US1337215A - Means of sediment-drainage - Google Patents

Description

BEN F. FOWLER, 0F MIDIAN, KANSAS.

MEANS 0F SEDIMENT-DRAINAGE;

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 20, 1920.

Application led Itlarch 24, 199. Serial No. 284,864.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, BEN F. FOWLER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Midian, in the county of Butler and State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Means of Sediment@ Drainage, of which the following is a description, referring to the drawings, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to means for separating sediment and water from crude oil in storage tanks, and the object of the invention is to provide means by which this may be elfected quickly and without removing the oil from the tank.

As is well known crude oil contains a considerable quantity of foreign material of higher gravity than the oil. This falls as sediment in the tanks and reaches a depth of two feet or more thus reducing the capacity of the tank, and by agitation tends to mix again with the oil. Moreover crude oil usually contains water, the presence of which in the tank .is very undesirable.

My invention consists in providing a series of troughs upon the bottom of a tank, and at the bottom of each trough, means for discharging water and sediment to the outside of the tank, and it further consists in the valve device and details of construction hereinafter noted.

ln order that my invention may be better understood, reference will now be made to the a companying drawings, in which- Figure l is a sectional plan view of the tank provided with the preferred structure of the invention, a portion of the trough structure and portions of the valve sleeves being broken away. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the upper part of the tank. F ig. 3 is a vertical section, taken on line,3*3 of Fig. l,showing oil and sediment. Fig. e is a sectional detail of two of the discharge pipes and the intermediate inclines or trough walls. F ig. 5 is a sectional detail showing one of the stuffing boXes.

A is the tank which may be of any preferred shape and of any suitable material, it comprises the staves 1 and a fiat bottom 3, which bottom is of any usual construction.

Upon each half of the bottom 3 is laid a series of V shaped troughs 4L which extend from the wall of the tank to the central line of the tank. As shown, each trough wall is made of two boards or plates e which are fastened to end pieces 5, their upper edge being secured to a center strip 6. The lower edges of the walls 4.- rest upon valve sleeves 7, which are laid upon or close to the bottom of the tank. E Ich sleeve 7 passes out through the wall of the tank` and has a threaded end portion 7', to receive an inside nut 8 and an exterior stuiiing box 9; in which l0 is the packing. Eah sleeve 7 is thus held against rotation and leakage pre vented.

The inner end of each sleeve 7 is closed by a cap il. Each sleeve is provided with a row of upwardly opening ports l2.

.lotatably mounted in each of said sleeves is a pipe or tube i3, which is provided with a series of ports l2. The pipes 13 pass out from the tank through the stufling boxes 9 and may he provided with cut off valves l5 which also serve as handles by which the pipes may be turned.

Referring again to Fig. l it will be noted that the inner ends of the longer troughs 4, above described, are downwardly inclined as shown at 16; the object of this being to form a diametrical trough at right angles to said troughs el. rlie diametrically arranged trough formed by the inclined ends l of the troughs 4t is provided with two vent pipes l?, each of which is inclosed in its non-rotatable sleeve i8, as shown at the left (Fig. l) having the ports 19.

ln addition to the principal troughs which have been described, l have shown in Fig. l a number of shorter troughs, 2O and 21, which cover the bottom space not served by the longer troughs. Some of these short troughs are parallel to troughs d, while others are at right angles thereto. Q2 indicates the sleeves at the bottom of the short troughs 20; 23, the sleeve ports; 24, the outlet pipes thereof. 25 indicates the sleeves associated with short troughs 2l; 26 the sleeve ports, and 2?, the outlet pipes thereof.

The mode of operating the valves will be obvious. Normally of course, all the pipes 13, 17, etc., are so turned that the sleeve ports 12, i9, etc., are Closed, as shown at the left in Fig. 4. lVhen it is desired to drain out the water and sediment, the pipes 13, 17. etc., are turned until the valve ports register, as shown at the right, Fig. 4. and the outside valves l5 are opened. The sediment and water will flow out through the pipes. and at the proper time the valves l5 are ('losed land the pipes turned baok to hold the de posits out of the pipes until time for the neXt draining operation.

Having described my invention, l claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

In a tank adapted to contain crude oil, sediment and water in combination, means for separating and removing said sediment and Water from sueh combination comprising a plurality of V-shaped troughs supported from the tank bottom and Within which troughs said sediment and Water are adapted to collect; a plurality of sleeves restingon the bottom of said tank, each sleeve registering with and supportingthe base of one of said troughs; earch of said sleeves extendingtlirOugh a Astufiing boX in the Wall of said tank, a plurality of ports in each sleeve upwardly opening to connect With its supen posed trough, a pipe rotatably arranged Within said sleeve and stuiiing box, ports in said pipe adapted to register' with the ports in said sleeve and a valve on said pipe Without the tank; the pipes Within the sleeves being normally positioned so that the pipe and sleeve ports do not register but when said pipes are rotated to occasion port registration and said valve is opened to alloivfor drainage of said sediment and Water Without the tank.

BEN F. FOl/VLER. Witnesses:

K. M. IMBoDnN, N. D. WiLBUR.

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