US1362160A - Manufacture of gasolene - Google Patents

Description

F. E, WELLMAN.

MANUFACTURE 0F GASOLENE.

APPLICATION FILED )UNE 24,1919.

Patented Dec. 14, 1920.

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attorney bmb 2E a F. E. WELLMAN.

MANUFACTURE 0F GASOLENE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 24,1919.

1,362,160, Patented Dec. 14, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

FRANK E. WELLMAN, lOIF' KANSAS CITY, KANSAS.

MANUFACTURE 0F GASOLENE.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 1 4, 1920.

Application meu June 94, 1919. serial No. 306,321.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, FRANK E. WELLMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at I Kansas City, in the county of VVyand'ottev and State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the 'Manufacture of Gasolene, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing. y y invention relates to the treatment o hydrocarbons for the purpose of produc- 'ing from such hydrocarbons of relatively high boiling points, other hydrocarbons of much lower boiling points, such as the vcommercial product known as gasolene or motor fuel which is in the paraffin series.

My process to be specifically described hereinafter, is an improvement primarily over that disclosed in the Leffer French Patent No. 439,476, issued June 14, 1912. Incidentally it involves certain changes and improvements which fall generally in the same class as those described in U. S. patents to Burton, No. 1,049,667, January 7, 1913, and Humphreys, No. 1,119,700, December 1, 1914. The manner in which my process differentiates from the Burton and Humphreys processes, will be evident from the detailed description.y

" Generally stated, my process is one of recracking, with reflux condensation, some initial condensation under pressure, and a separate final release and condensation or cooling of the heavier products which have been cracked. I make no claim, broadly, to either reflux condensation or re-cracking, as these were both old in the art before the date of the French patent hereinbefore referred to.

. Neither do I claim, broadly, the ideas of egulating temperatures or pressures or oth.

The problems presented are solved by my present process, by causing pressure to be restrained effectively .between thecracking still and the initial condenser without mechanical moving. parts, and also by main-4 taining pressure by means of an inert gas such .as nitrogen, or the gases remaining upon the new charge of oil when it is placed in the cracking still. Autogenous pressure of course does not begin to operate so as to raise the operative pressure in the still, un-

-til the lighter vapors are driven o" by heat. It is during this period of initial heating that fixed gases and very light condensable products are given olf'in greatest volume, due to the lack of chemical equilibrium. Among the lighter products in the paraffin series which must he permitted from the outset, are those within the limiting range ofso-called gasolene which in this, as in other cracking processes, is the principal product sought. I first charge my cracking still under pressure of an inert gas or gases,

' as above, then close the inlet pipe, both for oil and air, and subject the charge tohigh tem The initial pressure is sufficient perature. to balanceI the gas pressure for the initial temperature, and the initial product is separately removed, preferably through means which save heat and avoid mechanical losses, andl condensed, This initial product is known around the refineries as benzin or crude gasolene. I t differs in my present process in no wise from the usual natural run of', gasolene which is usually taken oft' at the beginning of the Rittman and other well-known processes, but owing to my use of the principle of pressure by inert gas, it is more copious in yield because of the balance or equilibrium which prevents or checks the formation of fixed gas. After passing off this initial yield, Vand as the temperature rises, I provide for continued cracking, with constant reflux.

While the reflux and re-cracking part of my processis proceeding I continue to carry off the gasolene yield, which is condensed by itself. After this slackens, the contents of the cracking still are bodily' discharged byv means of their own pressure, and the contents separately cooled and condensed, after which, as an ancillary feature, I may scour out the still with superheated steam under high pressure, before re-charging. The condensate blown out is in the aggregate lighter than the body of the original charge, and may be further treated to extract its lighter constituents.

In carrying out my process I make use of certain apparatus which I have designed for that purpose, which may be briefly described as follows:

A horizontal cracking tube is employed, with a pressure discharge valve at one end leading to a receivingotank, through a cooling coil. This valve is closed until the end of the operation. From the top .ofthe tube rises an inclined run-back which for -various reasons is made large. From this run-back or refiux chamber a gasolene pipe is taken oif to an ordinary condenser. To the same run-back a feed pipe for chargingoil under.- pressure of an inert gas or gases, such as nitrogen, is connected, as also a steam pipe for scouring.

I shall claim the separate discharge means y in combination with the other parts of this system, z'. e., to the gasolene pipe and condenser on thev one hand, and the. blow-o ut discharge on the other. While separate d1schargepipes for the same still are broadly old, they have never, to my knowledge, been used in' such a system as this, nor for my purpose.

My inventlon is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a diagram showing a complete system, and y F'g. 2 is a similar diagram showing a low pressure condenser and its connections.

Referring to Fig. 1, the apparatus consists of a horizontal cracking tube or retortl, which is 2O feetlong and 8 inches in diameter, from which, toward one end, extends upwardly at an angle of about degrees a fractionator tube or reflux pipe 4, which is supposed to have about the same diameter and cubical capacity as the horizontal or cracking retort. In 'one successful example this tube was 27 feet by 10 inches in diameter. From the upper en'd of this sloping coil 17 and thence into a storage tank 18.

