Purifying Oils Page: 2 of 8
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1,277,829-
the whole of such high boiling oil into lower"
boiling oils of the nature of gasolene, with_
perhaps 10 to 15 per cent. loss as gas and
coke." All the distillation products of such
5 an action will be found to be of saturated
nature whatever was the nature, in this re-
spect, of the original high: boiling oil
treated. By -distilling a highly unsaturated
gas oil, with aluminum chlorid for example,
10 it may be converted practically wholly into
gasolene and this gasolene will all be of sat-
urated nature.
I have found that the above converting
action by -which high boiling oils are con-
15 verted into lower boiling and the saturating'
action by which unsaturated oils yield satu-
rated materials are not necessarily linked to-
gether but may be severed. And I have
found that by operating at a sufficiently low
20 temperature, instead of working at the boil-
ing temperature just described; I can ob-
viate the stated converting action while still
retaining the saturating action. In other
words, I can take a high boiling lubricating
25 oil containing unsaturated hydrocarbons and
warm it (as distinguished from heating at
any high' temperature) with aluminum
chlorid and produce a saturation of the un-
saturated constituents without production of
30 lower boiling oils. In this' action the unsat-
urated oils are simply transformed into sat-
urated oils without material loss in volume
or weight such as occurs in removing unsat-
urated compounds with' sulfuric acid. This
35 warming-up treatment with anhydrous alu-
minum chlorid may be applied to the im-
provement 'not only of lubricating oils but
of any other petroleum product although I
shall hereinafter describe it more particu-
40 larly in its application to the treatment of
lubricating oils. Gasolene and kerosene so
treated have better burning qualities and
better color; and the color does not again
'darken by exposure to air and light. Paraf-
45 fin wax so treated does not acquire a yellow
hue with age or on exposure to light. In
treatment the wax is melted and then treat-
ed like an oil.
The temperatures necessary for the de-
50 sired action are around 1500 F. Below that
temperature the saturating action becomes
slower while at temperatures materially
above, say at or above 212 F. there may be
sufficient of the converting action to produce
55 .ome low boiling oil in treating high boil-
ing oils. With lubricating oil, kerosene, etc.,
,any substantial production of lower boiling
oils may be undesirable as unduly lowering
the flash point, and with these oils it is ad-
60 vantageous to work at as low a temperature
as is consistent with the speed of operation
desired. In a general way, when working
with low-boiling oils it is desirable to use a
low temperature. With any oil, in a meas-
65 ure time and temperature are reciprocal fac-tors; the _ same results can be attained at
1200 F. as at 150 but somewhat more time
is necessary.
. In the treatment of. lubricating oil with:
aluminum chlorid at a low temperature the 70
unsaturated parts of the oil are saturated
and the oil made much more stable against
the action of air and heat. The color is also-
much improved. The degree to which the
purification needs to be carried of course' 75
varies with the different oils and with the
use which is to be made of the purified oil.
In purifying any oil with aluminum chlorid,
the action is more rapid at first when the
proportion of unsaturated bodies is high so
than it is after a time when the proportion
of unsaturated bodies becbmes very small;
and it often happens in the case of lubri-
cating oil that carrying the purification be-
yond the point where the iodin number ceases 85
to diminish rapidly is not worth while. If
purification be carried to an extreme, oils are
produced which are so, colorless and perma-
nent that they may be used for medicinal
purposes, for internal administration, etc. 90
After the purification with aluminum
chlorid, the oil may of course be submitted
to any of the usual purifying and decolor-
izing treatments, with sulfuric acid, with
fullers' earth, boneblack, etc. In making 95
medicinal oil these after purifications are
particularly desirable since they remove the
last traces of 'taste and odor.
Commercial lubricating oils represent the
comparatively high boiling portions of crude 100
petroleum, from which they are prepared in
appropriate ways. They range from the
comparatively light and low boiling spin-
dle oils up to heavy cylinder oils of very
high' boiling point. The degree to which 105
they are ordinarily purified of course de-
pends upon the commercial use to be made
of the oil. But they are all purified more
or less by elaborate treatments; and these
treatments for the most part result in a loss 110
of oil. In one method of distilling crude
petroleum where the effort is to produce as
large an amount as possible of gasolene,
solvent oils and kerosene, distillation is
pushed' to this end quite irrespective of dam- 115
age which may be caused to the remaining
higher boiling oils. In this method of
preparation the low boiling oils of the na-
ture of gasolene and kerosene are first dis-
tilled off from the crude petroleum and then 120
the residue in the still is subjected- to a high
temperature, with or without pressure, in
the effort to break it up or crack it and pro-
duce a further quantity of gasolene and
burning oils. The distillate so obtained is 125
of cracked and unsaturated character and
so is the residue left in the still. Lubricat-
ing oils made from such a residue are of
course of highly cracked character. In
other methods of operating where steam dis- 130
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McAfee, Almer M. Purifying Oils, patent, August 27, 1918; [Washington D.C.]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1257804/m1/2/: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.