GB886908A - - Google Patents

Abstract

886,908. Electrostatic separators. PETROLITE CORPORATION. July 7, 1958, No. 21737/58. Class 117. [Also in Group III] Apparatus for the high-voltage electric treatment of emulsions having a continuous phase of oil and droplets of an immiscible material dispersed therein comprises a horizontal tank 10, superimposed upper and lower grid-like electrodes 14 and 24 each formed by straight rods or pipes connected by a metal framework supported from the top of the tank by insulators 23 and 33, an emulsion inlet structure including a supply pipe 41 acting as a manifold for a plurality of riser pipes 42 each feeding a distributor 44, and separate draw-offs 47, 48, and 50, 51 respectively for withdrawing from the tank the oil and immiscible material separating therein. Both electrodes are insulated from the tank and energised from a transformer 35 with the mid-point of the secondary winding grounded, as is the tank, so that electric fields which coalesce the dispersed material of the emulsion are established between each electrode and the tank, and between the lower electrode 24 and any body of immiscible material in a collection zone 38 in the bottom of the tank; a double voltage field is established in the main treating space 40 between the electrodes. Embodiments including a plurality of circular upper and lower electrode arrangements each formed by concentric ring-like metallic members are described (Figs. 6 to 8, not shown). The emulsion distributor may include a tubular member having at one end a spring-biased closure member, the pressure of the emulsion separating the closure member and the tubular member to form a discharge orifice for the emulsion.