The horizontal tube 1 is filled substantially full of the oil to be cracked. All

valves shown in the drawings are closed with the exception of the pressure regulating valve. 11 beyond the light distillate condenser. The oil is heated to about 850 F. according to the notation on the drawing; but the operating temperature is usually in excess of 850 F., The pressure-regulating or throttling valve is set to give an autogenous pressure in the vapor space provided by the sloping pipe of from 100 to 150 pounds, the degree of pressure used in any particular instance depending upon the pressure necessary to prevent vaporization of the heavier oils. Under these conditions, the oil vapors generated fill the sloping fr'actionator tube 4, and such as are not.condensed therein pass out through the gasolene line 7 and are condensed under pressure in the worm 8, any accompanying fixed gases being'allowed to escape in the usual way. A certain proportion of the heavier vapors condenses in the fractionator tube 4 and refluxes to the hori- I zontal.' tube 1 for further cracking. As shown, no special cooling means for the fractionator'or reflux tube is used, simple air cooling being relied upon.

Thedistillation is continued until somewhat less 'than twoethirds of the batch is distilled off. At this point, thepdischarge valve 16 at the end of the horizontalcracking tube 1`is opened and the residue is automatically blown out through the cooling coil 17 into Athe `storage tank 18. From the residue a small percentage 'of gasolene may be obtained by straight distillation.

After the heavy residuum has been blown out of the cracking tube, high pressure steam is admitted through the inlet 6 at the upper end of the reflux tube 4 and' the entire apparatus is thoroughly flushed out to remove carbon deposits, etc.- A fresh charge of oil is'then introduced, and the operations alreadydescribed are repeated.

lThe cracking tube 1 may have welded heads, but it shown with'bolted heads 2 and 3. The'cooling coil 17 'must be of large diameter and the valve 16 is preferably included in that portion within the cooling water or else provided with special cooling means. The tank 18 may be provided with any desired form of relief valve set to blow off at a proper ressure.

Referring to ig. 2, the parts are the same in their general arrangement, the horizontal cracking tube, the inclined vapor chamber and the gasolene line leading to the condenser .being employed as before. The chokin'g effect of this benzene line which i stated is preferably of l inch pipe is enhanced by inc uding in its length a coil or worm 20, ina closed tank 21 having an oil charging pipe 22 through which oil may be pumped or otherwise forced into the tank,` an air pipe 23 through which a Vneutral agency as air under pressure may be pumped in to produce constant pressure on the oil, and aldischarge pipe 24 leading to the charging or inlet pipe 5. of the vapor chamber and cracking tube. In this case the condenser or worm 8 is made of pipe of large 7 diameter relatively` to the gasolene line whereby vapors leaving the latter will expand into the condenser and any pressure remaining will be lost as they condense on the cool walls of the worm.I Obviously this worm may be replaced by a dephlegmator or a cylindrical condenser, or any other desired form of cooling chamber, provided the volume of content is large enough to permit expansion from the pipe 7. In this case there is no necessity for a pressure regulating valve outside the condenser at all, and

'the only valves shown so located are the draw-olf valve 25 of the receiving tank 12,

Ation in the apparatus than in the forms hereinbefore referred to as requiring valves. In this sense my present apparatus and process Y are in the nature of Aan improvement over those described in, the Burton and Hump hreys patents, as IWell as over my own revlous applications ySerial No. 142,545, led

Jan. 15, 1917 and Serial No. 168,223, iled May l2, 1917.

I desire it to be understood that a number of changesmay be made in the apparatus described without departing from the invention, such as the use of any one of the throttling elements described without the others, or the substitution of equivalent It is of course necessary to maintain pressure 1n the vapor chamber substantially equivalent to that in the cracking chamber,

in order that the heavier fractions may circulate and be cracked by continued heating under pressure. This in itself is very old, being shown in such patents `as for example that to Laing 471,291, granted March 22, 1892, in which the pipe B performs the same function. as my vapor chamber or reflux )ipe 4, and the throttling effect is produced by a loaded valve S instead of by the gasolene' line. The pressure described by Laing is 80 pounds per square inch for operating on oil having a specific gravity of .970 which is of the saine order, but somewhat higher than the run of the oilsl with which I have successfully operated the present system which are downward (in gravity) of 38 B.

lVhi'le I have shown and described herein only afsingle unit consisting of the cracking tube 1, vapor chamber 4, etc., it is to be understood that in practice I preferably use' these in batteries, with such arrangements of valves and pipes as to effect economical as well as efiicient transmission and condensation of the vapors. I have deemed it unnecessary to show such a battery in this application, the drawings being mere diagrams and the descriptlon restricted thereto for thesake of clearness and simplicity.

Having thus described my invention what I cla-im and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

Apparatus-of the class described comprising the following instrumentalities: a. cracking chamber, a discharge pipe anda control` ling valve for same, a supplemental elevated vapor chamber arranged to drain back heavy liquid fractions into the cracking chamber, a condenser, and a line of p ipe connecting an elevated part of the vapor chamber with said condenser, said condenser being of such materia-l, form and dimensions as to have a large capacity relatively to the deliverycapacity'of said pipe at high initial pressures and said pipe having a very small capacity relatively to said vapor chamber whereby pressure will be automatically retained in said vapor chamber, and the vapors passing through the pipe under pressure from the vapor chamber will expand into the condenser, and lose their pressure in so doing. A

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

FRANK E. WELLMAN.

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