US1289496A - Apparatus for making nitrogen and carbon dioxid. - Google Patents

Description

C. D. McCOURT 6: C. ELLIS.

APPARATUS FOR MAKING NHROGEN AND CARBON DIOXID.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 2e, 1.912. RENEWED MAY 18.1918.

1,289LQ96; Patented Dec. 31, 1918.

WITNESSES CYRIL DOUGLAS MGCOURT, OF LONDON, ENGLAND,

AND CARLETON LLIS, DEMON!!!- CLAIR, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNGRS, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO SURFACE COMBUS- TION, INCL, 0F WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, A. CORPORATION OF DELAWARE APPARATUS FOR MAKING NITROGEN ANDCARBON DIOXID.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented ea. 31, acre,

Application filed. January 26, 1912, Serial No. 673,572. Renewed May 18, 1918. Serial No. 235,392.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that W e,'CYR IL D. MoCoUR'r, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of 45 Braxted Park, Streatham Common, London, England, and CARLETON ELLIS, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Montclair, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey,have made certain new and useful Invent-ions Relating to Improvements in Apparatus for-Making Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxid, of which the following is a specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing-which forms a part of the same.

This invention relates to apparatus for making nitrogem and carbon-dioxid, for instance, by the combustion of explosive mixtures of gaseous fuel and air preferably, in substantially the proportions required for the complete combustion of the fuel so as to produce products of combustion containing only relatively small proportions of the combustible material or of the supporter of combustion therefor. The carbon dioxid may be separated from such'products of combustion as by absorption ina suitable carbonate liquor system 'in which potassium or sodium carbonate solution is circulated to absorb carbon-dioxid from the combustion gases and to liberate the same when the carbonate liquor is heated as b the heat from the combustion producing t e gases, for instance, and the carbon-dioxid may be utilized by drying and compressing into liquid form. The decarbonated gases may be urified to the desired extent and the resu ting nitrogen fixed as by conversion into cyanamid 0r utilized in other ways.

In the illustrative form of apparatus shown diagrammatically inthe drawing one Or more boilers or evaporating devices 35 may be used provided with the desired number of heating tubes 38 containing or packed with refractory combustion accelerating material37, such for instance, as granular fireclay magnesite or other material of about one-half or'one inch mesh. Any suitable explosive gaseous mixture formed by the mixture or incorporation of a combustible gas or vapor or mixture thereof with air or other supporter of combustion preferably in about the proportions required for the complete combustion of the combustible material may be injected or brought into contact with the heated refractory material to effect the accelerated surface combustion of the explosive gaseous mixture therein as described more fully in the patents of Bone, Wilson and MoCourt, such as their United States Patent No. 1,015,261-of January 16, 1912.

' This may be effected by forcing air and promay with properregulation of the'propor-' tions of gas and air contain only a fraction of a per cent. of excess oxygen or of combustible material. 'The combustion gases especially where a suitable gasometer is 1n'ter-' posed in the gas supply system may be read- 11y produced with an excess of oxygen not exceeding one or two per cent, that is, there maybe an excess of oxygen in the combustion-gases to an' extent less than the percentage idicated or the oxygen excess may be m'l and there may be a slight excess of com-- bustible components in the gases. Many other means of effecting the substantially complete and preferably accelerated combustion of gaseous or other fuel may be used, as for instanceby burning combustible gases .under considerable pressure or burning fuel of various kinds under conditions of intense heat in the presence of substantially the theoretical amount of air or other supporter of combustion so as to secure combustion gases with preferably an excess of oxygen not exceeding a few per cent. For example, one or more diaphragm combustion units may be used in this way, the porous refractory dia hragm 45 being indicated as mounted Within a suitable casing of iron or the like having a facing 44 of mica or other suitable material to allow the transmission of heat from the diaphragm. A suitable mixture of explosive gases may be supplied to the diaphragm through the gas and air supply pipes 43 in which the valves 42 may be arranged to secure the proper mixture preferably containing substantially theoretically correct proportions of air and combustible gas or vapor for complete combustion. As described in the British and United States patents and applications of Bone, Wilson and McCourt the refractory diaphragm may be formed of granules of porous refractory.

established under which the explosive gases burn with accelerated substantially flameless combustion within the outer or discharge layer of the diaphragm.

