GB389871A - Improvements in and relating to the treatment of hydrocarbon material and particularly to the cracking of such material - Google Patents

Abstract

<PICT:0389871/III/1> In a process in which oils are cracked by direct contact with the products of the surface combustion of a permanent gas, e.g. the gases produced in the reaction, mixed with air, the body of porous and refractory material on which combustion is effected is arranged to form an extended radiant heating surface, and the inlet for the oils and the outlet for the cracked products in the cracking chamber are arranged so that the oil flows towards and the products are removed adjacent to the combustion surface. Oils vaporized by passage through a heated coiled pipe 1 are led, after separation of non-volatile components and mixing with steam in a vessel 3, into a chamber 8 where they are cracked by contact with the gases formed by surface combustion of air and the gaseous products of the reaction burnt on refractory material 11 supported by a perforated plate 10. The products pass through a pipe 13 to a chamber 14 packed with scrap iron where the cracking temperature is maintained. The cracked vapours pass, preferably through a heat exchanger 22, to a dephlegmator 19 where heavy constituents are separated by contact with the crude oil introduced through pipes 25, 26, the oil being simultaneously topped. The vapours pass to a bubble tower 30 from which uncondensed vapours are led through a pipe 31 to the usual condensers and storage while the condensate is led through a pipe 32 to a tank 33 and thence through a heat-exchanger 22 to the coil 1. The proportion of air or oxygen used may be greater or less than that required to effect combustion of the permanent gas.