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US 4,013,541 AGranted
Method and apparatus for wax deoiling
OwnerRoy E. Irwin, Alfred Aufhauserinventors
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OwnerRoy E. Irwin, Alfred Aufhauserinventors
Estimating the term…
Deoiling of slack wax or other similar wax composition is accomplished while the wax is confined in a series of cells which are spaced apart by only one-sixteenth to one-half inch and which are vertically or otherwise disposed for drainage along the surfaces thereof from an upper margin to a lower margin. The spaces between the plates are filled to a depth of 4 to 24 inches, preferably 6 to 12 inches, with wax in the melted state while the spaces between the plates are closed off at their lower margins by a body of liquid, preferably a body of the wax, that is of substantial depth underneath the lower margins of said plates and is maintained in contact with the lower margins of the plates. The temperature of the plates is then lowered by lowering the temperature of a temperature-controlling fluid such as water that is flowed through a multiplicity of conduits that traverse the plates in thermally-conductive relation therewith with concomitant solidification of the wax between the plates. While the wax is confined in the solid state the body of liquid is removed, which removal may be facilitated by application of heat in the case of a liquid such as wax. After removal of the body of liquid the temperature of the wax between the plates is gradually increased by gradually heating the temperature-controlling fluid with concomitant drainage of the lower melting point constituents from the spaces between the plates for their recovery separated from the higher melting point constituents which remain between the plates and which are subsequently recovered by raising the temperature of the temperature-controlling fluid to a still higher temperature until the higher melting point wax components are melted for drainage and recovery separated from the lower melting point constituents.
In a method of separating lower melting point constituents from higher melting point constituents contained in a wax composition wherein said wax composition is confined in solid state between a succession of vertically disposed plates and said lower melting point constituents are removed therefrom by gradually increasing the temperature of said plates responsive to controlled increase in the temperature of a fluid flowed through a multiplicity of conduits that traverse said spaces and said plates in thermally conductive relation to said plates with concomitant increase in the temperature of said wax composition confined between said plates accompanied by drainage of said lower melting point constituents from said composition, the improvement which comprises introducing said wax composition in the melted state into spaces between the plates which are separated from each other by a distance of about one-sixteenth to one half-inch and into a container adapted and disposed to maintain a body of said wax composition that is of substantial depth below the lower margins of said plates until said container contains a body of said wax composition that is in contact with the lower margins of said plates and until the depth of the wax composition between said plates is between about 4 and about 24 inches, lowering the temperature of said plates with concomitant solidification of the wax composition in the spaces between said plates, removing said body of wax composition from said container while the wax composition in the spaces between said plates is in the solid state, gradually raising the temperature of said plates with concomitant rise in the temperature of the wax composition in said spaces accompanied by draining of lower melting point constituents from said spaces and recovering said lower melting point constituents that drain from said spaces separated from higher melting point constituents retained within said spaces and thereafter melting said higher melting point constituents and recovering them separated from said lower melting point constituents.
In wax deoiling apparatus for separating lower melting point constituents from higher melting point constituents which comprises a succession of plates having vertically disposed spaces therebetween, a plurality of conduits that successively pass through said plates in thermally conductive relation therewith, means for directing a temperature-controlling fluid through said conduits and means for regulating the temperature of said fluid, the improvement which comprises a battery of said plates which are spaced from each other by a distance between one-sixteenth and one-half inch and which are adapted to confine therebetween a body of wax composition about 4 to 24 inches in width extending upwardly from adjacent the lower margins of said plates, a container disposed underneath said battery the bottom of which is substantially spaced from the lower margins of said plates, means for introducing wax composition in the melted state into said container and into the spaces between said plates so as to fill said container with a body of wax composition in contact with the lower margins of said plates and to fill said spaces between said plates with said wax composition to a depth of from about 4 to about 24 inches, means for directing said temperature-controlling fluid through said conduits at a temperature which lowers the temperature of said plates to a temperature at which said wax composition is in the solid state, means for removing said body of wax composition from said container while the wax composition that is confined in the spaces between said plates is in the solid state, means for thereafter gradually increasing the temperature of said temperature-controlling fluid with concomitant gradual heating of the wax composition in the spaces between said plates to a temperature at which lower melting point constituents drain into said container, leaving the higher melting point constituents retained between said plates, and means for directing away and recovering said lower melting point constituents drained into said container.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.