US1004632A - Apparatus for treating hydrocarbon oils. - Google Patents

Description

D. T. DAY. APPARATUS FOR TREATING HYDBOOABBON OILS.

- uruou'mn rILnn no. '1, mo.

1,004,632. Patented 0013,1911.

and improvin DAVID *r. DAY, or WASHINGTON, ms'rmc'r or COLUMBIA.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING HYDROCARBON OILS.

Application filed December 7,1910. Serial No.

To all whom it may. concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID T. DAY, a citi- Zen of the United States, residing at Washington, in the District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Treating Hydrocarbon Oils, of which the following is a specification. This inventionre'lates to apparatus for treating ,crude petroleum or its distillate products which are bad in odor and defi cient in hydrogen, for increasing the yield the quality of light hydrocarbon oils, lu ricatin oils and other products of distillation; a so for improving the quality of the resultingresiduum; and is an improvement on the invention secured to me by Letters Patent No. 826,089, dated July 1 ,1905. c

It has heretofore been found that the contact or catalytic action of porous bodies, such as spongy metals or porous clays, enable petroleum vapors or liquids, under appropriate tem erature and ressure, to combine with hy rpgen with t e production of superior products, d gen. Thus it was ascertained that when .gases or vapors carrying hydrogen, such as water gas, or ethylene andits homologues' were brought inintimate contact with petroleum vapors or liquids in the presence of rated hydrocarbons,

- more hy rogen than a porous medium capable of exerting the action usually described as contact actionlor catalytic action, the 'h or combined with,.t e previously unsatuwith' the desirable effect of roducing h drocarbons containing V fore, in pi'riportion to the amount of carbon. As a resu t, the dist'illates and residuum are lighter in color find sweeter in odor, the kerosenebeing -more suitable for burning in lam s;.the

gasolene better for illuminating an power pu oses and'the heavy'oils much improved or -ubricatin been 'found t a ensuch. crude petroleums or'residues ale-subjected totheycra'ckin process to increase. the yield of light .oi s suitable for 'buriiing'in lamps and of through.

solene the addition of hydrogen, lib medium of a contact agent, is rendered especially ea and eflicient, and the: .eld and quality 0 the valuableprqducts ist 'ere by greatly increased. r The principal object of gniy invention therefore, is to provide an apparatus adapt- Speeiflcation of Letters Patent.

ue to the added h dro-'- drogen was added to,

p oses.-- lt'ha'slespecially, H3

' Patented Oct. 3, 1911.

rocarbon oils and increasing the yield of light oil, by mingling or combining with the oils under treatment a sufficient percentage of hydrogen to convert them into a mixture of the marsh-gas series of hydrocarbons and other series richer in hydrogen than the cracked roducts.

A s ecial ob'ect of my invention is to provide or effectively and economically superheating cominingled streams of oil vapor and hydrogen carrying gas in a -hydrogenator, by passage through the porous absorp tive contact material 1n tubes immersed in the liquid which is bein distilled, thereby aiding and expediting t e process of combimng hydrogen with the 011 vapor for the purpose of saturatin the oil and improvmg its quality. In t 's superheating oper ation I also provide for regulating and controllin which is most efi'ective for carrying out the contact process, by controlling the pressure and consequently the temperature of distillation, directly in the still.

Another 0b]ect is to provide an improved construction of apparatus by means of which the process can be more economically and efiectively carried out. By my improved. construction the first structing the apparatus. is reduced, and the subsequent expense of operating it to carry out the process is much reduced.

