US1832280A - Process for burning oil - Google Patents

Description

NOV. 17, 1931. w L COULTAS 1,832,280

PROCESS FOR BURNING OIL Filed July so, 1927 INVENOR. Mil/HM L. (OZ/Z 7345.

/S ATTORNEYS.

Patented Nov. 17, 1931 re SiA T PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM L. ooUI 'r s, or snaronn'nnw YORK PROCESS FOR BURNING OIL application' filed July so,

ciently over a wide range of temperatures.-

Particularly where the apparatus is used for domestic heating, it should be capable of being put into operation easily, require a minimum amount of attention thereafter and be easily or automatically adjustable to meet the heating requirements made necessary by sudden changes in the temperature or of weather conditions. It should be clean in operation,

free from all fire hazards and free from noise. Since the deslgns of household furnaces and r boilers vary widely, the oilburning apparatus should be adapted to be used in connection with many different designs of boilers and furnaces. i I v 1 The oil burning apparatus illustrated and described herein embodies these features and has for its principal object the provision of means for vaporizing heavy oils such as fuel oils and other liquid fuels. at atmospheric pressure or slightly less than atmospheric therewith to form a combustible mixture, ig niting the mixture out of contact with the fuel and discharging the same into the combustion chamber of a furnace. I Another object of the invention is to produce a continuous combustion while readily controlling the rate of vaporizing the fuel oil to meet the varying requirements of heat to be supplied by the apparatus.

'A further objectof the-invention is to propressure, gasifying the vapors, mixing air- 1927. Serial No. 209,462.

vide a thorough mixing of the air with the oil vapors in the presence of the liquid fuel while preventing explosive ignition of the vapors or liquid fuel or subjecting the same to temperatures above that of vaporization;

' A still further object of the inventionis to provide for the vaporizing of thelighter fractions of the oil and for burning the same above a flamel'ess zone and out of contact with the fuel in order that the heat of the fiame may vaporize the heavier fractionsof the oil without-direct combustion thereof.

g A further object is to provide a method for mixing the air and oil vapors in a separate zone out of contact with thefuel being vaporized so that the air and oil vapors are thoroughly mixedbefore being introduced into the combustion chamber and then discharged into the fire box.

A further obj ectof my invention is to pro-' "vide amethod and means for burning fuel oil to which my improvedregulator, described and claimed in my prior patent No. 1,419,025 of June 6, 1922 as a Feeding device, is especially applicable, as will be hereinafter pointed out. g I I Astill further object of my invention is to provide method for burning a supply of liquid fuel without first gasifying said fuel.

Briefly, the principal features of the invention may be described as follows A supply of fuel oil is maintained in a suitable reservoir located within an enclosure adjacent to a vaporizing chamber having one end open as an air inlet and having the opposite end connect-ed with a combustion chamber provided witha delivery conduit for discharging the burning gases into the fire box of the furnace or boiler. Jets of superheated steam at a temperature ranging from 1200 Fahrenheit to higher temperatures are caused'to impinge upon the surface of the liquid fuel in the reservoir. By numerous trials it has been found that the apparatus operates most efficiently when the angle, in a longitudinal plane between the steam jets impinging upon fuel and the surface of the fuel in the reservoir is approximately These jets of superheated steam striking the'surface of the oil cause the lighter fractions thereof to be vapor ized and at the same time through the action of a deflector cause the resulting vapors to have an upward movement away from the surface of the fuel in the reservoir. The steam jets also draw in air through the air inlet and cause it to be thoroughly mixed with the vaporized fuel oil. The liquid fuel in the reservoir is maintained, by the superheated steam and by radiation from the flame at temperatures ranging from that necessary to produce vaporization of the a do vaporization of the heavier fractions without causing destructive distillation.

The vaporlzing chamber is provided with an inclined deflector ref'erredto above along the surface of which the vapors of tilt. fuel oil are forced upward by theaction of the steam jets.. The upper portion of the deflector is curved so as to impart a rotary n10- tion to the vapors of the fuel oil as they leave the upper edge of thedeflector. A-portion of this deflector is maintained at ateniperature sufficiently high to, convert the .fuel oil vapors into fixed gases. the deflector is heated to a temperature of approximately 1200 F. which aids in igniting the mixture of inflammable gases and air.

