US1987400A

US1987400A - Method of burning oil as city gas

Info

Publication number: US1987400A
Application number: US650707A
Authority: US
Inventors: Charles B Hillhouse
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1933-01-07
Filing date: 1933-01-07
Publication date: 1935-01-08
Anticipated expiration: 1952-01-08

Description

Jan. 8, 1935. c. B. HILLHOUSE ,9 7

METHOD OF BURNING OIL AS CITY GAS Filed Jan. '7, 1933 INVENTOR,

. BY Clzarlesfiflr'llho use,

TORNE Y. n

Patented Jan. 8, 1935 UNITED STATES" PATENT OFFICE METHOD OF BURNINGfO IL AS crrY GAS Charles B. Hillhouse, New York, N. Y. Application Janu r 7, 1933, Serial No. 650;?07

I 3 Claims. (Cl.158117.5)

My invention relates to a method and appaw ratus for combustion and has particular reference to a method and apparatus wherein a por-.

tion of the fuel to be burned, preferably oil or other hydrocarbon, iscaused tocombust in a man-nerto produce combustible gases and these gases are mixed withanother portion of fuel and sufiieient' air and burned to produce the main zone of combustion.

The main object of my invention is to burn predetermined separate portions of fuel so that its ases' final combustion willhave approximately the same composition and flame temperature as a known gas; for example; city oil-water gssor, according to a modification, acetylene.

Anotherohject isto provide ametho'd whereina portion of the fuel, preferably oil, is burned as a preliminary step with insuflicient air to produce gasificatioh of that ortion, and then mixingthe highly heated gas products-intimately with another'poition of fuel and also air to produce-the the burner is admitted through air supply conmain combustion zone. I

This method is carried out by feeding into an auxiliary section of the burner, without an accorhpanying'oxidizing' medium; a suitable por tioiiof the oil to produce a gas having the'p'rcentage of carbon monoxide usually found-in'city water gas. In its axial passage outward, air is added to this oil to partially burn the same, which furnishes heat for; preheating and cracking following portions of the oil? Then as the stream of. hotgasified -fuel,-CO and 1-12,. passes from this auxiliary section-of the-burner, anothen portion of the fuel oil is sprayed into itand to- 88 gether they pass into the mainbuinr-section to which air for complete combustion has been supplied. in this manner, the composition of gases and flame temperature of the main or final combustion zone may be madeto closely approxi mate that produced when a city oil water" gas is burned. By varying the proportion or kind of oil which is fed into the auxiliaryse'ction of the burner to produce carbon monoxidacombustion zones of other characteristics could be produced which would vary more or less from that prodiiced by burning a city gas.

According to a variation in the type of fuel used-and with the same process wherein solid carboil or preferably chemicalcarbon that has been dissociated from oil or gas is fed into the main burner sectionor stream of gases leading thereto instead of the other portion of oil as above described. a flame simulating an acetylene flame can be cheaply roduced. According tea variation or the method, natural gas may be used as the carbonaceous material to be mixed with the gases formed in the auxiliary burner section and: burned to complete combustion with air.

The apparatus disclosed is a modification of that shown in my Patent No. 1,852,968, issued April 5, 1932, for Burning solid fuel, but it is herein applied to the combustion of fiuid'substances.

In the accompanying drawing- Figure 1 is an elevation in cross-section of an oil burner constructed to carry out the method described;

Fig.2 shows, on a reduced sca1e,.a cross-se'c-- tionon line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and I Fig. 3 shows a modification of the device of Fig. 1 1' In the preferred form of apparatusshown, there are provided spaced inner and outer walls I and 2 which form the main casing of theburner; which walls are held spaced from each other by supports or stays 3. The total air supply to min which is provided with a control valve 5. The greater portion of this air passes upwardly through the space 6 between the

walls

1 and 2 to a point adjacent the upper end of the wall 1 where the air will strike the inwardly turned throat '7 formed on the upper end of the wall 2; The air is deflected by this throat '7 towards the axis of the auxiliary burner section 8.

