US1485565A - Apparatus for converting heavy hydrocarbons into lighter hydrocarbons - Google Patents

Description

arch 4 9 19240 W. F. MUEHL APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING HEAVY HYDROCARBONS INTO LIGHTER HYDROCARBONS 1921 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 17 Mach 4 1924o 1,485,565

W. F. MUEHL APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING HEAVY HYDROGARBONS INTO LIGHTER HYDROCARBONS Filed March 17, 1921 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 l\ N BY A TTORAEY W. F. MUEHL APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING HEAVY HYDROCARBONS INTO LIGHTER HYDROCARBONS Filed March 17 1921 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 A TTAEY Patent APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING 1 sas CITY, mssouar, assrenoa 'ro 1: FINEBIES, nc, or KANSAS CITY, rarssounr, A conroaa'rroa or HEAVY HYDROCARIBONS nrro LIGHT 1o CARBONS.

Application filed March 17, 1921. .8eria1 No. $58,049.

To all whom. it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM F. MUEH'L, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and a State of Missouri, have mvented certain new q and useful Im rovements in Ap aratus for Converting eavy Hydrocar ons into Li hter Hydrocarbons; and I do declare the fol lowing to be a full, clear, and exact dem scription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying rawings, and to the letters and figures of refer- 16 once marked thereon, which form a part of this specification. I

This invention relates to an apparatus for convertin relatively heavy hydrocarbons into relatively light hydrocarbons, the primary object being to improve the apparatus for converting heavy hydrocarbon oils into gasoline.

In carrying out my invention, I maintain practically a constant level of the heavier hydrocarbon oils in a container which is preferably heated by a furnace so that the temperature of the oil will be raised high enough to cause the lighter hydrocarbons to be distilled off in the form of vapor. The vapor is conveyed to a condenser box where it is condensed into liquid form. Between the condenser box and the still is a tower, through which the high temperature vapor passes, there being means to provide a contra-flow of relatively heavy hydrocarbons in the tower, which are adapted to absorb the heat by conduction and have their temperatures raised to vaporization so that they will pass off from the tower into the condenser.

The invention also contemplates the provision of an auxiliary still, which may distill d the arrows.

whatever relatively heavy ends are passe 0E from the first container and allow these to be again as new oil to invention being to recover e recovered, the object of the the maximum amount of gasoline from a given volume of p heavy hydrocarbon. I

One of the difi'iculties encountered in operating a still t pe of converter is that the solids in the orm of carbon and the like $0011 accumulate on the interior of the con- Iiassed through the apparatus P tainer and sincecarbon is anexcellent heat insulator, it will be apparent that dificulty will soon be ex erienced in maintaining the liquid withint e tank or boiler at the reuired temperature since the walls of the tank will be progressively insulated by the progressive accumulation of the carbon on the interior wall thereof.

I have, therefore, provided means whereby the tank or boiler containing the initial or main volume of hea hydrocarbon oil will be continuously free of accumulating carbon, the specific means consisting of a rotary scraper which will maintain the inner a m:- face of'the wall of the tank or boiler relatively free of accumulations, thereby bling heat penetration and the maximum. efficiency from the furnace.

The preferred mechanical embodiment of my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Fi 1 is a pers ective view of a plant or insta lation embo ied in my invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical, longitudinahseetional view through the furnace, through the boiler or still, and through the tower and condenser coil box.

.Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical, longitudi'w-e' nal, sectional view through a conveyor tube, which supports the scraper and the discharge nozzle therefor.

Flig. 4 is a cross sectional view through the sill a I Fig. 5 is a detail perspective view of one group of scrapers.

Fig. a sectional view through a water cooled bearing for the scraper drive shaft.

