Technikatörténeti szemle 25. (2001-02)

Papers of the Third International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Budapest, 2–4 July, 1999) – First Part - Lichocka, Halina: Ignacy Mościcki (1867–1946) in the history of science and technology

The practical application was initiated by the state Factory of Mineral Oils for the utilization of oil emultion in rivers obtaining from these pollutions around 800 tons of high quality oil annually. The licence of the pressure method for separating emultion was bought by the Carpathian Oil Society. It undertook in its workshops a production of equipment for its use. The equipment, called "metans" was purchased by many firms concerned with oil industry. After some modification the "metans" could be used also for the regeneration of lubricants. Earlier the regeneration had been done by passing the oil through a cotton filter which eliminated the asphalt particles and other pollutions, but there would still remain 44% of water. Whereas the application of the pressure method gave an oil highly purified and fit to be used again. The treatment of oil From the beginning of his stay in Lvov Ignacy Moscicki was interested in the possibility of improving the distillation of oil. The drawback of the distillation was then a great use of energy and the thermal destruction of organic compounds at the oil heating place which used to be prevented by vacuum distillation or steam distillation. In 1917 Moscicki began laboratory tests and then experiences in semi-industrial apparatuses. This was aimed at working out a distillation method consisting in the evaporation of particular fractions through a stream of heated gas running along the surface sprinkled with oil. The evaporation space was in the shape of a vertical column filled with horizontal shields on which oil was flowing down continuously. The stream of hot gas was coming from the bottom. In order to avoid, owing to the sudden cooling of the steam, a fog, difficult to concentrate, it was necessary to send the gas mixture from the column into dephlegmation devices. They were made up of a number of termally isolated columns filled with granular material. In the next years Moscicki was improving this distillation method by working out successive patents. In 1921 he made the design of an oil refinery at Jedlicze. He used in it his previous distillation patents. The refinery was supposed to work out 200 tons of oil daily. The project was realized and the experimental refinery at Jedlicze started working demonstrating all the faults and merits of the method. Most successful proved to be the idea of the fractional condensation of steam in the columns sprayed with the fresh condensate. It also appeared that the distillation by method of surface evaporation took place without the break up of the sensitive heavier hydrocarbons. The drawback was the necessity of maintaining the distillation temperature different for various kinds of oil and keeping this temperature throughout the process. The difficulty could be removed by the prolongation of the test period