Mineral oils: processes and products – Refining – Purifying used oil
Patent
1998-07-20
2000-10-17
Griffin, Walter D.
Mineral oils: processes and products
Refining
Purifying used oil
208 67, 208130, 208132, C10M17500, C10G 936, C10G 914
Patent
active
061325961
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a process and apparatus for reclaiming waste oils from various sources.
BACKGROUND ART
Used oil represents a major environmental problem. For example, in 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that of the 4.9 million cubic meters (1.3 billion gallons) of used oil produced annually in the United States, only about 2% was being re-refined, despite the existence of a large number of physical and chemical processes developed for reclaiming or re-refining industrial and automotive lubricants. The remainder of the waste oil, presumably, was being dumped or discarded into the environment in various ways.
An early major treatment process involved re-refining waste oil with sulfuric acid and clay. Sulfuric acid acts as an extraction medium for the removal of unsaturates, dirt, additives and colored materials from the waste oil. The clay is used as an adsorbent to remove impurities. Disadvantageously, in this process, large quantities of spent acid sludge and clay are produced and must be disposed of as a process waste.
In order to avoid the waste disposal problems from acid-clay processes, different types of distillation processes have been developed, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,881 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,438. These processes produce a recycled lubricant as a major product and a carbon-black slurry as a process waste.
Recently, the development of a process for reclaiming useful fuel has resulted in the production of diesel fuel from waste oil, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,271,808 and 5,286,349. U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,808 discloses a process for reclaiming waste oil wherein a vessel heater is used. In this process, because a large volume of feedstock is held in a heater vessel under high temperature for a long residence time, undesired polymerization, oxidation and dehydrogenation take place, resulting in the production of an unstable diesel fuel and a large volume of ash cake residue. Additionally, the run length of the process is quite short.
DE-A-3,224,114 discloses a process and apparatus for cracking used motor vehicle engine oil by heating with microwaves. The used oil cracks on heating to the distillation point. The volatile products are removed in a condenser.
JP-56 082886 discloses a process to suppress local coking and to improve the yield of light oil, by mixing a catalyst with a heavy oil to form a uniform slurry. The slurry is cracked in the liquid phase catalytically.
EP-0 308669 discloses processing materials containing halogenated hydrocarbons by pyrolysis in a fluidised bed of basic substance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,597 describes a used lubricant oil recycling process in which a used lubricating oil is injected to a delayed coker downstream of the coker furnace whereby the used oil is thermally cracked into hydrocarbon fuel products.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to overcome some or all of the disadvantages of prior waste oil reclaiming techniques by providing an effective, low cost process and apparatus for reclaiming waste oil.
Another object of the present invention, at least in its preferred forms, is to provide a process for reclaiming waste oil that results in the production of an acceptably stable and valuable #2 diesel fuel or gasoline.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a process for reclaiming waste oil that results in the formation of less residue than any prior process while enabling longer run times between shutdowns.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a pyrolysis unit and a cylindrical reactor for use in the process of the invention.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a process of treating waste oil containing heavy hydrocarbons and contaminants. The process comprises raising the temperature of a feed mixture of fresh waste oil and a recycled non-volatile residue to a range of 400.degree. C. to 490.degree. C. (measured at the output of the heating unit) for a time sufficient to cause pyro
REFERENCES:
patent: 3580838 (1971-05-01), Lutz
patent: 3954602 (1976-05-01), Troesch et al.
patent: 3991816 (1976-11-01), Klaren
patent: 4242196 (1980-12-01), Aiba et al.
patent: 4894140 (1990-01-01), Schon
patent: 5049258 (1991-09-01), Keim et al.
patent: 5143597 (1992-09-01), Sparks et al.
patent: 5258115 (1993-11-01), Heck et al.
patent: 5271808 (1993-12-01), Shurtleff
patent: 5286349 (1994-02-01), Shurtleff
patent: 5362381 (1994-11-01), Brown et al.
Patent Abstracts of Japan for JP 56082886.
Griffin Walter D.
Nguyen Tam M.
LandOfFree
Process and apparatus for the treatment of waste oils does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Process and apparatus for the treatment of waste oils, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Process and apparatus for the treatment of waste oils will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-464977