Fig. 7 is a vertical, longitudinal, sectional view through the tower, and

Fig. 8 is a cross sectional view on the line 8-8 of Fig. 7, looking in the direction of In carrying out my'invention I prefer to rovide a tank 1, from which leads a pipe 2, adapted to convey oil from the tank to the still or boiler. The pipe 2 has in its line a ump 3 whereby the oil may be pumped under pressure to the discharge nozzle 4 in the form of a swin ing gooseneck, from which the oil may be ischarged into the inlet 5 of a still or boiler 6.

The main still or boiler 6, is provided with lltl till

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a setting of masonry 7 to provide a furnace 8, there being a suitable source of heat 9 therein so that heat may be generated in the furnace 8 and pass through the flue 10 to the stack 11, the flue 10 extending under the still 6 to heat the entire lower surface there of and thereby heat the oil within the same. The still 6 will initially be supplied with oil until it is about two-thirds full before the heat is turned on. Then the cover for the inlet opening 5 may be secured in place.

When the furnace supplies heat to the still 6, the temperature of the oil will be raised to about 750 or slightly higher at about 100 pounds pressure so that the lighter hydrocarbons will be given off in the form of vapor and pass from the manhole or inlet 5 through the discharge port- 12, through pipe 13 to the tower 14, through the vertical, tubular tower 14 to the outlet 15 pipe 16 and into the condenser box 17 below the tower, there being a cooling coil 18 in the condenser box. The vapors will be condensed in the box 17 into the liquid phase and the liquid will pass therefrom through a measuring tank 19 and a meter 19 where it may be measured and then to a pipe 20 Where it may pass into tanks, ready to be used.

In order to replenish the supply of hydrocarbon oil from time to time as the vapor passes off, an auxiliary pump 21is provided which has a branch connection 22 with the pipe 2. The pump 21 will pump heavy oil from pipe 2 through the meter 23 in pipe 24, the pipe 24 entering a heat exchange consisting of a casing 25 in which is a preheater coil 26. Residual oil from still 6 enters the casing at a temperature of about 600 degrees F., and about 100 pounds pressure, and it expands in the casing 25 because there will be no pressure developed in the casing. The sudden drop in pressure of the heavy ends which have been under 7 degrees F. heat and 100 pounds pressure in the casing 25 at appreciably no pressure causes the oil to immediately go into the vapor phase, leaving behind it only the heaviest constituents, such as tar and carbon. The lighter ends of the heavy oils then pass through pipe 41 into the condenser, where they are condensed to the liquid phase. These condensed oils are below gasoline grade but they represent gas oil ready to go through the plant again as fresh oil to again be treated. The coil passes through the casing and is connected to the tower 14 by a pipe 27. In practice the oil from the coil 26 passes through the pipe 27 having absorbed heat enough to raise it to about 300 degrees F the heat absorption or exchange taking place as the oil passes through the coil in casing 25. The oil at this temperature enters the tower 14 where it comes into contact with the rising vapors from the still 6. The vapors from the still 6 masses are about 750 de rees F. The down-pouring oil and the up-fl owing vapors counter-flowing exchange heat and tend to equalize temperatures. The rising vapors from the still 6 will retain all the lighter fractions whose boiling points are. under 500 degrees F. These pass off through pipe 16 to the condenser. The outlet for the oil which enters the tower 14 through pipe 27 is shown at the bottom of the tower 14 below the inlet for pipe 13. The outlet is designated 28 and it is connected to a chamber 29 inside the still 6 by a. pipe 30. The chamber 29 constitutes a bearing for a hollow axle or shaft 31, which extends substantially the length of the still 6 and is provided at its endopposite to the chamber 29 by a downwardly projecting curved discharge nozzle or pipe 32, the shaft or axle being supported at appropriate points within the still .6 by the hangers 33, 34, 35 and 36. The curved nozzle 32 merely hangs on the hollow axle or shaft, being secured by the set screw 131 in groove 1.32 in shaft 31 (see Fig. 3). By passing the incoming relatively cool oil through the pipe 31, it has time to heat up in pipe 31 before it is discharged into the body of oil in the still 6. Therefore, liability of lowering the temperature of the main body of oil in still 6 is eliminated because the incoming oil will have absorbed a considerable amount of heat before it is discharged into the still. Of course, the ideal condition would be to introduce the oil through the nozzle 32 at the temperature of the oil already in the still but this is not at all times practical. The shaft or axle also serves as a support or axle for certain novel forms of brushes or scrapers, which will be hereinafter described.

