Acetylene, the Principles of Its Generation and Use Part 11

(_b_) Apparatus not requiring pressure regulators must be so arranged that the gas pressure cannot exceed sixty-tenths (6) inches water column.

This requires the use of the pressure relief provided for in Rule No. 20 (_a_).

(_c_) Apparatus requiring pressure regulators must be so arranged that the gas pressure cannot exceed three pounds to the square inch.

The pressure limit of 3 pounds is taken since that is the pressure corresponding to a water column about 6 feet high, which is about, the limit in point of convenience for water-sealed reliefs.

22. AIR MIXTURES.--Generators must be so arranged as to contain the minimum amount of air when first started or recharged, and no device or attachment facilitating or permitting mixture of air with the gas prior to consumption, except at the burners, shall be allowed.

Owing to the explosive properties of acetylene mixed with air, machines must be so designed that such mixtures are impossible.

23. PURIFIERS.--(_a_) Must be constructed of galvanised iron or steel not less than No. 24 U.S. Standard gauge in thickness.

(_b_) Where installed, purifiers must conform to the general rules for the construction of other acetylene apparatus and allow the free pa.s.sage of gas.

(_c_) Purifiers must contain no carbide for drying purposes.

(_d_) Purifiers must be located inside of gasholders, or, where necessarily outside, must have no hand-holes which can be opened without first shutting off the gas-supply.

24. PRESSURE REGULATORS.--(_a_) Must conform to the rules for the construction of other acetylene apparatus so far as they apply and must not be subject to sticking or clogging.

(_b_) Must be capable of maintaining a uniform pressure, not varying more than four-tenths inch water column, at any load within their rating.

(_c_) Must be installed between valves in such a manner as to facilitate inspection and repairs.

_Cla.s.s B.--Stationary Apparatus for Central Station Service._

Generators of over 300 lights capacity for central station service are not required to be automatic in operation. Generators of less than 300 lights capacity must be automatic in operation and must comply in every respect with the requirements of Cla.s.s A.

25. GENERAL RULES. GENERATORS.--(_a_) Must be substantially constructed of iron or steel and be protected against depreciation by an effective and durable preventive of corrosion.

Galvanising is strongly recommended as a protection against oxidation, and it may to advantage be reinforced by a thorough coating of asphaltum or similar material.

(_b_) Must contain no copper or alloy of copper in contact with acetylene, excepting in valves.

(_c_) Must be so arranged that generation will take place without overheating; temperatures in excess of 500 F. to be considered excessive.

(_d_) Must be provided with means for automatic removal of condensation from gas pa.s.sages.

(_e_) Must be provided with suitable protection against freezing of any water contained in the apparatus.

No salt or other corrosive chemical is permissible as a protection against freezing.

(_f_) Must in general comply with the requirements governing the construction of apparatus for isolated installations so far as they are applicable.

(_g_) Must be so arranged as to insure correct procedure in recharging and cleaning.

(_h_) Generators of the carbide-feed type must be provided with some form of approved measuring device to enable the attendant to determine when the maximum allowable quant.i.ty of carbide has been fed into the generating chamber.

In the operation of generators of this type an allowance of at least 1 gallon of clean generating water per pound of carbide should be made, and the generator should be cleaned after slaking of every full charge. Where lump carbide is used the lumps may become embedded in the residuum, if the latter is allowed to acc.u.mulate at the bottom of the generating chamber, causing overheating from slow and restricted generation, and rendering the ma.s.s more liable to form a hard deposit and bring severe stresses upon the walls of the generator by slow expansion.

26. GENERATING CHAMBERS.--(_a_) Must each be connected with the gasholder in such a manner that they will, at all times, give open connexion either to the gasholder or to the blow-off pipe into the outer air.

(_b_) Must be so arranged as to guard against appreciable escape of gas to the room at any time during the introduction of the charges.

(_c_) Must be so designed that the residuum will not clog or affect the operation of the machine and can conveniently be handled and removed.

(_d_) Must be so arranged that during the process of cleaning and recharging the back-flow of gas from the gasholder or other generating chambers will be automatically prevented.

27. GASHOLDERS.--(_a_) Must be of sufficient capacity to contain at least 4 cubic feet of gas per 1/2-foot burner of the rating.

