US2081970A - Apparatus and process for heating fluids - Google Patents

Description

J. cs. ALTH ER 2,081,970

APPARATUS AND PROCESS FOR. HEATING FLUIDS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 1 1937.

Original Filed July 23, 1930 9 LRNAC-E BURN INVENTOR JOSEPH G. ALTHER ATTORNEY I June 1, 1937. J. G. ALTHER 2,031,970

' APPARATUS AND PROCESS FOR HEATING FLUIDS ori inal Fiied July 25. 1950 s Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR JOSEPH G. ALTHER ATTORNEY June 1, 1937. J. G. ALTHER 8 APPARATUS AND PROCESS FOR HEATING FLUIDS Original Filed July 25, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG. 8

INVENTOR JOSEPH G. ALTHER macaw-awn Patented June 1, 1937 UNITED STATES 363")" nuu PATENT OFFICE Joseph G. Alther, Chicago, Ill., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Universal Oil Products Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application July 23, 1930, Serial No. 470,088 Renewed August '7, 1935 4 Claims.

This invention relates to an apparatus and process for heating fluids, and more particularly the invention provides a means and process wherein the fuel may be utilized in the most efficient manner and the heat may be transferred to the fluids being heated in a controlled and efficient manner with respect to the heat transfer and fuel efficiency and the kind or type of heat.

The invention further provides a process wherein part of the tube surface is heated substantially by radiant heat from the flame, gases and reflecting and radiating surfaces of the furnace structure, and the other part thereof is heated substantially by fluid heat consisting of convection heat with some radiant heat from the gases.

In carrying out the objects of the invention, the heating tubes are provided with fins adhering or made integral thereto, the said fins overlapping each other in such manner as to constitute a Wall or barrier enclosing a chamber or compartment wherein combustion takes place and wherein the heat transferred to the tubes is substantially of the radiant type. The hot gases of combustion passover the top of the walls enclosing the combustion chamber and pass down over the outer surface of the walls surrounding the combustion chamber (the said walls, as described, being composed of the overlapping fins adhering to the tubes), in a separate compartment surrounding the combustion chamber, and in turn being surrounded by the walls of the furnace proper. The gases passing through the outer compartment heat the exposed tube surfaces thereof by substantially fluid or convection 35 heat.

It is thus apparent that my invention provides a novel means and process for the heat treatment of fluids wherein one side of the heating tubes is heated substantially by radiant heat and the other side is heated substantially by fluid heat. This is a novel feature in furnaces employing finned tubes, as tubes of this character are generally utilized to shield the roof and walls of the furnace (particularly in the radiant heat section) and as so used are effective for heating only on their inner or exposed side.

Other advantages and desirable features of my invention will be more apparent by reference to the accompanying drawings, which are diagrammatic and are not to scale, and which illustrate a form of apparatus-suitable for carrying out the process of my invention with examples of arrangements of the means therefor.

Fig. 1 is a side elevational View, partly in cross 55 section, of a circular furnace assembly.

Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are plan views of typical furnace shapes illustrating some of the many forms and shapes which may be utilized.

Figs. '7, 8 and 9 show several difierent types of tube fin structures and the manner in which they overlap.

Referring to Fig. 1, l represents a burner which may be of any conventional type for oil, gas or other fuel, such as powdered coal. 2 is a firing compartment with brick checker work arrangement. It is to be understood that any firing arrangement may be used. 3 is the combustion chamber. Radiant heat is transferred from the hot brick checker work of the firing compartment and from the flames and gases in the combustion chamber 3 to that portion of the surfaces of the tubes exposed within the combustion chamber. 4 represents the walls composed of the overlapping tube fins, and 5 represents the heating tubes connected in series. The tubes may be arranged so that several sets or banks of serially arranged tubes may be connected in parallel.

The furnace is designated as a whole 1. the walls 8 being made up, if desired, of an integral course of rows of bricks or of parallel courses with an air space between the same, the outer course usually being made up of common brick and the inner course of firebrick.