The shape and the relative position of the deflector with respect to a projection between the roof of the vaporizing chamber and. that of the combustion chamber are such. that some of the mlxtu're which is ignited at the top edge of the deflector passes into the combustion of is deflected into the vaporizing chamber as described above. The jets of superheated steam form a blanket between the fuel and the flame preventing the flame from contacting with the liquid fuel in the reservoir,

but permit radiation of heat from the flame above the fuel. The burning gases are introduced into the vaporizing chaanber for the purpose of preheatingt-he oil vapors and the air and to vaporize the heavier fractions of the fuel oil without causing it to ignite or be subjected to destructive distillation.

It will be observed that by the above process the liquid fuel is vaporized and the vapors thereof are converted intofixed gases which after being mixed with heated air are ignit- The upper edge of Figl is a schematic drawing showing how the various parts of the apparatus are connected together and, by means of arrows, indicating the directions in which steam and oil are flowing in various parts of the system;

7 Fig.2 is a cross-sectional View taken through the vaporizing and combustion chambers showing the shape of the vaporizing. chamher and also. showing the direction of the flow of the vapors and. gases through this chamhe; Fig. 3 a partial cross-sectional view taken through the et producing steam boiler and the vaporizing and combustion chambers showing the steam superheater pipes located in the combustion chamber.

Iii-the drawings, the numeral 1 indicates a small steam boiler in which the steam. used to form jets above the fuel oil in the reservoir, .is enerated. This boiler should have at cain. Figs. 2. and 3. The boiler may thus be supplied with heat from the burning gases as they pass through the combustion chamber on their way to the fire box. of the furnace. chamber while the remaining portionthere- The boiler 1 is supplied with water from awater feeder 4 which is connected withv a suitable supply of water by means of the pipe 5. The, water flows from the water feeder 4. through the pipe. 6 into the lower portion of the boiler 1. as indicated clearly in. the drawings. The supply of feed water to the boiler is controlled by means of a suitable float valve located within the water feeder 4. The construction of such a float actuated valve is well known and need not be further descrihedf The water feeder at is connected with the boiler 1. an equalizing pipe 9 by means of which thepressure m the water feeder is made substantially the same as the pressure in the steam space of the boiler 1.. The purpose of this construction is to assist the flow of water from the water feeder 4 through the pipe 6 intothe boiler 1. A pipe 10 is connected with the steam space of the boiler 1 and steam. flows therethrough into a superheater 11 positioned within the combustion chamber 3 as shown-in. Figs. :2- and 3. The

into a manifold 12 positioned within the var porizing chamber 2 The manifold 1E2 is nro 3 vided with a series of'nozzles in its lower surface, as indicated in the drawings, so positioned as to direct the steam flowing therethrough at a longitudinal angle with the surface of the oil in the reservoir 13. 'It has been found. that the apparatus-works most efficiently whentheangle between the steam jets and the surface of the oil is approximately 50, although said angle may be varied depending upon conditions existing in particular installations.

The reservoir 13 is located directly below the vaporizing chamber 2 as shown in Figs. 2 and 7 and is preferably in the form of a shallow trough having its sides inclinedas I shown, whereby the surface area of the supply of fuel varies with the depth offuel in the reservoir. The forward end of the reser voir 13 is provided with an inclined deflector 14, the main portion of which is preferably at an angle of about 50 with the surface of the fuel and the upper portion of which is curved as indicated at 15. The upper portion of the deflector is curved for the pur pose of imparting an upward rotary motion to the vapors flowing along the surface of t. deflector as described above. The upper portion 15 of the deflector 14 also forms a kind of bridge wall over which some of the vapors pass after being directed upward. A V

shaped projection 16 is provided so that the vapors flowing along the deflector 14 are caused to divide, some going into the combustion chamber 3 and some being returnedto the vaporizing chamber 2. The roof of the vaporizing chamber 2 is arched, as shown. clearly in Figs. 2 and 3, for the purpose of assisting the rotary motion of the burning vapors. Air is supplied to the vaporizing chamber 2 through the air inlet port 17 The forward end of the combustion chamber 3 is provided with a funnel-shaped passage 18 through which the burning gases are discharged into the fire box of the furnace or boiler. 7

Fuel oil which has been previously filtered is supplied to the reservoir 13 according to the amount of heat required from the apparatus. Suitable means are provided to drain the oil from the reservoir 13 quickly when it is desired to extinguish the burner and these means are also'adapted to furnish an initial su ply of oil when starting the burner.