This is to provide for the requisite lighting period without the necessity of making gas at night, allowance being made for the enlargement of burners caused by the use of cleaners.

(_b_) Must be provided with suitable guides to direct the movement of the bell throughout its entire travel.

28. PRESSURE RELIEFS.--Must in all cases be provided, and must be so arranged as to prevent pressure in excess of 100-tenths (10) inches water column in the mains.

29. PRESSURES.--Gasholders must be adjusted to maintain a pressure of approximately 25-tenths (2.5) inches water column in the mains.

CHAPTER V

THE TREATMENT OF ACETYLENE AFTER GENERATION

IMPURITIES IN CALCIUM CARBIDE.--The calcium carbide manufactured at the present time, even when of the best quality commercially obtainable, is by no means a chemically pure substance; it contains a large number of foreign bodies, some of which evolve gas on treatment with water. To a considerable extent this statement will probably always remain true in the future; for in order to make absolutely pure carbide it would be necessary for the manufacturer to obtain and employ perfectly pure lime, carbon, and electrodes in an electric furnace which did not suffer attack during the pa.s.sage of a powerful current, or he would have to devise some process for simultaneously or subsequently removing from his carbide those impurities which were derived from his impure raw materials or from the walls of his furnace--and either of these processes would increase the cost of the finished article to a degree that could hardly be borne.

Beside the impurities thus inevitably arising from the calcium carbide decomposed, however, other impurities may be added to acetylene by the action of a badly designed generator or one working on a wrong system of construction; and therefore it may be said at once that the crude gas coming from the generating plant is seldom fit for immediate consumption, while if it be required for the illumination of occupied rooms, it must invariably be submitted to a rigorous method of chemical purification.

IMPURITIES OF ACETYLENE.--Combining together what may be termed the carbide impurities and the generator impurities in crude acetylene, the foreign bodies are partly gaseous, partly liquid, and partly solid. They may render the gas dangerous from the point of view of possible explosions; they, or the products derived from them on combustion, may be harmful to health if inspired, injurious to the fittings and decorations of rooms, objectionable at the burner orifices by determining, or a.s.sisting in, the formation of solid growths which distort the flame and so reduce its illuminating power; they may give trouble in the pipes by condensing from the state of vapour in bends and dips, or by depositing, if they are already solid, in angles, &c., and so causing stoppages; or they may be merely harmful economically by acting as diluents to the acetylene and, by having little or no illuminating value of themselves, causing the gas to emit less light than it should per unit of volume consumed, more particularly, of course, when the acetylene is not burnt under the mantle. Also, not being acetylene, or isomeric therewith, they require, even if they are combustible, a different proportion of oxygen for their perfect combustion; and a good acetylene jet is only calculated to attract precisely that quant.i.ty of air to the flame which a gas having the const.i.tution C_2H_2 demands. It will be apparent without argument that a proper system of purification is one that is competent to remove the carbide impurities from acetylene, so far as that removal is desirable or necessary; it should not be called upon to extract the generator impurities, because the proper way of dealing with them is, to the utmost possible extent, to prevent their formation. The sole exception to this rule is that of water-vapour, which invariably accompanies the best acetylene, and must be partially removed as soon as convenient. Vapour of water almost always accompanies acetylene from the generator, even when the apparatus does not belong to those systems of working where liquid water is in excess, this being due to the fact that in a generator where the carbide is in excess the temperature tends to rise until part of the water is vapourised and carried out of the decomposing chamber before it has an opportunity of reacting with the excess of carbide. The issuing gas is therefore more or less hot, and it usually comes from the generating chamber saturated with vapour, the quant.i.ty needed so to saturate it rising as the temperature of the gas increases. Practically speaking, there is little objection to the presence of water-vapour in acetylene beyond the fear of deposition of liquid in the pipes, which may acc.u.mulate till they are partially or completely choked, and may even freeze and burst them in very severe weather. Where the chemical purifiers, too, contain a solid material which accidentally or intentionally acts as a drier by removing moisture from the acetylene, it is a waste of such comparatively expensive material to allow gas to enter the purifier wetter than need be.

