US2313541A

US2313541A - Machine for purifying liquids

Info

Publication number: US2313541A
Application number: US395153A
Authority: US
Inventors: Alan E Flowers
Original assignee: De Laval Separator Co
Current assignee: De Laval Separator Co
Priority date: 1941-05-26
Filing date: 1941-05-26
Publication date: 1943-03-09
Anticipated expiration: 1960-03-09

Description

A. E. FLOWERS MACHINE FOR PURIFYING LIQUIDS Filed May 2e, 1941 /mz E F/wefs March 9, 1943.

Patented Mar. 9, 1943 2,313,541 MACHINE Foa PURIFYING LrQUms Alan E. Flowers, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., assignor to The De Laval Separator Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application May 26, 1941, Serial No. 395,153

1 Claim.

My invention relates to the removal of objectionable matter from liquids, and comprises a novel type of centrifugal separator adapted to effect this result with maximum efficiency. The invention is particularly adapted for removal of reaction products from vegetable and animal and other oils which have been chemically treated to neutralize deleterious constituents therein.

It is well known that in both gravity and centrifugal treatments it is relatively easy to remove a major portion of reaction products while it is relatively dimcult to remove a small minor portion of these products. It is also Well known that many of these products are easily soluble in water or other liquids having a greater speciflc gravity than the oil being treated and it is II enclosing another feed passage from which common practice to carry out rst a gravity or centrifugal separation of most of the reaction products and then follow with a wash with a suitable liquid and cause a second independent gravity or centrifugal separation of the wash liquid and accompanying impurities.

When such a two-step separation has been carried on in the past it has required the use of two centrifugal machines in series, or the storage of primarily separated liquid until after treatment of an entire batch and then the use of the same separator, perhaps with a different adjustment, for the removal of wash liquid with its contained impurities.

Specifically, the object of my invention is to provide a centrifugal bowl in which these primary and secondary purification steps may be effected in a single centrifugal operation, that is, to provide a single centrifugal bowl in which the primary separation of a major portion of the impurities takes place rst, followed by the dissemination of a washing liquid through the partially purified liquid and the separation of that wash liquid and its contained impurities therefrom so that both operations can be eected in "`a single pass.

several -channels l2 lead. Up to this pointthe construction is in the manner of the Hall patent before mentioned and is therein clearly shown and described.

Each of the channels I2 terminates at the entrance I3 to a tube I 4 which communicates with the interior of the-separating chamber of the bow1 through only tiny slits or holes I5 in the tube wall so arranged that they feed to the spaces between the discs 2l. In the upper part of the bowl a top disc I6 provides a division wall between the separating chamber of the bowl and the passages I'I leading to the discharge outlet 6. Passages also lead from the inner edges of the discs 2l upward inside the neck of the top disc I6 to the outlet I8 for the discharge of the light oil. I Y

Wings I9 between the bowl top 5 and the top disc I6 and wings 20 secured to the bowl shell and extending inward' to near the outer edge of the discs 2|, force the bowl contents to continue rotating at the same speed as the bowl. Wings 28 and 21 attached to the walls of the tubes Il and I respectively, force the incoming liquids to assume a speed of rotation equal to that of the bowl. Covers 22 are supplied to provide chambers to catch the materials discharged from the bowl. .Supported by suitable means are two

concentric supply tubes

23 and 24 which extend down inside the upper ends of the tubes II and 1 respectively.

While the bowl is useful for the removal of reaction products from any liquids, among which are vegetable, animal and mineral oils and other substances. in which chemical or physical treatment has produced materials having a specific gravity different from that or the liquid being i treated andl soluble in or combinable with some washing liquids, I will describe its use for only one class, vegetable oils, which. when separated from the vegetable matter in which they originated, contain objectionable acid materials that can be neutralized with alkalies and then form water soluble soaps.

Only a few o'f these In the operation of the bowl, alkali treated oil containing the resultant soap is fed to the bowl through the tube 24, flows downward through passages 8 inside the tube 1 and outward through channels s to the entrance to the distributing holes 25 in the discs 2|, thence upward through the distributing holes and spreads out between the discs. There a major portion ofthe soap is separated from the oil and flows outward to the periphery of the bowl, then upward and inward between the top disc It and the bowl top, and v soapmot previouslyiremcved. 'water' and soap flows outward between the; discs and .10ml with. and flaws out of the bowl with,

' the previously separated maior portion of the p. e washed oil continues its flow toward the vcenter ofthe bowl, thence upward and ldischarges at i8. -1

By placing the distributing holes 25 near `the periphery of the discs and the wash water feeding tubes Il near their inner edges. a long counterilow of the water and oil with consequent good washing of the oil is obtained.

What I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

-In a centrifugal separator for the separation from a liquid containing impurities of heavier specific gravity than the liquid, comprising a separating bowl and contained therein a plurality of frusto-conical discs providing a plurality of a frusta-conical separating chambers, means to feed the impure liquid to said separating chambers through said discs between their inner and outer edges, in which chambers, under the action of centrifugal force, said liquid with a. minor part of its impurities is separable from vthe major part of its impurities and is displaced inward toward the bowls axis while the separated impurities move outward toward the periphery, and means to disseminate a washingliquid heavier than the-1iquld to be puried throughout said separated partially puried liquid, said means including a. supply conduit extending through said bowl and having outlets which open into the inner parts of said separating chambers and nearer the axis oi.' the bowl'than the admission] means for the impure liquid andfwhich' are so restricted as to effect 'distribution, ther'eby causing combination ofs'aid washing liquid 'g with the impurities in the partially purined liquid.- yand the. separation of saidwashing liquid and impurities fromvsubstantially purified liquid and movement of said washingliquid and impurities outward through said separating .chambers'toward the bowls periphery, the separator having the usual outlets for lighter and heavier separated constituents through which are respectiveb' discharged the purified liquid and the washing liquid and impurities.

ma FLOWERS. i