The tower 14 isprovided with baffles to cause tortuous flows of the counter-flowing currents through the tower. There are spaced perforate disks 37 in the tower, the diameters of which are co-extensive with the internal diameter of the tower. Alternating with the disks are imperforate disks 38, the diameters of which are less than the internal diameter of the tower, the disks 38 being supported upon a vertical rod 39, arranged axially of the tower. Therefore, when the vapor passing from pipe 13 enters the tower 14 and passes through the tortuous channel formed by the disks 37 and 38, it will commingle with the descending heavier liquid from pipe 27, the heat from the rising vapors raising the temperature of the oil entering from 27 and thereby carrying off the lighter hydrocarbons through pipe 16 to the coil box. The oil still in the liquid phase, or practically in the liquid phase, will precipitate to the bottom of the tower 1.4 and pass through the pipes 28 and 30 into the hollow pipe or axle 31.

The oil entering tank 25 will be converted are into vapor because it will enter it at about 750 degrees F., and at approximately 100 pounds pressure. The drop in pressure in the tank 25 will cause the volatile heavy ends to separate from the tar and carbon and these will be carried into the condenser box.17 through the pipe 41. The condensed vapors will provide a low grade of oil, which may be returned to the system.

ommunicating with the lower portion of the still 6 through the medium of a pipe 42 is a settling tank 43, the heavy residues being adapted to circulate through the carbon settling and. vapor separating tank 43 and through the discharge pipe 44 to the inlet 45 to the top of the tank 25 due to the pres sure from the still 6, there being a valve 46 in pipe 44, which may be opened and closed as desired.

The lighter hydrocarbons which may separate in the settling tank 43 will be drawn off through the pipe 47 from one end of the settling tank 43 and discharged into the still 6 through the pipe 48, there being a pump 49 connecting pipe 48 to 47 driven through a gearing and a motor 50, geared to the pump in an appropriate manner. Of course, some of the carbon will be carried out of the tank 43 into tank 25 but these solids will be separated out of the oil in tank 25 for while the tank 43 is for separating out the lighter oil and settling out the carbon, in actual practice some of the carbon will at times go over with the oil into the tank 25.

A pipe 51 leads from the bottom of the preheater tank 25 and is connected with a pipe 51, the branch pipe 52 of which is connected to pipe 44 so that when desired, the valve 46 may be closed and the valve 53 opened to drain off the heavier hydrocarbons from the tank 43 and these. together with the heavier hydrocarbons drawn off through the pipe 51 when the valve 54 is open, may pass into a coil 55 in a cooling box 56 and then used as the fuel for the furnace 8. thus the residue after the lighter hydrocarbons have been distilled off may constitute the fuel for operating the plant.

As heretofore pointed out, it is necessary in order to get the: best results to maintain the interior of the still 6 free from accumulated carbon and to this end, I have provided a novel form of carbon removing mechanism which includes as part of its construction the shaft or axle 31. By reference to Figs. 2 and 6 it will be observed that there is a bushing or packing 57 at one end of the tank or still 6. surrounded by a water jacket 58, which is connected to the cooling box 17 by the pipes 59 and 60 sothat there will be a circulation of cooling water through the jacket 58.

Within the bushing and extending into the tank is a drive shaft 61 having on its end outside the still 6 a gear 62, meshing with a pinion 63 on a shaft 64. The shaft 64 carries a. large gear 65, which meshes with a pinion 66 on the shaft of the motor 67, the reduction gearing being such that the shaft 61 is driven at a relatively low speed.