EXTRACTION OF MOISTURE.--In all large plants the extraction of the moisture may take place in two stages. Immediately after the generator, and before the washer if the generator requires such an apparatus to follow it, a condenser is placed. Here the gas is made to travel somewhat slowly through one or more pipes surrounded with cold air or water, or is made to travel through a s.p.a.ce containing pipes in which cold water is circulating, the precise method of constructing the condenser being perfectly immaterial so long as the escaping gas has a temperature not appreciably exceeding that of the atmosphere. So cooled, however, the gas still contains much water-vapour, for it remains saturated therewith at the temperature to which it is reduced, and by the inevitable law of physics a further fall in temperature will be followed by a further deposition of liquid water from the acetylene. Manifestly, if the installation is so arranged that the gas can at no part of the service and on no occasion fall to a lower temperature than that at which it issues from the condenser, the removal of moisture as effected by such a condenser will be sufficient for all practical purposes; but at least in all large plants where a considerable length of main is exposed to the air, a more complete moisture extractor must be added to the plant, or water will be deposited in the pipes every cold night in the winter. It is, however, useless to put a chemical drier, or one more searching in its action than a water-cooled condenser, at so early a position in the acetylene plant, because the gas will be subsequently stored in a water- sealed holder, where it will most probably once again be saturated with moisture from the seal. When such generators are adopted as require to have a specific washer placed after them in order to remove the water- soluble impurities, _e.g._, those in which the gas does not actually bubble through a considerable quant.i.ty of liquid in the generating chamber itself, it is doubtful whether a separate condenser is altogether necessary, because, as the water in the washer can easily be kept at the atmospheric temperature (by means of water circulating in pipes or otherwise), the gas will be brought to the atmospheric temperature in the washer, and at that temperature it cannot carry with it more than a certain fixed proportion of moisture. The notion of partially drying a gas by causing it to pa.s.s through water may appear paradoxical, but a comprehension of physical laws will show that it is possible, and will prove efficient in practice, when due attention is given to the facts that the gas entering the washer is hot, and that it is subsequently to be stored over water in a holder.

GENERATOR IMPURITIES.--The generator impurities present in the crudest acetylene consist of oxygen and nitrogen, _i.e._, the main const.i.tuents of air, the various gaseous, liquid, and semi-solid bodies described in Chapter II., which are produced by the polymerising and decomposing action of heat upon the carbide, water, and acetylene in the apparatus, and, whenever the carbide is in excess in the generator, some lime in the form of a very fine dust. In all types of water-to-carbide plant, and in some automatic carbide-feed apparatus, the carbide chamber must be disconnected and opened each time a fresh charge has to be inserted; and since only about one-third of the s.p.a.ce in the container can be filled with carbide, the remaining two-thirds are left full of air. It is easy to imagine that the carbide container of a small generator might be so large, or loaded with so small a quant.i.ty of carbide, or that the apparatus might in other respects be so badly designed, that the gas evolved might contain a sufficient proportion of air to render it liable to explode in presence of a naked light, or of a temperature superior to its inflaming-point. Were a c.o.c.k, however, which should have been shut, to be carelessly left open, an escape of gas from, rather than an introduction of air into, the apparatus would follow, because the pressure in the generator is above that of the atmosphere. As is well known, roughly four-fifths by volume of the air consist of nitrogen, which is non-inflammable and accordingly devoid of danger- conferring properties; but in all flames the presence of nitrogen is harmful by absorbing much of the heat liberated, thus lowering the temperature of that flame, and reducing its illuminating power far more seriously. On the other hand, a certain quant.i.ty of air in acetylene helps to prevent burner troubles by acting as a mere diluent (albeit an inferior one to methane or marsh-gas), and therefore it has been proposed intentionally to add air to the gas before consumption, such a process being in regular use on the large scale in some places abroad. As Eitner has shown (Chapter VI.) that in a 3/4-inch pipe acetylene ceases to be explosive when mixed with less than 47.7 per cent. of air, an amount of, say, 40 per cent. or less may in theory be safely added to acetylene; but in practice the amount of air added, if any, would have to be much smaller, because the upper limit of explosibility of acetylene-air mixtures is not rigidly fixed, varying from about 50 per cent. of air when the mixture is in a small vessel, and fired electrically to about 25 per cent. of air in a large vessel approached with a flame. Moreover, safely to prepare such mixtures, after the proportion of air had been decided upon, would require the employment of some additional perfectly trustworthy automatic mechanism to the plant to draw into the apparatus a quant.i.ty of air strictly in accordance with the volume of acetylene made --a pair of meters geared together, one for the gas, the other for the air--and this would introduce extra complexity and extra expense. On the whole the idea cannot be recommended, and the action of the British Home Office in prohibiting the use of all such mixtures except those unavoidably produced in otherwise good generators, or in burners of the ordinary injector type, is perfectly justifiable. The derivation and effect of the other gaseous and liquid generator impurities in acetylene were described in Chapter II. Besides these, very hot gas has been found to contain notable amounts of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, both of which burn with non-luminous flames. The most plausible explanation of their origin has been given by Lewes, who suggests that they may be formed by the action of water-vapour upon very hot carbide or upon carbon separated therefrom as the result of previous dissociation among the gases present; the steam and the carbon reacting together at a temperature of 500 C. or thereabouts in a manner resembling that of the production of water-gas.

