US502125A - Apparatus for manufacturing gas - Google Patents

Description

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- APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING GAS. No; 502,125. A Patented July 25, 1893.

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APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING GAS.

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UNITED STATES.

PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN J. KIRKHAM, OF TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA.

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING GAS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 502,125, dated July 25, 1893. Application filed December 15, 1892- Serlal No. 455,258. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN J. KIRKHAM, a resident of Terre Haute, in the county of Vigo and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Manufacturing Gas; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to furnaces for the manufacture of gas from bituminous coal, and has for its object to increase their efficiency and capacity and to diminish practically the cost of building and operating them; and the invention consists in the matters hereinafter described and particularly pointed out.

In the accompanying drawings Figure l is a vertical central section of the improved ap- Figs. 2, 3 and 4. are transverse sections on lines 22, 33 and 4. 4: respectively of Fig. 1 and Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation of a detail.

The apparatus includes coal-coking and coke-decomposing chambers denoted by l and 2 respectively and a superheater 3 and the usual adjuncts of such apparatus. Preferably the walls of both the furnace and superheater are made of refractory brick inolosed by a metallic shell and situated below the plane of an operating floor 11.

4 denotes a grate below the gas generating or coke decomposing chamber, and 5 and 6 denote tightly closing doors adapted to give access when desired to the space above and below the grate.

6' is a tightly closing charging door in the upper part of the generator and 6 is a similar door or cover for the charging inlet of the coking chamber.

Air inlet ports below the grate are denoted by 7 and a steam inlet by 8.

7 denotes air inlets and 8 a steam inlet at or near the top of the generator.

Air ports in the region of the coking chamber are denoted by 7 and in the top of the superheater by 7".

9 indicates a main blast pipe, which in practice will be connected with a fan or other device for moving the air through the apparatus. In some cases exhausting devices such as indicated at 10 may be relied upon to produce the necessary draft. The air ports 7" in thebase and top of the superheater may communicate with the air main 9 or with an independent air conduit if desired.

The top of the generator is provided with a series of piers 12 upon which stand vertical partitions composed of the refractory tile 13 which extends from the piers to the arched roof of the furnace. These tile have preferably a tongue and groove connection as shown at 13 in Fig. 5, and are each, provided with an opening 14. The series of tile are arranged about a circularspace or coking chamber 1 and the radial spaces between them have free communication with the said chamber through the passages 16 and with each other through the openings 14. The exterior edge of each tile is held between projecting bricks 17 suitably laid in the wall and arranged to extend inwardly as shown. The inner edges of thetiles may be provided with-projections or studs 18 disposed at intervals in a vertical direction to prevent the closing of the spaces or passages 16 by accidental lateral movement of the said tiles. The bottom of each lower tile is enlarged to provide a broad foot to rest upon a pier and to contract the spaces between the tile at that point. The tile gradually increase in width and decrease in thickness toward the top of the furnace whereby the upper port of the coking chamber 1 is decreased in diameter and the inter tile spaces kept of uniform dimensions, circumferentially.

The coking chamber has a vertical axis and a frustro-conical shape to provide for the easy descent of the charge therein and it is made accessible to air and gases through the passages between the tile on all sides to enable the charge to be subjected to their action for the more speedy, convenient and thorough coking of bituminous coal. Without the vertical passages surrounding the coking chamber, bituminous coal cannot be coked with suficient rapidity in a vertically disposed chamber or retort and if the coking chamber be made inclined to permit the passage of gases above the coal to be coked it requires to be pushed down into the generator and it is coked unevenly and imperfectly therein. The bottom and top of the superheater are connected with the ash pit and with the upper part of the furnace respectively by gas fines 19 and 20 having valves 19' and 20 op erated by levers 19" and 20". The chamber in the upper part of the superheater is provided with oil supply pipes 21. A central flue or retort for passage and fixing of gases is denoted by 22. This has an outlet 23 closed byadoor 24 and situated under a chimney 25.

Projections from the wall of the flue 22 are denoted by 26 which are adapted to break up ascending currents of hot gases and also to absorb a portion of their heat, which will be given out when gases to be fixed are subsequently passed through.

22 denotes a continuation of the gas flue outside the superheater and 27 a valve in the same.

28 is a pipe to conduct hot producer gas to a furnace and 29 a pipe adapted to take gas to a scrubber and holder.

The improvement is not limited to particular dimensions but the following are suitable. The furnace and the superheater may be made each ten feet in diameter and thirty feet high. The generator can be about eight feet in height above the grate bars and the coking chamber thirty feet in height. The spaces between the tile may vary from an inch or less at their inner edges to a foot next the outer wall. The tile can vary in thickness and may be of any desired length. The flue 22 can be made over a foot in diameter and sufficiently large if desired to allow access for inspection and repairs.

