Home › Fixed Oils And Fats › To Decolorize Kerosene Oil

To Decolorize Kerosene Oil

Oil. The name of petroleum is now Kerosene oil is decolorized by stirring it up applied to all. the native liquid substances with 1 or 2 per cent. of oil of vitriol, which which have a bituminous character. It con- will carbonize the coloring matter, then with sists, therefore, of an inflammable and more some milk of lime or some other caustic or less volatile oily substance, ranging in color and appearance from a yellowish white, transparent fluid, to a brown or almost black, opaque viscid mass. The former used to be called naphtha, but this name is now given to any oil of this description, whether native, or distilled from a darker grade of petroleum.

The latter is the form in which the bulk of the petroleum is found in America; and this, when exposed to the air, gradually passes into asphaltum, or solid bitumen. 1530. Why Kerosene or Coal Oils Explode. No oil is explosive in and of itself; it is only when the vapor arising therefrom becomes mixed in the proper proportions with air, that it will explode. There should be no inflammable vapor from any oil used for burning in lamps at ordinary temperature. A volatile oil is unfit for the purpose of illumination. 1527. Το Purify Petroleum. Tankshaped stills of a capacity of 500 to 2500 barrels are filled with crude oil, and heat applied by furnaces beneath them, causing vapors to arise, which are carried forward through pipes immersed in water, and condensed into a liquid, which runs out at the end of the pipe.

The first product is gasoline, a very light hydrocarbon, marking as high as 830 and as low as 75° of Baumé's coal oil hydrom- water, the temperature of which is to be 1531. Το Test Kerosene or Coal Oil.

Burning oil is often adulterated with heavy oil, or with benzine. The adulteration with the former is shown by dimness of the flame after having burned for some time, accompanied by a charring of the wick. The latter may be readily detected by means of a thermometer, a little warm water, and a tablespoonful of the oil. Fill the cup with warm eter. The heat is then somewhat increased, brought to 1100 Fahr. Pour the oil on the and the next product obtained is called water; apply flame to the floating oil by naphtha, benzine (not benzole), which marks match or otherwise. If the oil is unsafe it from 750 to 630 Baumé; and, when com- will take fire, and its use in the lamp is bined, will average about 67°. The heat be- dangerous, for it is liable to explode. But if ing allowed to increase further, produces dis- the oil is safe and good it will not take fire. tillate, or crude burning oil. This passes over All persons who sell kerosene that will not until about 8 or 10 per cent. of the original quantity contained in the still remains, which is called residuum or tar, and may be redistilled for the purpose of obtaining paraffine and lubricating oil. Paraffine is a fatty material, overwhelming quantity, will not extinguish resembling sperm in appearance. The disti!- the flame of petroleum or benzine. It may, stand the fire test at 110° are liable to prosecution. 1532. To Extinguish the Flame of Petroleum or Benzine. Water, unless in however, be speedily smothered by a woolen cloth or carpet, or a wet muslin or linen cloth, or earth or sand being thrown over it. These act by excluding the air, without which combustion cannot be maintained. late or crude burning oil is converted into ordinary kerosene by a process of purification. For this purpose it is placed in a tank, where it is violently agitated by forcing air through it, and while thus agitated, 14 to 2 per cent. sulphuric acid is added, after which the agitation is continued 15 to 30 minutes. The oil is then allowed to settle, when the acid and impurities are drawn from the bottom. The oil is then washed, first with water and then with caustic soda, by which means the remaining impurities are removed, and any acid