The last generator impurity is lime dust, which is calcium oxide or hydroxide carried forward by the stream of gas in a state of extremely fine subdivision, and is liable to be produced whenever water acts rapidly upon an excess of calcium carbide. This lime occasionally appears in the alternative form of a froth in the pipes leading directly from the generating chamber; for some types of carbide-to-water apparatus, decomposing certain kinds of carbide, foam persistently when the liquid in them becomes saturated with lime, and this foam or froth is remarkably difficult to break up.

FILTERS.--It has just been stated that the purifying system added to an acetylene installation should not be called upon to remove these generator impurities; because their appearance in quant.i.ty indicates a faulty generator, which should be replaced by one of better action. On the contrary, with the exception of the gases which are permanent at atmospheric temperature--hydrogen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, and oxygen-- and which, once produced, must remain in the acetylene (lowering its illuminating value, but giving no further trouble), extraction of these generator impurities is quite simple. The dust or froth of lime will be removed in the washer where the acetylene bubbles through water--the dust itself can be extracted by merely filtering the gas through cotton-wool, felt, or the like. The least volatile liquid impurities will be removed partly in the condenser, partly in the washer, and partly by the mechanical dry-scrubbing action of the solid purifying material in the chemical purifier. To some extent the more volatile liquid bodies will be removed similarly; but a complete extraction of them demands the employment of some special was.h.i.+ng apparatus in which the crude acetylene is compelled to bubble (in finely divided streams) through a layer of some non-volatile oil, heavy mineral lubricating oil, &c.; for though soluble in such oil, the liquid impurities are not soluble in, nor do they mix with, water; and since they are held in the acetylene as vapours, a simple pa.s.sage through water, or through water-cooled pipes, does not suffice for their recovery. It will be seen that a sufficient removal of these generator impurities need throw no appreciable extra labour upon the consumer of acetylene, for he can readily select a type of generator in which their production is reduced to a minimum; while a cotton-wool or c.o.ke filter for the gas, a water washer, which is always useful in the plant if only employed as a non-return valve between the generator and the holder, and the indispensable chemical purifiers, will take out of the acetylene all the remaining generator impurities which need, and can, be extracted.

CARBIDE IMPURITIES.--Neglecting very minute amounts of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (which may perhaps come from cavities in the calcium carbide itself), as being utterly insignificant from the practical point of view, the carbide impurities of the gas fall into four main categories: those containing phosphorus, those containing sulphur, those containing silicon, and those containing gaseous ammonia. The phosphorus in the gas comes from calcium phosphide in the calcium carbide, which is attacked by water, and yields phosph.o.r.etted hydrogen (or phosphine, as it will be termed hereafter). The calcium phosphide, in its turn, is produced in the electric furnace by the action of the c.o.ke upon the phosphorus in phosphatic lime--all commercially procurable lime and some varieties of c.o.ke (or charcoal) containing phosphates to a larger or smaller extent.