50 shows another boiler contammg one or more heating tubes 47 adapted to cont-am suitable granular combustion acclerating material so as to effect the surface combustion of explosive gases supplied under the desired pressure of several ounces or so by suitable injecting means such as the gas and air pipes 53. The liquid 49 within this boiler may be water and its evaporation may produce steam which may be collected in the steam dome 51 and supplied through the steam pipe 52 for power purposes or the like. The combustion gases in this case are indicated as passing into a suitable water heater or economizer 48 which may be generally similar in construction to that shown in the Bone, Wilson and McCourt Patent No. 1,015,131 of January 16, 1912 so as to utilize a considerable proportion of the heat of the combustion gases for the heating of the boiler feed water or other purposes. The cooled combustion gases may then be drawn through the exhaust pipe 47 connected with the gas pump 46 which forces them through a suitable pipe. 23. The combustion gases from the diaphragm heating units may when the valves 59 are open pass through the pipe 29 and be forced by the gas pump 24 into the pipe 23 and this gas pump may also receive or draw the combustion gases from the boiler or heater 35 through the economizer or water heater 28 so as to force. all the combustion gases in the combustion system illustrated into the pipe 23.

Suitable cleaning or washing devices may 55 be used to preliminarily remove undesirable elements, such as any sulfur dioxid that may be present in the combustion gases and for this purpose suitable Washers, such as 18, 20'

may be used containing a relatively small 0 amount of water or other fluid 21 which may be slowly circulated therethrough by any desired means so as to substantially completely absorb the sulfur dioxid from the combus-' tion gases as they pcrcolate up through the water on being discharged from the pipe 22.

through preferably in the opposite direction The pipe 19 leads into a similar second washer 18- where a similar percolating action may take place, the washed combustion gases passing through the regulating valve 17 and pipe 15 into any suitable absorption de- '70 vice 9 which may be in the form of a tower of the desired height packed with coke or other suitable material 10 over which any suitable absorption liquor may be allowed to flow. The absorption or carbonate liquor may be an aqueous solution of any suitable absorbent of carbon-dioxid, as for instance a ten to thirty per cent. solution of potassium or sodium carbonate or other available salt. This carbonate liquor may be upplied from so the liquor tank 13 through the pipe 11 in amounts regulated by the liquor feed valve 12 so as to trickle down through the absorption device and be extensively brought into contact with the combustion gases fed thereto the flow "of the carbonate liquor so that the carbonate liquor discharged-from the absorption device through the pipe 16 having the valve 30 contains a large amount of bicarbonate. By heating this carbonate liquor in any desired way carbon-dioxid may be liberated therefrom and the bicarbonate correspondingly transformed into carbonate for reabsorption of additional amounts of gas. 9. This may be conveniently effected by heating the carbonated liquor by heat evolved in'the production of the combustion gases, as for instance by passing the carbonate liquor through the pipe 26 communicating with the heater or economizer 28 when the valve 58 is opened so as toheat this liquor to a. considerable extent before it passes through the pipe 41 into the boiler 35, althoughof course by opening the valve 25 and closing the valve i 58 the carbonate liquor may fiow through the bypass around the economizer 28 and. directly into the pipe 41. This liquor 36 is considerably raised in temperature in the boiler 35 and the available carbon-dioxid 11o largely or completely driven therefrom so as to be taken from the dome 27 by the pipe 32. This carbon-dioxid may be dried in any desired way as by passing it through a suitable drier 31 and the gas may then be compressed in any compressing apparatus, such for mstance, as the three-stage compressor 33 so as to make the carbon-dioxld available a in compressed or liquefied form for commercial purposes. The restored carbonate liquor may be taken from the boiler or heater 35 by the ipe 40 and forced by the circulating pump 34 through the pipe 14 into-the liquor tank 13 from which it may again circulate through this carbonate liquor system as described.

,The decarbonated combustion gases delivered preferably through a pipe 8 from the absorption device under a slight pressure above that of the atmosphere to prevent inmeasles Ward leakage may be purified or freed from any undesirable component such as' the slight excess of oxygen or combustible gas.

by passing the same through a suitable purifier 6. By using cuprous chlorid, hot copper'oxid, etc, in this purifier any traces of combustible material, such as carbon-monoxid may be eliminated or rendered harmless, or if the decarbonated combustion gases contain a slight excess of oxygen this may be eliminated therefrom by using hot finely divided copper in the purifier. The gases from the purifier may pass through the pipe 5 when the valve 55 is open so as to pass through the connected pipe 4 into any suitable converter for utilizing or fixing the nitrogen. The combustion gases may, how

ever, pass directly from the absorption de-.

vice to the converter when the valve -55 is closed and the bypass valve 7 is opened so as to directly connect the pipes 8 and 4:. The converter may be of any desired form, such for instance, as the converter tank 2 through which passes a suitable heating element 1 in the form of a carbon rod through which electricity may be passed to supply heat in the desired amounts to the granu ar carbid 3, for instance, contained within'the converter, such material absorbing nitrogen to form cyanamid when the proper conversion temperature has been reached.

