Purifying Oils Page: 3 of 8
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1,277,829
tillation is resorted to, the high boiling oils
may be, and often are, also cracked to a
greater or less extent. Lubricating oils
made from an asphalt base stock are apt to
a be more injured in the various distillation
treatments incident to removing lower boil-
ing oils than are those from a paraffin base
oil. .- -
- Any lubricating oil containing a substan-
10 tial amount of unsaturated bodies is apt to
be dark colored, unstable and show the
chemical properties of the unsaturated com-
pounds. It is not practical to thoroughly
refine highly unsaturated oils to any extent
15 with sulfuric acid for the reason that the
loss of oil is too great. As lubricants, such
oils in use tend to become darker colored,
to gum and become tarry or resinous, and
to some extent to attack metals; results due
20 to the large amount of' unsaturated com-
pounds present. With far-going cracking
in their production, these oils may be almost
entirely composed of unsaturated groups.
In treating lubricating oils, or other pe-
25 troleum materials, by the present process,
the oil is mixed with a small amount, say
2 to 5 per cent., of anhydrous aluminum
chlorid and vigorously agitated at a moder-
ate temperature, say 1500 F., for a time,
30 with the resultant conversion of unsaturated
into saturated compounds without much loss
of material. It is a conversion rather than
a subtraction. The action is fairly quick at
first but after a time becomes slower. Its
35 progress may be followed by testing the ma-
terial from time to time with an iodin so-
lution; the absorption of iodin by any oil
being proportional to the amount of unsatu-
rated bodies present. To obtain the same
40 amount- of improvement ordinarily requires
longer with a heavy oil of the character of
lubricating oil than with a lighter oil of
the character of kerosene or gasolene. The.
oil should be dry before admixture with the
45 aluminum chlorid and it is better to free it
of sulfur compounds. Both moisture and
sulfur compounds cause a waste of alumi-
num chlorid, and in their presence. unde-
sired reactions may occur. Vigorous agita-
50 tion is necessary because. the aluminum
chlorid tends to settle out. The activity of
the aluminum chlorid is not indefinite; after
a time it loses much of its activity. After
having lost some degree of its activity for
55 the present'purpose of saturating and sta-
bilizing oils, it is still sufficiently active to
be used in the production of gasolene from
= gas oil, kerosene, etc., at high temperatures.
I therefore often use aluminum chlorid in
60 the present process for a time and before all
its catalytic activity is' exhausted I remove
it. and use it for other purposes, replacing
it by fresh aluminum chlorid. If however
tthe aluminum chlorid is used in the present
65 process to the exhaustion of its activity, itfinally becomes converted into a coky mass
containing free carbon and aluminum
chlorid in what is, apparently, a bound or
masked form; that is, there is apparently
still anhydrous aluminum chlorid present 70
but it no longer exhibits catalytic activity.
From such exhausted material aluminum
chlorid may be recovered by the process of
my prior Patent 1099096. Instead of
using aluminum chlorid. for a time in the '75
present process and then removing it for
use elsewhere it is of course also practical
to exhaust tie activity of the aluminum
chlorid in ?a methodical way: using fresh
chlorid on oil which has already been treated 80
to some extent and after its activity is some-
what lessened, using it for treating fresh
oil.
As stated, moisture is injurious to alumi-
num chlorid, and in using it everything 85
must be as dry as possible to obtain its full
activity and prevent undesirable reactions.
If not taken directly from a still or con-
denser the lubricating oil is best first heated
to free it of moisture. If apparatus and 90
materials be dry, no substantial amount of
hydrochloric acid is formed in the action.
In a specific embodiment employing this
invention in improving lubricating oils, in a
methodical way,'I may take about 500 gal- 85
lone of lubricating oil, which may be any
of the. commercial grades or a crude un-
purified oil, and add to it, say, 250 pounds
of anhydrous aluminum chlorid. The mix-
ture may be warmed to about 1500 F. and 100
stirred continuously for, say, from 4 to 6
hours, the reduction in the amount of unsat-
urated compounds being if desired followed'
by testing for the iodin value. In working
with any particular oil, however, the time 105
and temperature necessary to produce the
* desired results are quickly ascertained and
the iodin test need only be resorted to at
intervals. Stirring-may be stopped and the
oil cooled when the iodin value is reduced 110
as far as desired. For improving and for
lubricating purposes usually a heat treat-
ment of from two to four hours is all that
is necessary, but when very highly purified
oils for medicinal, purposes are to be made, 115
the time of heating may run as high as 24
hours or longer, as hereinafter described.
If the treatment be carried to the total, dis-
appearance of the iodin absorption, the oil
will be water-white and of perfectly stable 120
qualities.
When the stirring is stopped and the .oil
becomes cool, aluminum chlorid will settle
to the bottom as a blackish sludge. In the
treatment of oils made from paraffin base 125
crudes, the sludge settles quite readily and
"filtering" is not difficult, but, in the treat-
ment of oils frbm asphaltic base crudes, the
sludge does not so readily settled and al-
though "filtration" with fullers' earth may 130S
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McAfee, Almer M. Purifying Oils, patent, August 27, 1918; [Washington D.C.]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1257804/m1/3/: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.