US1634833A - Art of operating water-gas generators - Google Patents

Description

y 1927' F. A. HOWARD ART OF OPERATING WATER GAS GENERATORS Filed April 1. 1920 film /1. J-fawa mi I N VEN TOR.

ATTORNEYS,

Patented July 5, 1927. V UNITED STATES I 1,634,833 PATENT. QFFICE.

FRANK A. HOWARD, OF WESTFIELD, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOB TO STANDARD DEVELOP- KENT COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

ART OF OPERATDTG WATER-GAS GENERATORS.

Application filed April 1, 1920. Serial N0. 370, 10.

My invention relates to the manufacture of water gas and will be fully understood from the following specification taken -in connection with the accompanying drawing 6 which shows in diagrammatic vertical section, a form of water gas generator, suited to the purposes of the present invent-ion.

In the drawing the numeral 1 designates the steel shell of the wa-ter gas generator,

'0 this shell being lined with fire brick 2, or other heat insulating and resisting material. Some-distance above the'bottom of the generator are located grate bars 3. The frustoconical top of the generator, designated 4, is closed by a cover plate 5 in the usual manner. A valved conduit 6 leads from the upper portion of the generator and a similar conduit 7 enters the chamber below the grate bars 3. third conduit 8 disposed substantially mid way of the height of the generator and communicatin with the latter b tuyeres 9 perforating the lining 2. An oil spray pipe 10 enters thecasin of the generator near the cover plate and is arranged at such an angle as to permit uniform distribution of the sprayed oil over the upper surface of the coal or coke in the generator. A steam supply pipe 11 is preferably tapped. into the side of the oil pipe 10 to secure more effic ient spraying of the oil, and for other purposes as will later appear.

' In accordance with my invention, the above described gas generator may be operated in the following manner The generator is charged with a good grade of gas coal, in lumps not too small, or. with coke, and fired in the usual manner.

v The air blast enters through the lower con 40 duit 7, passing through the grate bars 3, and upwa fd through the lower section of the coal bed, thence out by the tuyeres 9 and conduit 8. Blasting. will be conducted in this manner untila tem rature of the fuel bed proper for the pro notion of water gas is obtained. The blast will then be shut off and the steam required for the production of the water gas' will be introduced, as for example, by a pipe 7' tapped into the pipe 7. During the water gas making period, the valve in the pipe '8 will be left open, the valve in the pipe Gremainin'g closed. The generated water gas will therefore ass out through the pipe 8 to be further andled in a manner whichdoes not concern the In addition to these, there is a present invention. At the end of the water gas making period the steam supply will" be shut oif, the valve in'pipe 8 closed, the valve in the pipe 6 opened, and oil introduced, w th or without steam, through the suppl plpe 10. The introduce'd'oil will be distri uted more or less uniformly over the surface of the fuel in the top of the generator, and will be vaporized by the heat of thls fuel body. Accordingly, as the height of the fuel bed above the tuyeres '9 is great or small, the vaporization temperature to Wl'llCl'l the oil is subjected, will be low or high.' That is, if vaporization at a low temperature and with a minimum amount of cracking of the oil is to be accomplished, the fuel level will be maintained very near the top of the generator, that is, a considerable distance above the tuyeres 9. On the contrary, if the vaporization is to be at tended by a greater amount of cracking, or decomposition of the oil, a lower fuel level will beXma-intained. By way of explanation of these statements, it may be remarked that the body of fuel lying above the tuyeres 9 is heated almost entirely by conduction in the cycle of operation above described, and the temperature of its upper surface is therefore a function of the depth of the conduct,

ing bed. A further control of the amount of decomposition attending the vaporization still further control of the character of the vaporization accomplished in the top of the 1 of the oil may be had by varying the quan generator may be had by introducing steam through a pipe 8' tapped into the conduit'8.

The steam thus introduced passes outward from the tuyeres 9 and upward through the body of fuel lying above the tuyeres, effecting steam reductlon of that portion of the oil which trickles through the fuel bed and hence escapes the direct action of the steam injected upon the surface of the bed. 4 The, oil vapors accompanied by a greater or lessproportio'n of fixed as according-as V the amount of decomposition. is large or v small, pass from the generator through the upper conduit 6. These vapors may be in part or wholly.condensed or may be cracked for the production of oil gas, the further handling of the vapors not constituting part of the present invention.

- The process above described is mainly de signed for-the handling of, heavygsphaltic lOO base etroleum oils, either heavy .crude pepetro eum, such as the 12 B. gravity crude oil produced in the Panuco district of Mexico, or residues from lighter crude petroleums. By the process described, such crude petroleum oils may be subjected to distillation with a governed amount of simultaneous cracking, varying from a maximum to a minimum amount of fixed gas'by the controlled process described. As an inevie table incident of the process, the large proportion of coke produced in the distillation of the oil down to dryness is deposited within and upon the coal or coke with which the generator is charged. As so deposited, it is available for the production of the water gas, the continuation of the process above described, with the intermittent addition of fresh fuel, serving to work the fuel bed constantly downward in the ordinary fashion. \Vithin a short time after the operation begins therefore, the fuel within the generator consists of coal or coke from coal, permeated and coated ;by petroleum coke produced in the upper chamber of the genorator.

The three phase cycle of operation above described, may be varied considerably, both as to the number of phases and as to the conduct of each phase. For example, a further control of the temperature of the fuel bed in the top of the generator may be attained by permitting part of the air blast gas to escape through the pipe 6' during the blowing-up of the generator. Likewise, it is permissible to cause the oil vapors to pass outward through the pipe 8 instead. of the upper conduit 6, that is, to force these vapors to traverse the whole depth of the upper fuel bed, before escaping. It is also feasible tointroduce the steam for the water gas make through the steam line 8., causing it to pass downwardly through the generator, so that the generated water gas will escape from the conduit 7 Under this condition of operation, the process may be conducted in two phases, the oil being sprayed on to the top of the-fuel bed simultaneously with the introduction of steam in Under these conditions a mixture of water gas and oil gas will be delivered from the lower conduit 7. 1

The foregoing. will, it is believed, be suflicient to indicate the scope of usefulness of the resent invention, and the manner in whici the particularly described procedure may be varied while still adhering to the same underlying principles of operation.

What I claim is:

1. The improvement in the art of operat-, ing water gas generators which consists'in bringing the fuel in one section of a water gas generator to the temperature required for water gas generation, simultaneously bringing the fuel in another section of the generator to a temperature at least suitable for the vaporization of petroleum oil, producing water gas in the first section, subsequently introducing petroleum oil into said second section, separately removing the vapors formed by said petroleum oil vaporization, and causing the fuel in said second section, with the petroleum coke deposited therein, to move into said first section.

2. The improvement in the art of operating a water gas generator which consists in dividing'the fuel in such generator into two superimposed zones, air blasting the lower zone separately, independently controlling the temperature of the upper zone, producing water gas in the lower zone, then introducing oil into the upper zone, and separately removing the vapors formed in said upper zone therefrom.

3. The improvement in the art of operating water gas generators which consists in dividing the fuel bed in a water gas generator into two zones, alternating air blasting the lower zone and passing steam through the lower zone for making water gas, and introducing petroleum oil 'into the upper zone after the water gas making period and prior to blasting the lower zone.

4. The improvement in the art of operating water gas generators which consists in dividing the fuel bed in a water gas generator intotw'o zones, alternating "air blasting the lower zone and passing steam through the lower zone for making water gas, introducing petroleum oil into the upper zone subsequent to the water gas ma ing period and prior to blasting the lower zone, and separately removing the Vapor material formed from the petroleum oil in the upper zone.

Images