The apparatus is operated as follows: In beginning coke or. hard coal is charged into the generator and bituminous coal into the coking chamber and the former is ignited. The products of combustion, the valve 19 being closed and valve 20 open, are forced by the blast or exhaust or by both through the spaces between the tile and up around the bituminous coal. They are free to expand and circulate through the openings in the tile which latter are heated thereby and conduct and radiate heat into the coal which is coked by such heat and by the actual contact of the ascending products of combustion which latter will be enriched by the volatile hydrocarbons of the bituminous coal, and further combustion produced by air admitted through ports 7 and 7". The hot products are passed down through the looselyv piled brick work and heat them, and are then passed up through the central line 22 and out into the open air or to any desired exit from the apparatus. After the apparatus has been heated up by the method described and the contents of the generator lowered the hot coke just produced descends more or less of it into the generator and a fresh supply of bituminous coal is charged into the retort. Steam is passed through the incandescent coke on the grate and is decomposed and the water gas thereby produced is passed up through and about the retort with the effect to volatilize the lighter constituent of the fresh charge. The mingled gas and and hydrocarbon vapor in case a small amount of air is admitted can be further enriched by additions of oil in the top of the superheater and the mixture fixed by the heat of the brick work, the gas being sent through a pnrifier and scrubber to a holder or if desired, direct to boiler furnaces. It is also obvious that the apparatus can be used to generate producer gas for use in such furnaces. According to another method of operation valve 20 is closed and valve 19' opened and steam admitted through the ports in the top of the generator and passed down through incandescent coal to generate water gas which is passed through conduit 19 into the base of the superheater. Oil being simultaneously admitted at the top of the superheater is vapori'zed and heated therein and blended with the hot watergas in the bottom of the superheater and fixed in flue 22 made hot by a previous heating up operation such as described in connection with the first method.

It maybe noted that both the coking chamber 1 and the line or retort 22 are surrounded by a mass of material constantly heated by hot gases. They will therefore have a high temperature suitable for coking coal in the first and fixing gases in the second. Coal can be evenly and thoroughly coked in about twenty minutes and it passes by gravity into the generator where it is decomposed. In some cases the superheater and its interior retort can be heated up by the use of the oil and air inlets, oil vapors being partly burned in the upper chamber and the combustion completed in the one at the base of the retort Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is 1. In a gas making apparatus the furnace having the generator situated in the lower part thereof, and its upper part provided with vertical partitions of tile arranged within the outer wall and extending radially toward the center and inclosing a central coking chamber between their inner faces, said partitions being separated bya series of radial chambers communicating laterally with said coking chamber and also communicating with an exit near the furnace top and with the generator below substantially as described.

2. In a gas making apparatus the furnace having the generator situated in the lower part thereof, and its upper part provided with vertical partitions of tile having transverse openings, arranged within the outer wall and extending radially toward the center and inclosing a central coking chamber between their inner faces, said partitions being separated by a series of radial chambers communicating laterally with said coking chamber and also communicating with an exit near the furnace top and with the generator below substantially as described.

3. The furnace having in its lower part a ITO generator and in its upper part aseries of vertical tile partitions arranged radially and forming an interior coking chamber said partitions-having spaces between them communicatin g with the interior coking chamber and with an exit near the furnace top, substantially as described.

4. The furnace having in its lower part a generator and in its upper part a series of vertical tile I partitions arranged radially and forming an interior coking chamber saidpartitions having spaces between them communicating with the interior coking chamber and with an exit near the furnace top and provided near their inner edges with projections, substantially as described.

5. The furnace having in its lower part a generator and in its upper part a series of vertical tile partitions arranged radially and forming an interior coking chamber said par-' titions having spaces-between them communicating with the interior coking chamber and with an exit near the furnace top and having their outer edges held by projections from the inner surface of the furnace wall, substantially as described.

6. Thefurnace having. in its lower part a generator and in its upper part a series of vertical tile partitions arranged radially and forming an interior coking chamber said partitions having spaces between them communicating with the interior coking chamber and with an exit near the furnace top and also with the generator, and air inlets to supply air between the partitions, substantially as described.

7. The gas furnace having in its lower part a generator, the partitions forming the central coking chamber and vertical radial spaces between them in communication with the generator and with the coking chamber and with an exit at the upper part of the furnace, in combination with the superheater whereby hot gases from the generator can be conducted through the spaces about the coking chamber and mingled with vapors from said chamber and conveyed to the superheater substantially as described.

8. The furnace having in its lower part a generator, the radial partitions forming a central coking chamber and having spaces between them in communication with the generator with the coking chamber and with an exit at the upper part of the furnace,-in

combination with the superheater whereby hot gases from the generator can be conducted through the spaces about the coking chamber and mingled with vapors from said chamber and conveyed to the superheater, and oil and air inlets in the top of the superheater substantially as described.

9. The furnace having the generator in its lower section provided with steam and air inlet ports at both its upper and lower parts, the superposed coking chamber communicating laterally with vertical chambers or passages which communicate with an exit near the furnace top, and the superheater having refractory material surrounding a central fixing retort flue and having its base in communication with the base of the generator and its top in communication with the coking chamber, and suitable valves, whereby either water gas, or products of combustion, may be passed up about the coking chamber and down through the refractory material and up through the central retort and whereby either may be passed direct to the bottom of the retort and up through the same, all

. substantially as described.

10. The furnace having the generator in its lower section provided with steam and air inlet ports at both its upper and lower parts, the superposed coking chamber communicating laterally with vertical chambers or passages which communicate with an exit near the furnace top, and-the superheater having an oil inlet in its top and refractory material surrounding a central fixing retort flue and having its base in communication with the base of the generator and its top in communication with the coking chamber, and suitable valves, whereby either water gas or products of combustion may be passed up about the coking chamber and down through the refractory material and up through the central retort and whereby either may be passed direct to the bottom of the retort and up through the same and in every case oil or oil vapor admitted at will to the current of gases, all substantially as set forth.

, In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN J. KIRKHAM.

Witnesses:

CHAS. 0. WHITE, CHARLES O. REICHERT.

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