I will now more particularly describe my invention by reference to the accompanying drawings in which-- V Figure 1 represents a vertical longitudinal sect-ion of an oil still with parts in elevation, embodying my improvements and adapted cost of con-' the temperature. to that degree, I

for carrymg out my process, Fig. 2 represents avertical transverse section line 2-2,

my apparatus the hydro nator is constructedflin, and as a part 0 the oil still, the construction bein as follows: An oil still A is set in a suitable furnace audits opposite ends are provided respectively with manholes and covers a, a. to give access for cleaning and repairing; Near the opposite.

ends of the sti'll'are securedtransverse partition plates B, B forming va r s aces b and'b and a space betweent em or the body of 'oil to be distilled. The filate B does not extend to' the topof the sti or is pro fvidcd with a topropening c for the passage of oil vapor and hydrogen into thefvaipor space 7); it is also provided near the bottom with a manhole and cover I)". B, B may be termed tube-sheets and are connected by tubes 01 cl for containing the porous absorptive material 6. These tubes connecting with the plates B, B, constitute the hydrogenator -:D, the tubes being immersedin the body of oil which usually rises to the level indicated by dotted lines as. perforated ,pipe F, havingia valve f, extends longitudinally near the bottom of the still for admitting oil and hydrogen or either one alone, as required. With the outer end of pipe F connects an oil supply pipe F having a valve f; also ahydrogen supply pipe G having a valve g. I preferably construct a hydrogen generator H near the still, soas to be able to supply hot hydrogen through pipes G and F. This generator may consist of retorts in which oil is decomposed for liberating hydro en," or may be any other desired form of iyd'rogengenerator. The goose neck or vapor escape pipe J, having a controlling valve j,'connects with the vapor 'chamberb and with any well known form of condenser K. A pressure gage m is connected with chamber bfor indicating the pressurein the still, as a guide for properly adjusting the valve 7'. The contact material, in the nature of a porous absorptive substance e, such as a finely divided metal or finely divided clay, is placed in 'the tubes. 01 to nearly fill the same.

The o ration may be conducted as foll-ows: il is supplied to the. fsftill, filling the same to thedotted line w andwhen suitably heated for the purpose; of distillation,

. hydrogen. or a hydrogen carrying as or. vapor is forced 'in through the per pi e F and passed up through the'body of The commingled, hydrogen and oil ."vapors, rising into the vapor space at the top of the still, pass therefrom through openin 0 into the chamber 1) and thence throug tubes d in contact with the porous absorptive material e. therein, where the catalyticaction takes place, resultin in the hydrogen being combined with t e previously unsaturated hydrocarbons and-producmg hydro-carbons containing more byamount of carbon. The hydrogenating tubes being immersed in the body of oil wh ch is being distilled are heated by the oil to a temperature as high as the distillation temperature of the oil, and for practical purposes they will be heated to a higher degree than the vapor, inasmuch as liquid from which oils are being distilled is always hotter than the distillate vapors from it. By this means the commmgl'ed hydrogen and oil vapor are superheated, thereby causing the-h drogen to combine with the oil vapor in t e presence of the contact material and produce saturated oil contain- The plates.

effecting saturation of oil with orated in proportion to the' passed oif ing an increased percentage of hydrogen. I thus utilize the heat of the comparatively highly heated body of oil for superheatin the commingled hydrogen and oil vapor a d hydrogen. The saturated vapor now passes ofi into the outlet chamber 7) an .dthence through the goose neck J to the condenser K.

In order to regulatethe temperature and maintain it at that degree most suitable to the contact process involved, the valve y will be adjusted and may be so set as to increase the pressure, and, consequently, the temperature of the body of oil in the still. The temperature of distillation can thus be controlled. Ifthe temperature of the body of oil is raised the hydrogen and oil vapors will more highly superheated during passage through the tubes (1. This is quite important in practice, in order to control the operation of combining hydrogen with oil vapor for saturating the same. An attendant, by observing the pressure indicated in the gage m will understand how to adjust the valve 9' for-producing the desired pressure and temperature in the still. Hot hydrogen is preferably passed from the generator 'H directly through the perforated pipe F, thereby materially aiding the heating of the oil. A stream of oil and heated hydrogen may be admitted simultaneously through pipes F and G- into pipe-F and discharged therefrom into the still. Should it be desired to increase the pressure and temperature of the commingled hydrogen and oil vapor in contact with the rocess'material e in the tubes d for expe iting or increasing the catalytic action or hydrogenating operation, the valve j may be partially closed and so adjusted as to secure the desired effect.