"A portion of the oil from main oil supply conduit 9 is admitted without air from a branch conduit 10 through an inlet 11, the tip of which may be provided with a suitable spray nozzle, into the chamber formed by wall 1. The conduit 10 is arranged to direct the oil tangentially to wall 1 and-downwardly within the chamber 8.. In order to prevent oil from being drawn upwardly, spiral grooves 12 are formed on the inner face of the wall 1. The bottom wall of the chamber 8 is curved at 13 to direct the heated oil or cracked gases inwardly and upwardly along the central axis of the chamber 8. A portion ,of the air from inlet 4 is now admitted by a control valve 14 through an air inlet 15 arrangedcentrally of the bottom of chamber 8. The oil from inlet 11 is whirled helically and downwardly around the axial combustion zone in the chamber land is preheated by this axial zone and is, in part, cracked. The air from inlet 15- is insurlicient to support complete combustion in chamber 8 and .the partial combustion of oil therein produces mainly carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases which are ejected axially towards the upper end of the chamber 8. The main supply of oil is admitted through one or more conduits 16 which feed from a manifold 17 which, in turn, is supplied from the oil conduit 9 through a pipe 18. Each conduit 16 is arranged at an angle upwardly to direct the oil into the stream of formed gases which is emitted axially from chamber 8. The outlet tip of each conduit 16 may be formed as an oil atomizer in the usual manner.

Control valves

19 and 20, respectively, are provided to regulate admission of oil from

conduits

10 and 16.

According to the modification of Fig. 3, each conduit 16 is supplied with finely divided solid carbon fed from a hopper 21 by a screw conveyor 22. carry the carbon from the conveyor to the tip or outlet of each conduit 16 while a valve 24 is provided to control this injector. If desired, the solid carbon feed of Fig. 3 may be applied-to the apparatus shown in Fig. 1 as an auxiliary or solid-carbon feed in a manner to permit a-supply of either or both oil and solid carbon to the main combustion zone selectively or simultaneously to vary the character of combustion in that zone.

Under certain conditions, it may be desirable to supply a different grade of oil to chamber 8 than to conduits 16. To this end, the main supply of oil will be admitted from a supply pipe 9' through a valve 25 to manifold 17. A valve 26 in the pipe 18 will be closed and any other kind of oil desired will be supplied to the conduit 9. If it is desired to burn natural gas in the main flame, such gas will be fed to manifold 17 from the conduit 9'.

In the operation of the apparatus in accordance with my novel method, for each 4 gallons of fuel oil supplied from the conduit 9, I prefer to feed 1 gallons through the inlet 11' and three gallons through the inlets 16. The oil from inlet 11 is whirled helically downwardly closely adjacent the wall of chamber 8 and around the axial zone of combustion, the heat of which is absorbed by the current of oil whereby a portion of this oil is preheated and cracked or vaporized before it is deflected by the curved bottom 13 into the axial combustion zone. Air from inlet 15 is admitted in insufficient amount to support complete combustion, thereby causing the carbon portion of this oil to unite with oxygen to produce CO and H2. The spiral grooves 12 act to prevent upward flow of oil along the chamber wall.

The gaseous products are discharged from the upper open end of chamber 8. The valves 20 are set to permit oil under pressure from manifold 17 to be sprayed from conduits 16 into the issuing stream of hot gases from chamber 8 which will crack or gasify that oil before reaching the main combustion zone, while warm air from the space 6 in amount controlled by valves 5 and 14, is deflected from the surface 7 into the stream of oil and gases, whereby to support a main flame or zone of combustion which will issue from the burner nozzle. This flame corresponds closely to a flame produced by burning a city oil-water gas both as to composition and temperature. In a modified form, this method may be employed to produce a flame which corresponds closely to a flame produced by burning acetylene. To this end, the conduits 16 as shown in Fig. 3 will be supplied with solid carbon and this carbon in its finely divided form will be injected by means of as injector 23 to mix with air from the space 6 and hot gases from the chamber 8.