The shaft 61 carries on its end inside the still 6 a gear 68, which meshes with a gear 69 on the axle of shaft 31 whereby the axle or shaft 31 may be rotated in its bearings 33 to 36 inclusive.

The shaft 31'carries a plurality of scrapers, one of which is shown in Fig. 5. Each scraper unit is shown as consisting of a sleeve 70 adapted to be fastened to the shaft or axle 31 and having an outstanding arm 71 in the form of a T, the laterally projecting portions 72 and 73 constituting supports for the loosely engaging bearings 74 on a plurality of scraper blades 75. The scraper blades are bent intermediate their ends, as at 76, so that they are substantially V-shaped in cross section, the arms 75 being longer than the arms 78. The longer arms constitute the scraping members while the arms 7 8 are counterbalance arms, being provided with weights 79 on their ends.

By reference to Fig. 4, it. will be seen that as the shaft 31 rotates in a clockwise direction. the scraper arms will contact with the inner wall of the still 6 on the down stroke for about 180 or over the entire lower surface of the still where the caking or accumulation of the hydrocarbon may occur. On the upper half, however, the counterbalance weights will pull the brushes out of contact with the inner face of the still.

The retractive movement, that is, the movement out of contact with the inner surface of the still 6, will be limited by the stop members 80 and 81, which are shown as arms projecting laterally from the stem 71. This is desirable in order to permit the throwover of the individual groups of scrapers during the rotative movement of the axle 31.

One end blade of each group is provided with a hinged scraper 82 provided with a weight 83, as will be seen in Fig. 5, so that the scrapers will knock against the hangers 33 to 36 and free themselves of carbon. It will be observed that the groups of scrapers overlap so as to insure a complete removal of all of the carbon within the still 6. it being understood, of course that while the groups of scrapers overlap, they are staggered with respect one to the other and maintain their proper spaced relation because they are all fastened to the shaft 31.

The construction shown in Fig. 1 represents one unit, it being apparent that the units may be arranged in batteries if desired. in which event a number of stills and settling tanks may be connected to a single preheater 25 and that in actual practice, it is desirable to have the prehcater 25 slightly lower than the still 6 and. settling tank 43 so that the contents of 413 may flow into the preheater 25 by gravity. If desired, a blowofi valve 84: may be provided for the still 6.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that an an apparatus constructed in accordace with my invention will enable me to ca out the method of converting heavy hy rocarbons into lighter hydrocarbons so as to convert the ma or portion of the volume of heavy hydrocarbon into lighter hydrocarbon oils and that the residue or major portion thereof may be utilized as the heat generating medium to maintain the treated volume ot hydrocarbons at the proper temperature.

In actual practice I have produced a very high grade gasoline and the percentage of recovery is relatively high.

lBy reference to the drawings it will be observed that the paddles or blades are turned in angles in a rearward direction to cause a thrust to be exerted against the solids toward the rear of the still or boiler 6 so as to tend to feed the solids toward the discharge end of the boiler or still and maintain the forward portion comparatively free from accumulations so as not to retard the conduction of heat into the hydrocarbon contained within the still.

In actual practice it is intended to drive the paddles at a relatively slow speed, for example,'about one B. P. M. The effect of rotating the blades or paddles at this speed is to induce a downward flow of the upper level of hydrocarbon in the still toward the bottom where it will be subjected to direct heat from the bottom of'the still.

The rotation of the paddles at regular intervals will cause substantially all of the oil in the still to, at some time, come in contact with the hottest portion of the still; that is, the portion immediately above the furnace, thereby inducing a greater per cent yield of gasoline of a higher quality than where the heat must penetrate the entire body by conduction progressively from the bottom to the top. This result has been observed in actual practice and I. therefore, consider it important that the rotating paddles or blades be driven at about the speed specified, for ractice has indicated that this is tge most e cient speed in a device of this kin What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An apparatus for converting heavy hydrocarbons into lighter hydrocarbons comprising a still, means for heating the contents of the still to a vaporizing temperature, a gravity separator, means for conducting residual oil from the still to the gravity separator, a tank, a pipe through which oil may pass from the separator to the tank to carry hot oil to the tank, a preheater coil in the tank, means for feeding raw oil to said preheater coil, a tower connected to the preheater and to the still, the