Suitable steel structural work (not shown) may be used to support the walls 8 and roof 9. The tubes are supported at the top by tube support l0, and at the bottom by the floor ll of the furnace.

The hot gases leaving the combustion chamber 3 pass over the top of the wall of fins 4 into the fluid heating compartment l2. The hot gases passing downwardly through this compartment transfer fluid or convection heat to the portions of the tubes exposed in this compartment, the gases ultimately passing out through the circular flue l3 at the bottom of the furnace, and from there through the duct l4 to the stack.

Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 illustrate various shapes and forms of a cross section of the furnace taken on line A-A in Fig. 1. The tubes 5 connected by fins 4 areshown parallel to the outer walls of the furnace in the figures. Fig. 2 represents a circular arrangement. Fig. 3 is a square. Fig. 4 is a pentagonal, Fig. 5 a hexagonal, and Fig. 6 an octagonal arrangement. These figures illustrate only a few of the many forms which the furnace may assume.

Figs. '7, 8 and 9 represent cross sections of the tubes 5 with the adhering fins 4, showing the manner in which the fins may overlap and illus- CJI trating only several of the many forms which may be used.

While my invention may be adapted to the heating of any fluid, it is particularly adapted to the heating of hydrocarbon oils, and in one of its specific embodiments provides an improved process 'for the conversion of higher boiling hydrocarbon oils into lower boiling hydrocarbon oils.

Fig. 1 is illustrative of the heating means of a process suitable for the conversion of higher boiling hydrocarbon oils into lower boiling hydrocarbon oils, wherein the oil is heated to its conversion temperature and the vapors and unvaporized liquid thereafter separated for further treatment.

My invention also finds use as an efiicient heating means for the production of steam and is useful wherever it is desirable to heat fluids in a thoroughly eflicient manner.

While I have shown several forms of apparatus and their application in carrying out the process of my invention, it is quite apparent that there are many variations thereof, and the forms shown are not to be construed as limitations upo the broad scope of the invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. A furnace for heating hydrocarbon oil, comprising a housing, a combustion zone therein, a heat source disposed within said combustion zone, an outlet flue and a convection zone in communication with said combustion zone, a plurality of serially connected tubes disposed intermediate said combustion zone and said convection zone, and fins projecting from saidtubes adapted to form a substantially continuous walled partition between said zones, whereby the opposite surfaces of said tubes are subjected to separate and simultaneous heating by radiant and con vection energy.

2. A furnace for heating hydrocarbon oil, comprising a housing, a combustion zone and source of heat therein, a plurality of serially connected heating tubes disposed around said combustion zone, fins projecting from the peripheral surfaces of said tubes in substantial overlapped relation to form a substantially continuous walled enclosure about said combustion zone and impart radiant heat to the partial peripheral surface portions of said tubes disposed within said zone, a convection zone adjacent said combustion zone within which the opposite partial peripheral surface portions of said tubes are heated concurrently by convection, and means to pass products of combustion from said combustion zone to said convection zone.

3. A process of converting hydrocarbon oil during its forced passage through a plurality of serially connected heating tubes, comprising subjecting said oil to concurrent, opposed and separate heating by radiant and convection energy by exposing a limited portion of the circumferential area of each of said tubes to radiant heat within a radiant heating zone, simultaneously exposing the opposite and remaining circumferential area of each tube to convection heat within a convection heating zone, and preventing the radiant and/or convection heated portion of each of said tubes from being subjected to convection and/or radiant heat respectively, by forming a barrier between the radiant heat zone and the convection heat zone.

4. In the heating of hydrocarbon oil to conversion temperatures while passing through a plurality of heating tubes disposed in a furnace, the method which comprises burning fuel to generate flame adjacent a portion of the peripheral surface of said tubes and heating this portion of the tubes predominantly by radiation, including direct radiant heat from the flame, passing resultant combustion gases along the opposite portion of the peripheral surface of the tubes and heating this portion of the tubes predominantly by convection from the gases.

JOSEPH G. ALTHER.

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