The operation of the apparatus may be de scribed as follows The pool of oil in the reservoir 13 is ignited preferably by means of a small asbestos torch saturated with fuel oil. The flame of the torch ignites the more volat le vapors which come in contact with the deflector 1 and heats it to the higher vaporizing temperature of the fuel oil. The flame from the burning oil and vapors heats the boilerl and generates steam preferablv at a pressure of about A of a pound, which flows through the curved projection the chamber. 2.

bustion chamber3 through the discharge nozs uperheater 11, to the manifold 12 then through the jets therein where, it impinges 0n the ,oil in the reservoir. The. flame, superheated steam and oil vapors are then driven up thesurface of the deflector 14 heating it to a still higher tel1nperature.,.As this mixture of flame, steam and vapors reaches the top of the deflector,- some of the mixture flows over the deflector or bridge wall 15 into the combustion chamber 3,'wh1le the remainmg portion of the nnxture is turned back into the vaporizing chamber 2 by meansof the 16 at the upper portion of 'As more steam is generated in the boiler, the steam impinging from the ets in the manifold 12 onto the oil 1n the reservoir 13 causes the flame to be driven from the surface of the oil to the upper portion of the vaporizingchamber 2. Thus after the apparatus has bcen put into operation, the horizontal blast ofsteam causes a non-burning layerto be formed and the flame to be entirely separated from the oil in the reservoir.- Since the temperature of the oil heated by the heat produced by the flame above ranges from about 450 to about 560 F., it is not subjected to destructive distillation nor is it ignited.

'The temperature. of the combustion chamher 2 continuesto rise until it is between 1200 and 1360 F. The steam is therefore superheated to temperatures of approximately the same degree and is sufficient to vaporize the oil in the reservoir. The vapors being thoroughly mixed and subjected to the high temperature in the vaporizing chamber 2 and on the surface of the heated deflector 1 4; are converted into fixed gases. 1

Air isdrawn in through the inlet 17 by the ,actionflof the steam jets and after being deflector with a clear and transparent gas flame. The burning gases flow from the comzle 17 into the fire box of thefurnace.

The rate of combustion of thefuel oil is preferably automatically controlled according tothe. requirements for the heat demanded of the furnace by varying the amount of oil supplied to the reservoir 13. This raises or lowers the surface of the oil in the reservention, I do not wish to be understood as being limited to details of form or the precise arrangement of parts set forth above, for various changes may be made by those sk1lled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of my invention.

lVlmtTclaim is i 1. The process of burning liquid fuel which comprises, maintaining a pool ofsaid fuel, vaporizing a portion of the fuel in said pool, mixing air with said vapors, burning a'portion of said mixture above, but out a of contact with said pool to vaporize the remaining portion offuel in said pool,removing the other portion of said mixture to and burning the same where the heat generated by said process is to be utilized.

2. The process of burning liquid fuel said pool removing the other portion of said mixture to and burning the same where the heat generated by said process is to be utilized.

3. The process of burning liquid fuel which comprises, maintaining a pool of said fuel, impinging jets of superheated steam angularly on the surface of said pool to vaporize a portion of'the fuel in said pool, mix ng air with said vapors, said vapors and air being thoroughly mixed above the surface of said pool by said jets of superheated steam rebounding from the surface of said pool, burning a portion of said mixture above, but out of contact withsaid pool'to vaporize the remain ng portion of fuel in said pool, removing the other portion of said mixture to and burning the same where the heat generated by said process is to be utilized.

4. The steps in the process of preparing liquid fuel for combustion which comprise, maintaining a pool of said fuel, vaporizing a portion of the fuel in said pool and burnins; said vapors above, but out of contact with said pool by mainta ning a nonburning layer of vapor on the surface of said pool, to vaporize the remaining portion of the fuel in said pool.

5. The steps in the process of preparing liquid fuel for combustion which comprise, maintaining a pool of said fuel, impinging superheated steam upon the surface of said pool to vaporize a portion of the fuel in said pool, maintaining a layer of rapidly flowing steam on the surface of said pool and burning said vapors above said layer, of steam to vaporize the remaining portion of the fuel in said pool without igniting'said pool.

6. The process of burning liquid fuel which comprises, maintaining a pool of said fuel, impinging superheated steam upon the surface of said pool to vaporize a portion of the fuel in said pool, mixing air with said vapors, burning a portion of' said mixture above but outof contactwith said pool to vaporize the remaining portion of fuel in said pool removinglthe remaining portion of said mixed air and vapors and conduct ing the same to a point Where the heat generated by said process isto be utilized, and

utilizing the heat of the combustion of the

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