US1007788A - Means for transporting oil. - Google Patents

Description

E. N. MILLS.

MEAN-S FOR TRANSPORTING OIL.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 26, 1910.

Patented Nov. 7, 1911.

UNITED STATES PATENT oniuon.

EDWARD N. MILLS, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR F ONE-HALF TO CHARLES E. HAILSTONE, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

MEANS FOR TBANSPORTING OIL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. '7, 1911.

Application filed September 26, 1910. Serial No. 583,760.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD N. MILLS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Means for Transporting Oil, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to an improved method of and apparatus for transporting oil in pipe lines, the object of the invention being to provide means for transporting oil which shall be economical in operation, and in which the oil when so transported will rapidly become in condition for further use or treatment.

The present method generally adopted for transporting oil is by means of pipes, which, in the case of heavy oils, are rifled, water being mixed with the oil to cause it to flow more readily in said pipes. Upon the oil arriving at its destination, it has to be freed from the water by distillation and other methods, this process being expensive as well as slow.

The object of the present invention is to provide means to avoid these defects.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a side View of an apparatus for carrying out my improved method; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of a mixing cylinder; Fig. 8 is an enlarged View of the air nozzle; Fig. 4 is an enlarged section of the nozzle plate.

Referring to the drawing, 1 indicates a tank containing the oil to be transported. From said tank the oil is impelled by a pump 2 into a pipe 3, by which it is conducted to a tank a at the point of destination.

My invention consists in mixing the oil with infinitesimal particles or bubbles of air, so as to convert it into a froth or foam, and in this condition conducting it by said pipe 3 to a distant point. I do not limit my invention to any specific means for creating this foamlike condition in the oil, but show only one of many means by-which said condition may be created. The means here shown consist of a nozzle 6 connected with a compressed air pump 7 which nozzle is contained in a mixing chamber 8 interposed between the oil pump and the pipe line 3. Said nozzle is of an expanded form and the air issues therefrom through holes 9 in a nozzle plate 10, there being a large number of such holes, and these holes being very minute. The number of such holes is so large and they are so minute that they cannot be properly illustrated in the drawing which is in this respect only diagrammatic. The holes 9 preferably converge or taper outward. It is important that the air issuing from said nozzle shall be subdivided into streams as minute as possible in order that the bubbles or particles of air confined in the oil may be as small as possible. The length of time during which the oil retains its foamlike condition increases with the degree of smallness ofthese particles or bubbles of air.

The mixing chamber is formed on its inner wall with helical ribs or vanes 12 which impart to the oil passing therethrough a rotary motion. The oil having this rotary motion cuts or divides the streams of air into infinitesimal bubbles. In this condition the oil is very easily conveyed through the pipe.

I am aware that it has been proposed to transport water in a pipe by projecting jets of compressed air thereinto in the direction of the pipe. Such appliances and processes, which may be successfully used for transporting water in a pipe, are not practicable for transporting oil, for the reason that, as compared with water, oil is a very sluggish, viscid and tenacious liquid, traveling in a pipe like molasses. Ordinary methods of transporting water in apipe are therefore quite useless for transporting oil. This transportation can only be effected by reducing the oil into a foamlike condition so that the dark brown oil becomes of a character like light brown soapsuds. To bring it to this condition it is necessary that the bubbles of air introduced thereinto should be extremely numerous and very minute, and that the jets of air should be forced through holes certainly not more than 1/l6th. of an inch in diameter and preferably much smaller than this, and also that, when so forced, each jet should not be allowed to issue in a continuous stream of air, but should be broken up into fine particles. I have found, in experimental apparatus of this character, that crude oil thus reduced to a foamlike condition, remains apparently unchanged after traveling through a pipe 2 and miles long, showing that its condition, necessary for rapid transportation in the pipe, would remain unchanged for much longer distances.

It is also an important feature of my invention that some extraneous force must be employed, in addition to the air pressure, to force the oil along the pipe. My eXperi ments appear to show that it is not possible to force oil along the pipe by the mere pressure of the jets of compressed air. These can only be used to perform their function of reducing the oil to a foamlike condition, and the ordinary pumping apparatus, such as is at present used for pumping oil in pipe lines, or some equivalent apparatus, must still be employed to force the oil along the pipe.

I claim l. The method of transporting oil in a pipe which consists in mixing it with minute bubbles of air to form a foam and applying pressure thereto, substantially as described.

2. The method of transporting oil in a pipe which consists in mixing it with minute bubbles of air to form a foam and applying pressure other than that of the air to transport the oil in said pipe, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EDVARD N. MILLS. lVitnesses:

F. M. WVRIGHT, N. B. KEATING.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

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