An air or steam injector 23 serves to r In order to illustrate with figures to compare the composition of the oil flame as above produced with that of New York city oil-water gas, the common unit of 1000 cubic feet of gas of 520 B. t. u. will be taken. Such gas is made from three gallons of partly cracked oil mixed with straight water gas made from coke. The composition of New York city gas is:

Saturated hydrocarbons 29% Efremthree Unsaturated hydrocarbons--- 15% gallons oil Hydrogen -Q. 27% I I Carbon monoxide 27% Fromavgater Nitrogen 2% g The following will be the composition of the oil flame when made as described from fuel oil:

Saturated hydrocarbons 29% From three Unsaturated hydrocarbons 15% gallons oil Hydrogen"; 27% From 1 gallons Carbon monoxide 27% gasified fuel oil For the gasified oil flame, there will also be an excess of nitrogen in the gases of combustion of about 10% over'the nitrogen in city-gas combustion, but, as it enters the final flame at upwards of 1500 F. and the sensible heat in the hydrogen and oxygen is added to the flame, there will be no drag from .that nitrogen, thatis, no heatwill be withdrawn from new combustion to raise'the temperature of this highly heated nitrogen.

If the oil to be .used does not have a high enough proportion of carbon compared with hydrogen in its composition, a mixtureinto it of a hydrocarbon with a higher proportion of flnely divided solid carbon or even straight carbon may be made'to produce the exact proportionof CO from the first portion of the oil treated in the auxiliary burner section withoutincreasing the percentage of hydrogen. I

Both city gas and my gasified oil method use the same quantity of oil for. enrichment-namely, three gallons. In city gas, this oil is cracked outside; whereas, in my method, it is partly cracked by the hot madegases. v r v -The following figures will illustrate and compare a flame produced by burning one gallon of oil gasified as described and solid carbon with a flame run from y2'75 cubic feet of acetylene.

Acetylene 17 lbs. C+ 1% lbs. H -labsorbed heat.

275 cu. ft.X11. 90 air=3557 cu. ft. of gases of combustion.

275 cu. ft. X 1,483= 407,825 Bpt. u.

When one gallon oil gasified as described is burned with 21 /2 lbs. solid carbon, we have:

21% lbs. CX 3,225 cu. ft.

Gases of combustion=3,891 cu. ft.

280 Cuft. 340 B.t.l.1.= 95,200 B-t-ll.

throat '7 or into the air for combustion surrounding the tip which flows from the space 6.

My improved process of burning gasified oil will benefit large users of city gas by bringing the cost down to an oil basis and will benefit large users of oil by raising the flame temperature without preheating the air for combustion. It also obviates the difficulty of making water gas from oil and steam because of the unwieldy proportion of hydrogen made. When solid carbon is used as a portion of the fuel used in my method, it Will produce a combustion that corresponds closely to an acetylene flame and at a fraction of the present cost of making and burning acetylene.

The apparatus disclosed to perform the method claimed is intended to illustrate a preferred form of apparatus. Variations may be made therein without altering the broad process carried out. For example, similar results can be obtained by causing the oil to move helically upwardly and the axial air stream downwardly or in any direction desired. Such modifications are contemplated as will be embraced within the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. The method of burning fluid fuel which consists in conducting a portion of oil in one direction along a burner wall and in the presence of a flame spaced from said oil, maintaining the oil and flame in a relation to heat said oil and partially vaporize or gasify the same, directing the oil and gas in another direction into said flame, adding sufficient air to partially combust the oil and gas to form gaseous products, mixing the hot gaseous products with liquid fuel to gasify same and burning the final mixture with secondary air sufiicient for complete combustion.

2. The method of burning fluid fuel which consists in conducting a portion of oil in one direction in a helical path along a burner wall and in the presence of a flame positioned axially of said path whereby to partially preheat and crack the oil by heat absorbed from the flame, then directing the oil in another direction into said flame, feeding air to said flame in amount suflicient for partial combustion of the heated oil to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases, mixing fluid fuel with the heated gaseous products and burning the mixture with secondary air sufiicient for complete combustion.

3. A method of burning fluid fuel which consists in preheating a portion of oil in a burner and then reducing it to carbon monoxide and hydrogen by partial combustion without deposit of carbon, then mixing into the carbon monoxide and hydrogen while in a heated state a portion of gaseous fuel and then burning this mixture with sufiicient air for complete combustion.

CHARLES B. HILLHOUSE.