Having described this invention in connection with an illustrative form of apparatus, parts, devices, materials, arrangements and orders of steps, to the details of which disclosure the invention is not of course to be limited, what is claimed as newand what is desired to be secured by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims:

1. Apparatus for producing nitrogen and carbon-dioxid, comprising a boiler provided with a tube or tubes extending through the liquid space of the boiler and packed with granular refractory material, means for injecting into the granular refractory material within the tubes an explosive gaseous mixture of fuel gas and air in substantially combining proportions to efiect accelerated surface combustion of the explosive mixture and to heat said boiler, an economizer to receive the combustion gases from the boiler and coolthe same, an absorption device to which the cooled combustion gases are delivered, and means for circulating carbonate liquor through said absorption device and then through said economizer and said boiler to" cause carbon-dioxid to be absorbed from the combustion gases by the carbonate liquor in the absorption device and to heat the carbonate liquor in the economizer and in the boiler to drive ofi' carbon-'dioxid therefrom.

2. Apparatus for producing nitrogen and carbon-dioxid, comprising a boiler having a furnace portion provided with a bed of granular refractory material, means for injecting into said bed of refractory material an explosive gaseous mixture of fuel gas and air in substantially combining proportions to effect surface combustion of the explosive mixture and to heat the boiler, an

' economizer to receive the combustion gases from the boiler and cool the same, an absorption device to which the cooled combustion gases are delivered, and means for circulating carbonate liquor through said absorption device and then through said economizer and said boiler to cause carbondioxid to be absorbed from the combustion .,plosive mixture and to heat the boiler, an

absorption device to which the combustion ases are delivered, and means for circulatmg carbonate liquor through said absorp tion device and then through said boiler to cause carbon-dioxid to be absorbed from said combustion gases by the carbonate liquor in the absorption device and to heat the carbonateliquor in the boiler to drive ofi carbon-dioxid therefrom.

a. Apparatus for producing nitrogen and carbon-dioxid, comprising a boiler, means of fuel gas and air in substantially combining proportions and to thereby, heat the bo1ler, an economizer to receive the combustion gases and to cool the same, an absorption device to which the cooled combustion gases are delivered, and means for cir culating carbonate liquor through the absorption device and then through the economizer and the boiler to cause carbon-dioxid to be absorbed from the combustion gases by the carbonate liquor in the absorption device and to heat the carbonate liquor in. the economizer and in the boiler to drive off carbondioxid therefrom. t a

5. Apparatus for producing nitrogen and carbon-dioxid, comprising a boiler, means for effecting accelerated surface combustion.

the carbonate li%u carbon-dioxid t erefrom.

6. Apparatus for producing nitrogen and carbon-dioxid, comprising means for efiecting accelerated surface combustion of an explosive gaseous mixture of combustible gas and air in substantially combining proportions, an absorption device to which the combustion gases are delivered, means for circulating carbonate liquor through the absorption device to absorb carbondioxid from the combustion gases, and means for heating said carbonate liquor by heat developed by said combustion to drive off carbon-dioxid therefrom.

7. Apparatus for producing nitrogen and carbon-dioxid,comprising means for effecting combustion of fuel gas and air in substantially combining proportions, means for cooling the combustion gases, an absorption device to which the cooled combustion gases or in the boiler to drive off ate liquor throughthe absorptlon device to are delivered, means for circulating carbonabsorb carbon-dioxid from the combustion gases, and means for heating said carbonate liquor by heat developed by said combustion to vdrive 0E carbon-dioxid therefrom.

8. Apparatus for producing nitrogen and carbon-dioxid, comprising means for efiect ing combustion of fuel gas and air in substantially combining proportions, an absorption device to which the combustion gases are delivered, means for circulating carbonate liquor through the absorption device, and means for heating the carbonate liquor by heat developed by said combustion to drive ofi carbon-dioxid therefrom.

CYRIL' DOUGLAS MCCQURT. CARLETON ELLIS.

WVitnesses: HARRY L. DUNCAN;

Jrssm B. KAY.

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