oil inlet to the tower from the preheater being at one end of the tower and the oil discharge from the tower to the still being at the other end thereof, a vapor outlet for the still leading into the tower above the oil dischar e from the tower to the still, a vapor disc arge at the other end of the tower, a condenser connected to the last named discharge, and means for causing a counter-flow of oil and vapor within the tower.

2. An apparatus for converting heavy hydrocarbons into lighter hydrocarbons comprising a still, a preheater, a tower to which the preheater and still are connected, a casing around the prehedter, a settling tank having its inlet connected to the still and its outlet connected to the casing around the preheater, means for inducing a counterflow of liquid and vapor from the reheater and the still respectively through t e tower, and a condenser connected to the tower.

3. An apparatus for converting heavy hydrocarbons into lighter hydrocarbons comprising a still, a preheater, a tower to which the prcheater and still are connected, means for inducting a counter-flow of liquid and vapor from the reheater and still re spectively through t e tower, a condenser connected to the tower, a settling tank having its inlet connected to the still, a casing around the prcheater. means for connecting the casing to the settling tank, and a pipe leading from the top of the settling tank to the sill.

4. An apparatus for converting heavy hydrocarbons into lighter hydrocarbons comprising a stilL-a preheater, a tower to which the preheater and still are connected, means for inducing; a counterflow of liquid and vapor from the preheater and still respectively through the tower, a condenser connected to the tower, a settling tank having its inlet connected to the still, a casing around the preheater, means for connectin the casing to the settling tank, a pipe lea ing from the top of the settling tank to the still, and a pump in the last-named pipe for inducing the flow from the settling tank to the still.

5. An apparatus for converting heavy hydrocarbons into lighter hydrocarbons comprising a still. a preheater coil, a tower to which the preheater and still are connected, means for inducing a counter-flow of liquid and vapor from the preheater and still respectively through the tower, a condenser connected to the tower, a settling tank having its inlet connected to the still. a casing around the preheating coilh'aving an inlet connected to the outlet of the settling tank, a pipe leading from the settling tank to the still, and means in the last-named pipe masses for inducing a flow from he settling tank into the still.

6. An apparatus for converting heavy hydrocarbons into lighter hydrocarbons comprising a still, a settling tank connected to the still, an auxiliary still connected to the settling tank, a preheater in the auxiliary still having an inlet for connection with the source of supply and an outlet pipe, a condenser box, a pipe connecting'the condenser box with the auxiliary still, a tower into which the outlet pipe from the preheater discharges, a discharge pipe leadmg from the tower into the first-named still, a pipe leading from the first-named still to the tower above the discharge pipe from the tower into the still, the last-named pipe connecting the still to the tower to induce a counter-flow of vapor from the bottom of the still with oil introduced into the top of the tower from the pipe leading from the preheater, and a vapor pipe lJeading from the tower to the condenser 7. An apparatus for converting heavy hydrocarbons into lighter hydrocarbons comprising a source of oil supply, a pump connected thereto, a pipe line discharging therefrom, a still for receiving the discharge from the ipe line, a discharge pipe leading from t e still, atower having its lower end connected to the discharge from the still, a discharge from the tower at its upper end, a condenser box connected to the lastnarned discharge, a second pump connected to the source of oil supply, a coil connected to the second pump and communicating with the top of the tower to induce a flow of oil counter-wise to the flow of vapors from the still, means for discharging the flow entering the tower from the tower to the still, a settling tank, a pipe connecting the still to the settling tank, a preheater tank surrounding the coil, a connection between the settling tank and preheater tank, and a connection between the top of the preheater tank and the condenser box.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

WILLIAM F. MUEI-HJ.

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