US1500040A - Process of distilling oil - Google Patents

Description

uy E, 1924i.

J. J. ALLINSON PROCESS 0F DISTILLING OIL Filed July 17. 1919 2 Sheets-Shee?. l

July l 1924.

J. J. ALLINSON PROCESS OF DISTILLING OIL 'JOHN JOSEPH ALLINsoN, or BAarLEsvILLE, ox' I:

l 1,500,040 NT oFFlcr.o

OMA, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE AS- i SIGF'MENTS, T0 DOHERTY RESEARCH COMPANY, 0F NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORA- .rxon or DELAWARE raoosss .or Dis'rrLmNe 'om Applieauon mea my' 17, 1919. serial so. 311,558.

To'all whomtmay concern: Be it known that I, JOHN JOSEPH ALUN- soN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bartlesville in the county of Washington, State of lklahoma, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Proc'- esses of Distilling Oil; and I do hereby de- 1 clare the following to be a full, clear, and

exact description -of, the invention,y such as l0 will enable others skilled in they art to which it a pertains to make and use the same.

T is invention relates to oil distillation and more particularly to a process of distilling oil by which the lighter constituentsA ly expedited and the capacity of the stillsy is increased. In the usual topping plant, the fresh crude oil is ordinarily heated under ressure in a still or retort andthe heated 011 islthen passed into a larger chamber.

to allow the lighter constituents to vaporize. The vapors formed inthe chamber are then conducted to a condenser and the oil remaining in the condenser is conducted to the stills for complete distillation.- The quantity and character of vapors obtained by such topping processes depend upon the kind of oil being treated and the temperature and pressure of .the oil entering the vaporization chamber. Therefore, such processes do not provide an accurate and com lete removal of the light constituents of t e oil so *hat -a further removal of the lighter constit" 1`1....ts4

v 36 which acts through a plpe 38, vacuum must also be made in the stills. A The primary object of the present invention is to provide a process of distilling crude etroleum oil in which the removal of the lighter constituents of the oil ma be efciently carried out and accurate y controlled.v

Another object of the invention is to provide a process of distilling oil under 'a vacuum pressure which may be effectively used in a continuous oil distillation treatment.

With these and other objects in view, the

invention consistsl in the improved process of distilling oil hereinafter described and Aparticularly ,defined in the claims.

rlhe various features of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings,A

in which, l

' Figure 1 is a diagrammatic View in front elevation illustrating an apparatus in which a process of distilling oil embodying the preferred form of the inventionmay be carried out;

Fig. 2 is a view -in vertical section of the improved vacuum still; and

A F-ig. 3 isa lview in side elevation of the vacuum still. l

` The improved process of distilling oil embodying the preferred form of the in-` -Ventzio'n my be carried out in the apparatus shown in ig. 1 as-follows: Crude oil from storage is conducted through a pipe 10 to a pump 12 and forced through a heat inter-- changer14. The `oil is heated in the interchan er to a temperature of from 200 to 300o depending upon the temperature of the residuum oil iiowing through the interchanger, and is then conducted through a pipe 16 'to fthe upper portion of a vacuum still18. The oil underA a sli ht pressure from the pump l2 enters thesti 18 through -a distributor 2O :and is broken -up into aiine spray by the d-istri-butor.- When the oil is released in the still 18 in theform of fine s ray, it starts'to vaporize and the vaporizat1on of the oil is carried out in a series of stages, there being one stage for each of the com artments 22z 24, 26, 28,- 30, 32 and 34.

of t e vacuum Stull. The vapors formed'in the various com' ar-tments of the y uum still are positive y drawn out of the compartments under a vacuum suction. vacuum suction is created by a vacuum pump trap 40, pipe 42 and conduit v,44 to draw the vapors out of the compartments into vapor- The in the box 64 are removed through a pipe 68 and pass to storage. The vapors condensed in the trap 40 and dephlegmator 56 and 58 are removedthrough a pipe 70 and pass to storage.

Y out through a pipe 7 2by means of a pump 74 and forced through a pipe'7 6 into a fire. still 78 which forms the first of a series of fire stills 78, 80 and 82. The lire stills 78, 80 and 82 may be operated in the usual manner to remove. the various fractional condensates from the petroleum oil. In the operation of the fire stills, it may be advantageous to admit steam with the oil passing through the stills in order to assist in carrying on the fractional distillation. Although the stills 78, 80 and 82 have been described as lire stills, these may be any of the approved forms of stills for carrying on d1stillation by the application/,of heat.- The residuum oil left in the s ll 82, whlch 1s usually called fuel oil, is emoved through a pipe 84 and passes through the heat interchanger 14 to the act as l'a heating medium for preheating the fresh crude oil enterin through the pump 12. -The volume an temperature of the residuum entering the heat interchanger through the pipe 84,1s carefully regulated so that the oil passing through the interchanger will havepa sufliciently high temperature to permit the/ lighter constituents of fresh crude bil to be removed in the vacuum4 still 18. The fuel oil which is cooled in the heat interchanger 14 passes out through a pipe 86 through a pump 88 and may be conducted to storage through a pipe 90.

