US1057227A - Treating petroleum and petroleum residues. - Google Patents

Description

J.- A. DUBBS. v TREATING PETROLEUM PETROLEUM RESIDUES.

APPLICATION IIL ED DBO. 5, 1910 Patented Mar. 25, 1913.

vgnu-35E: I

"UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JESSE A. 'DUBIBS, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

TREATING PETROLEUM ANIJ IPETROLEUM RESIDUES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 5., 1910. Serial No. 595,750.

To all whom it may concern:

'Be it'known that I, JEssE A. DUBBS, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of .California, a citizen.

mean-to indicate those substances which re- 1 main in the still chamber after the lighter gases and oils have been removed from the petroleum by distillation. of asphalt by the distillation of petroleum and of petroleum residues by distillation is well known and needs no'description. In the course of the operation of distillation to this end it has been customary for one purpose or another to blow through the liquid material in the still a blast of air, and for some purposes also the liquid has been blown through with a blast of steam. I have found that these in-blown fluids have each of them its peculiar effect upon the asphalt produced. If the material, while being distilled, is blown with steam, the resulting asphaltwill be one of relatively great plasticity and ductility. If, on the other hand, the material is blownv with air during distillation, the resulting asphalt will be hard and brittle and lacking in ductility.

I have found it advantageous (and my present invention consists in such operation) to blow the material while under treatment,

throughout a substantial portion of the operation of distillation simultaneously with The asphaltum which I produce by such operation is neither too plastic, as is the case with steam-blown asphalt, nor is it too brittle, as is the case with air-blown as halt.

invention further resides in so eontrolllng the supply of steam and air employed for this purpose, and so relating the quantities of injected fluids the one to the other, that the product is within my control, so far as concerns ductility and plasticity and I may vary the degree of due- :tilitg of the product to better adapt the pro not for specific uses. Furthermore, in

The production.

dealing, with petroleums and petroleum resi-' dues ofdifferent grades and characters, by varying the relative. and absolute quantities of the in-blown fluids, I am able to produce a product coming up to certain requirements.

I Patented Mar.'25, 19 13.

I shall describe first a typical operation upon a fairly representative article, and as a sequel describe how the operation may be varied.

I take, for example, California crude petroleum, having a specific gravity of 18 Baum at atmospheric temperature. I place this petroleum in a still of any preferred construction having proper pipe connections, and bring it to a temperature of 225 F. by the application of external heat. I then begin to inject steam, preferably through aperforated pipe at the bottom of the still, in a well known manner, to obtain distribution of the injected steam throughout the body of the charge in the still. The

initial temperature of the steam may be ap-.

proximately 225 F. At first the steam is introduced in limited quantities, to avoid boiling over of the contents; but once the still gets to running regularly and smoothly, the volume of introduced steam is increased, untilthe volume of distillate produced is in suitable relation to the quantity of material under treatment. After a period, which will ordinarily cover two or three hours, air also is introduced. 'Theair may be blown in either through a separate perforated pipe or through the same pipe which carrles' the steam; but, if the air and steam are mingled, it is preferable that the air be reheated before it is introduced into the ow of steam, as otherwise it will effect some condensation of the steam. To prevent such condensation, the temperature of the in-blown air will be a proximately that of the steam. The air a so is introduced in agradually increasing volume until, as compared with the amount of steam, the volume of air introduced will be from 50% to 75% of the other fluid, and therelative amount will be determined by observation in view of the results to be reached. The temperature at the time the air is introduced under such circumstances will be between 250 and 300 F. ordinarily. From this point on, the operation continues with the combined air and steam blasts until distillation is finished. This will be V thirty six hours (depending upon the degree of hardness to which the asphalt is to be brought), and the ultimate temperature will be between 400 and 650 F. (this also depending upon the quality of the product desired).

lVhen the distillation is substantially finished, the air is first shut off and the steam is allowed to continue to pass through the oil for about half an hour, or until such time as vapors which might otherwise condense in the still chamber are carried out of the still. The primary object of this prolonged action of the steam is to render the product-practically' odorless.

