Method of storing heavy hydrocarbon oil and vessel therefor
AssigneeNihon Sekiyu Hanbai Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorHiroshige Tanaka
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Heavy hydrocarbon oil having a pour point higher at least than the environmental temperature is loaded into a storage vessel in a state heated up to a temperature above its pour point and is cooled down to a temperature below the pour point to be stored in a solidified form in the vessel. In unloading the heavy hydrocarbon oil stored in the solidified form in the vessel, the upper portion of the oil in the vessel is heated up to a temperature above its pour point, and the successively fluidized oil portions are pumped out of the vessel.
Claims11
A method of storing heavy hydrocarbon oil comprising the steps of loading heavy hydrocarbon oil having a pour point higher at least than the environmental temperature into a storage vessel in a state heated up to a temperature above the pour point, allowing to cool the heavy hydrocarbon oil down to a temperature below the pour point in said vessel to store the same in a solidified form, and unloading the heavy hydrocarbon oil from said vessel by heating the upper portion of the solidified heavy hydrocarbon oil up to a temperature above the pour point and successively pumping out the fluidized oil portions;
- and said heating being carried out by heating means mounted on but positioned below a floating body disposed in said vessel.
A method of storing materials including high temperature liquefiable hydrocarbon oils or mixtures of such oils with other materials comprising the steps of loading a liquid material including hydrocarbon oil having a pour point higher at least than the environmental temperature into a storage vessel in a state heated up to a temperature above its pour point, a heating means being embedded in an upper portion of the liquid material in the storage vessel, allowing the hydrocarbon oil to cool down to a temperature below the pour point and solidify in said vessel, storing the material in its solidified form, and heting the upper portion of the solidified material including the hydrocarbon oil up to a temperature above its pour point by the embedded heating means to prepare the vessel and heating means therein for a change in the amount of mateial stored in the vessel;
- said heating being carried out by said heating means which is mounted on and dependent from a floating body dosposed in said vessel and supported by the stored materials, and wherein said heating action occurs in a layer extending across said vessel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.