As contact agents for causing hydrogen to combine with petroleum oils,-I may use finely divided metals, or metals in the porous condition,

such as iron by hydrogen, zinc no dust, reduced nickel orcobalt, dry porous clays, spongy platinum, or palladium, coat ing clays, or quartz, in fact any agent capa'ble of bringing hydrogen into intimate contact with the petroleum compound. Whether the contact agent in some cases, as palladiumQfirSt forms a compound or-alloy with the hydrogen, is immaterial .to the final effect, which is. hat of yielding oil of better quality as the result of the contact action.

As an illustration of the practical'operation 'of this process the tubes-pl of a still of 160 barrels capacity are first charged with briquets of copper or iron oxid mixed with metallic dust, the choice of the contact agent" depending upon he market price of an available supply, The still is charged with Mexican crude oi l of 16 B. gravity; the still is then heated untilthefirst condensed H vapor from the minute amount of gasolene 130 present in the crudeoil, appears from the condenser, at the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere. Then hydrogen, preferably as hot as possible, from the generator is passed in through pipe F at a rate that may well be averaged at 6 cubic feet per second. Inasmuch as this hydrogen is little purer than producer-gas and. not of much value an-excessis provided. The excess issuing with the vapors which at once begin to appear from the condenser, is usually fed to the fire under the still. In the case of oils of as high boiling points, as that of 16 B. gravity 'no extra pressure is used, unless the use of excessive hydrogen is undesirable. In that case the hydrogen will yield lighter prodvucts if the extra pressure goes to 50 pounds per square inch. In the ease of lighter oils I from California, Texas or other localities,

extra pressure is employed to retard boiling of the oil until a suitable cracking temperature is reached, say' 250 C. to 350 C. VVit-h the progress of the distillation crude oil is introduced in the manner above described in order to maintain the level of the oil as nearly as may be until impurities collect and require interruption of the process for cleaning out the still.

Having described my invention, what I claim, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination with an oil still, of a hydrogenator therein, comprising two vapor chambers, an intermediate oil chamber, tubes connecting the vapor chambers, the partition between the-oil chamber and one vapor chamber having an opening for-the passage of vapors to the tubes, and a goose neck or vapor escape pipe connecting with the other vapor chamber, substantially as described.

2. The combination with an oil still, of a hydrogenator therein, comprising two vapor chambers, an intermediate oil chamber, tubes connecting the vapor chambers, the partition between the oil chamberand one vapor chamber having an opening for the passage of vapors to the tubes, a vapor escape pipe connecting with the othervapor chamber, and a pipe leading from a scouree of supply of hydrogen-carrying gas or vapor and connecting with said oil chamber, substantially as described.

. 3. The combination with an oil still, of a hydrogenator therein, comprising two vapor chambers, an intermediate oil chamber, tubes containing porous absorptive contact material connecting the vapor chambers, one of thedividing partition plates having an opening for the passage of vapors from the oil chamber into the first vapor chamber, a hydrogen supply pipe connecting with the oil chamber and a va )or escape pipe connecting with the secon vapor chamber, substantially as described.

4. The combination with an oil still having the vapor chambers, an intermediate oil chamber connecting directly with one of the vapor chambers, and tubes connecting the chambers, an intermediate oil chamber connecting directly with one of the vapor chambers, tubes connecting the vapor chambers, and containing porous contact material, a hydrogen supply pipe connecting with the oil chamber, and a vapor escape pipe, connecting with the second vapor chamber and having a valve for controlling the pressure and temperature of hydrogen and distilled oil vapor in contact with said contact material, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

DAVID T. DAY. Witnesses:

EDWIN S. CLARKSON, BESSIE H. DAVIS.

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