The Acid-sludge Problem in Oil Refining

THE use of sulfuric acid in refining illuminating oils antedates the beginning of the petroleum industry in America by many years. It was used as early as 1792 by Tower in refining "coal oil" in the British Isles, and by 1860 there were 53 refineries in the United States manufacturing "coal oil," most of them using sulfuric acid as a refining agent. Following the completion of the Drake well in 1859, many of the "coal oil" refiners began to use petroleum for manufacturing illuminating oil, and their methods and equipment were adapted so far as possible to this new raw material. The value of sulfuric acid in refining "coal oil" having been established, this reagent was immediately tried and found to be satisfactory in refining petroleum. Notwithstanding the tremendous advances in petroleum technology since that time, sulfuric acid remains today the most valuable and most widely used means for refining petroleum products. EARLY METHODS OF DISPOSAL OF ACID SLUDGE With the almost immediate expansion of the petroleum industry came the problem of disposing of the acid sludge produced in the refining operations. While in 1859, the year of the discovery of the Drake well, a patent was granted for sludge separation and separated acid concentration, most of the earlier refiners, and many of their successors, felt that separation and recovery of spent acid was uneconomical. Accordingly, many of them disposed of the sludge in any way that seemed expedient at the time. It was buried in the refinery grounds, barged and dumped at sea, run into neighboring streams, or dumped into sewers. Some optimists carted it to open pits in the hope that it would either sink into the ground or evaporate. Not so many years ago, the superintendent of an eastern refinery, who was using the open-pit method of disposal, lost a sludge cart, with horse attached, in such a pit. The horse was recovered almost immediately, but its availability for further use was reduced to zero by the loss of its hair.