The accompanying drawing will illustrate my invention, this being a View in vertical section of a still for carrying the invention into practice.' 1

The still itself is indicated at 1; a suitable furnace or burner is indicated at 2. It will be understood that, while, (as hereinbefore described) the burner 2 will afford the initial heat, continuation of heat may be had by the internal combustion following upon the introduction of air when the material is still at elevated temperature. Whether the heat of the burner 2 be continued throughout the operation is a detail which is variable within the judgment of the operator. for it is a matter within the common knowledge of the art at the present day. The pipe for the introduction of steam and air is indicated at 3. and is forked as at 6 in order to have connection to steam and air supply pipes. Within the still chamber the pipe 3 terminates in a perforated distributing-head 4.

a The distillates from the chamber 1 escape from the top thereof by means of the passageway 5.

' My understanding of the matter is this. The asphalt is to be considered to be made up of two elements, one commonly called asphaltene and the other petrolene. Asphaltene is the hard element of the mixture and petrolene the fluid element. In other words, asphaltene is a solid held in solution in the more or less fluid petrolene. When petroleum is blown with steam the petrolene clement. predominates in the product, and

when it'is blown with air the asphaltene element predominates.

If the material which is treatedis one that does not under normal treatment afford an asphalt of suflicient hardness, then the blowmg in of air may be begun at or shortly after, or if need be even before the blowing I I in of the steam begins, and the volume of delayed or the quantity of air to be introduced may be diminished, or both, to afford a softer product.

So long as steam is present in an amount as great as 25% of the air, an explosive mixture cannot be formed in the still chamber. If however the relative amount of steam falls below that ,minimum, precautions should be taken in the manner known to the art to prevent explosion.

The operation described above is based upon the assumption that the oil is initially free from water. treated does contain water, it should first be dried in any preferred manner, before my operation herein described is performed upon it.

I have referred above to petroleum and petroleum residue. It will be understood that petroleum residue is a result of an initial distillation of petroleum itself, and no separate explanation is necessary to enable one skilled in the art to treat either or both substances. Consequently, residual products such. as petroleum tar and other products from which the lighter distillates, or the greater percentage of the original petroleum has been taken are susce tible to this process in the same manner an the same degree as are those petroleum substances which have still a large proportion of readily distillable If however the oil to be ingredients present in them. Where the preferably first subjected to heat untilbrought to a temperature of 300 to 450 F., before the blasts are introduced.

I claim herein as my invention:

1. The method herein described of producing asphalt from petroleum and petroleum residues, which consists in distilling away the lighter ingredients of the substance under treatment and as such distillation progresses blowing the mass under treatment simultaneously with blasts of steam and of air.

2. The method herein described of producing asphalt from petroleum or etroleum residue, which consists in distilling away the lighter components of the substance to be treated, and during such operatlon of distillation blowingthe substance under treatment with blasts of air and of steam in relatively regulated quantities according to the physical properties desired in the product.

3. The method of treating petroleum and residual petroleum products to obtain asphalt and asphaltic products which consists 1n injecting in the heated body under treatin heating the residue from 300 to 450 degrees F., then blowing the petroleum residue With air and later introducing steam, Varying the proportions of the steam and air for producing softer or harder products 5. The method of treating petroleum and residual petroleum products, which consists in blowing the heated petroleum or its products with steam and then introducing air conjointly with the steam, to obtain harder or softer products, the quantity of steam with the air for softer products being illversely proportional to the quantity of air with the steam for harder products.

6. The method herein described of preparing asphalt from petroleum or petroleum residue, which consists in distilling away the lighter ingredients of the material acted upon, and in the course of such distillation introducing into the material successively blasts of steam and of air, and continuing the operation with the conjoint blowing in of both fluids, the order in Which the blasts are successively introduced and the interval of time between their successive introduction being determined according to the physical properties desired in the product.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

JESSE A. DUBBS.

Witnesses:

ANTON GLoETzNER, Jr., v F. J. MoCLARY;

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