The construction of the vacuum still 18 is shown more particularly in Figs. 2 and 3. The still 18 consists of an elongated cylindrical tank which is builtnp in sections connected by gas and vaporr tight joints. The compartments 22, 24, '26, 28, 30, 32 and 34 of the vacuum still are separated by means of fine mesh screens 92 which are supported upon angle iron frames 94 mounted within the still. With this construction, the oil is broken into a fine spray as it enters the top of the vacuum still through the distributor 20, and the non-vaporized oil is collected on thescreen 92 below the distributor. While the oil passes through the screen 92 to enter the compartment 24 from the compartment 22, it is broken up into fine drops and is thus in a fine drop or spray in passing through -the compartment 24. In this way, the oil is broken up into ne drops 'by the screens 92 in passing from one compartment 't0 the next lower succeeding compartment. The

screens 92 divide the oil into a 'very large number of ne'particles which expose a very large surface of the oil and thus expedite the vaporization. To further assist in the vaporization, the oil vapors are withdrawn under vacuumfrom each compartment of the still and any of the lighter constituents in the oil which are not removed in the upper compartments may be removed into the lower compartments and drawn into the vapor-collecting pipes 46 and A48. The vapor is collected from the compartment 22 through pipes 94 which are connected with the collecting pipe 50. The inner ends of the pipes 94 are provided with perforated spherical members 96 which act to screen the vapors passing into the pipes 94 and preventliquor from being drawn into the collecting pipe 50. The vapors are withdrawn fromthe compartments 24, 26, 28, 30, 32 and 84 through tubes 98 which are mounted at opposite sides of each of the compartments and connected with Ts 100` mounted in the vapor-collecting pipes 46 and 48. Over the end of each of the outlet pipes 98 are mounted baies 102 which prevent the liquor passing through the compartments from being drawn directly into the pipes 98. Below each of the bales 102 and across the inlet ends of the pipes 98 are 00 are connected respectively with the tubes 98 and the vapor-collecting pipes 46and 48. Any liquid oil which reaches the vapor-collecting pipes 46 and 48 will be held back by the screens 106 and will flow downwardly y gravity through the vapor-collecting pipes and be discharged into the vaporizing compartment 34.

As shown in Fig. 3, man-holes 108 are mounted at the upper and lower ends of the vacuum stlll 18 to permit access to the interior of the still.

With. the .process and apparatus described above, 1t will be seen that the lighter constituents of petroleum oil may be effectively removed from the oil without the use of heat other than the heat 'in the residuum leaving a series of heating stills. Although 1t is best to maintain a sucient volume and quantity of residuum to raise the tem# perature of the oil owing to the vacuum Still above 200, it is not essential that the oil entering the vacuum still shall be at such ai high temperature because if the temperature of the oil entering the vacuum still is low, the vacuum pressure within the still may be materially reduced to insure that an 0i the. nghter constituents win be removed from the oil. With this arrangement, further, it is not necessary that the i' temperature of the oil entering the vacuum still shall be uniform in order to efficiently removev the lighter constituents, but any combination of temperature and vacuum/ constituents, the oil passing through each of the zones being in the form of a ne spray or dropse 4 Heretofora many attempts -have been made to provide a' continuous distillation of petroleum under a vacuum. However, a continuous process of distillation under a vacuum has not been carried out on account of difficulties and limitations of mechanical construction involved in the operation of a vacuum still. With the improved process described above, however, a vacuum separation of the lighter constituentsmay be effectively carried out in a continuous distilling operation.

Although the residuum Withdrawn from the still 82 is used for preheating the fresh crude oil passing through the vacuum still, the fractional distillates coming from the stills 78, 80 or 82 may be used in the heat interchanger 14 for preheating the crude oil.-

The preferred form 'of the invention having been thus described, What'is claimed as new is:

1. In the distillation of crude petroleum the steps comprising heating petroleum oil,

passing the heated oil through ya series of compartments maintained under a partial vacuum, finely dividing said oil at the points of its admission to sa1d compartments, vaporizing the lighterportions of the oil enclosed in said compartments by the vacuum in said compartments, separately Withdrawing vapors directly from each of said compartments out of contact with the oil in the said chamber and condensing the said vapors.

2. In` the distillation of crude petroleum the steps comprising imparting a preliminary heat to crude oil of a temperature be- .low 300 F.,lpassi'ng the heated oil into a chamber and finely dividing said oil a pluralityl ofI times Within said chamber, vaporizing the lighter portions of the oil enclosed in the'chamber solely by the sensible .heat kof the oil and the maintenance of a partial vacuum in the chamber, removing the 'vapors by suction as they are formed in the chamber, removing residual oil from the chamber and subjecting it to fractional distillation and imparting preliminary heat to the incoming-crude oil by a heat interchange with hot residual oil from the fractional distillation. Y

3. In the distillation of crude petroleum the steps comprising heating petroleum oil to a temperature between 200o and 300 F., spraying the oil progressively into a series of compartments maintained at sub-atmospheric pressure, vaporizing a portion of the said oil in the said compartments by means of the sensible heat of the oil, Withdrawing the vaporized oil as soon as it is formed,

'and condensing the said vapors.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my. signature.

JoHN JosEPH'ALLiNsoN.

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