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Diesel Fuel: the Gas Oil Cut from a Pennsylvania Crude Run, 38 to 36.5° Baumé (Bacon & Hamor 1916)
How small refineries at Warren, Pennsylvania, ran crude oil in 1915: the still is cut by gravity into benzine, kerosene, gas oil and wax distillate. The gas oil, the cut between kerosene and wax distillate, is the Diesel motor fuel of the day: Bacon & Hamor list American gas oil (density 0.858, boiling 300 to 380 °C, setting point -10 °C) for Diesel motors.
Variables: take the benzine off by steam (12 to 15 %, a sweeter product) or by fire (20 to 22 %); take kerosene as one cut (54 to 38° Bé) or as 150 °F fire-test kerosene (54 to 41°) plus mineral colza oil (41 to 38°). The gas oil cut is 38 to 36.5° Bé either way.
Source: Bacon & Hamor, The American Petroleum Industry, vol. 2 (1916), pp. 471-474 and 886. Not given: temperatures, firing schedule, gas-oil yield. Crude oil vapour is highly flammable. Picture drawn by Youblob.
Advanced
2 days
Instructions
1
1
Charge the still four-fifths full
Charge the still four-fifths full
Use paraffin-base crude of 43 to 44° Baumé. Fire stills are horizontal, 300 to 1,000 barrels. Fill four-fifths full from the storage tanks, by pump or by gravity. Ours: a 1,000-barrel still, so 800 barrels.
Materials for this step:
Crude Oil800 barrelTools needed:
Horizontal Cylinder Still
Oil Storage Tank2
2
Fire it and condense in a water box
Fire it and condense in a water box
Fire the still. Condense the vapours in straight tubes running through a condenser box, with water flowing in from below and out at the top.
Tools needed:
Horizontal Cylinder Still
Condenser Coil
Water3
3
Take off the benzine
Take off the benzine
Fire-stilled, crude benzine comes to 20 to 22 % of the crude. Steam-stilled first instead (horizontal stills of 500 to 1,500 barrels), it comes to 12 to 15 % and is sweeter. Crude benzine is generally about 63° Bé. Ours: test portions with a hydrometer.
Tools needed:
Horizontal Cylinder Still
Steam Still
HydrometerOil Storage Tank4
4
Cut the kerosene, 54 to 38° Bé
Cut the kerosene, 54 to 38° Bé
Collect from 54 down to 38° Bé: about 42 % crude kerosene. For 150 °F fire-test kerosene, cut 54 to 41° and take 41 to 38° as mineral colza oil.
Tools needed:
HydrometerOil Storage Tank5
5
Cut the gas oil, 38 to 36.5° Bé
Cut the gas oil, 38 to 36.5° Bé
Collect from 38 down to 36.5° Bé: this is the fuel or gas oil. It is used as it comes, neither chemically refined nor redistilled. Some refineries sell the bottoms from kerosene redistillation as gas oil instead.
Tools needed:
HydrometerOil Storage Tank6
6
Wax distillate, then pump out the residuum
Wax distillate, then pump out the residuum
The last condensate, 35 to 33° Bé, is wax distillate for paraffin wax and neutral oils. The residuum, steam-refined cylinder stock, is pumped out of the still through a cooler.
Tools needed:
Horizontal Cylinder StillOil Storage TankThis blueprint makes
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