity of suitable acid and subjecting the whole to heat until the excess of acid,
if any, and the volatile portions of the oil, are driven off, substantially as set
forth.
7. The process herein described of making artificial asphaltum or pitch,
consisting in mixing the precipitate or carbonaceous sludge obtained by the
treatment of hydro-carbon oil or its products with acid, together with suitable
resinous products, and then heating the entire mass to drive off the excess of
acid and volatile oil, substantially as set forth.
8. The process herein described of making artificial asphaltum, or pitch,
consisting in mixing the precipitate or carbonaceous sludge obtained by the
treatment of petroleum or hydro-carbon oils with acid together with the resinous
products of the pine tree, and then heating the entire mass to drive off the excess
of acid and volatile oil, substantially as set forth.
R. HADDAN.