The sulphur in the gas comes from aluminium sulphide in the carbide, which is produced in the electric furnace by the interaction of impurities containing aluminium and sulphur (clay-like bodies, &c.) present in the lime and c.o.ke; this aluminium sulphide is attacked by water and yields sulphuretted hydrogen. Even in the absence of aluminium compounds, sulphuretted hydrogen may be found in the gases of an acetylene generator; here it probably arises from calcium sulphide, for although the latter is not decomposed by water, it gradually changes in water into calcium sulphydrate, which appears to suffer decomposition.

When it exists in the gas the silicon is derived from certain silicides in the carbide; but this impurity will be dealt with by itself in a later paragraph. The ammonia arises from the action of the water upon magnesium, aluminium, or possibly calcium nitride in the calcium carbide, which are bodies also produced in the electric furnace or as the carbide is cooling. In the gas itself the ammonia exists as such; the phosphorus exists mainly as phosphine, partly as certain organic compounds containing phosphorus, the exact chemical nature of which has not yet been fully ascertained; the sulphur exists partly as sulphuretted hydrogen and partly as organic compounds a.n.a.logous, in all probability, to those of phosphorus, among which Caro has found oil of mustard, and certain bodies that he regards as mercaptans. [Footnote: It will be convenient to borrow the phrase used in the coal-gas industry, calling the compounds of phosphorus other than phosphine "phosphorus compounds,"

and the compounds of sulphur other than sulphuretted hydrogen "sulphur compounds." The "sulphur compounds" of coal-gas, however, consist mainly of carbon bisulphide, which is certainly not the chief "sulphur compound"

in acetylene, even if present to any appreciable extent.] The precise way in which these organic bodies are formed from the phosphides and sulphides of calcium carbide is not thoroughly understood; but the system of generation employed, and the temperature obtaining in the apparatus, have much to do with their production; for the proportion of the total phosphorus and sulphur found in the crude gas which exists as "compounds"

tends to be greater as the generating plant yields a higher temperature.

It should be noted that ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen have one property in common which sharply distinguishes them from the sulphur "compounds," and from all the phosphorus compounds, including phosphine.

Ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen are both very soluble in water, the latter more particularly in the lime-water of an active acetylene generator; while all the other bodies referred to are completely insoluble. It follows, therefore, that a proper was.h.i.+ng of the crude gas in water should suffice to remove all the ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen from the acetylene; and as a matter of fact those generators in which the gas is evolved in presence of a large excess of water, and in which it has to bubble through such water, yield an acetylene practically free from ammonia, and containing nearly all the sulphur which it does contain in the state of "compounds." It must also be remembered that chemical processes which are perfectly suited to the extraction of sulphuretted hydrogen and phosphine are not necessarily adapted for the removal of the other phosphorus and sulphur compounds.

WASHERS.--In designing a washer for the extraction of ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen it is necessary to see that the gas is brought into most intimate contact with the liquid, while yet no more pressure than can possibly be avoided is lost. Subdivision of the gas stream may be effected by fitting the mouth of the inlet-pipe with a rose having a large number of very small holes some appreciable distance apart, or by bending the pipe to a horizontal position and drilling it on its upper surface with numbers of small holes. Another method is to force the gas to travel under a series of part.i.tions extending just below the water- level, forming the lower edges of those part.i.tions either perfectly horizontal or with small notches like the teeth of a saw. One volume of pure water only absorbs about three volumes of sulphuretted hydrogen at atmospheric temperatures, but takes up some 600 volumes of gaseous ammonia; and as ammonia always accompanies the sulphuretted hydrogen, the latter may be said to be absorbed in the washer by a solution of ammonia, a liquid in which sulphuretted hydrogen is much more soluble. Therefore, since water only dissolves about an equal volume of acetylene, the liquid in the washer will continue to extract ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen long after it is saturated with the hydrocarbon. For this reason, _i.e._, to avoid waste of acetylene by dissolution in the clean water of the washer, the plan is sometimes adopted of introducing water to the generator through the washer, so that practically the carbide is always attacked by a liquid saturated with acetylene. Provided the liquid in the generator does not become seriously heated, there is no objection to this arrangement; but if the water is heated strongly in the generator it loses much or all of its solvent properties, and the impurities may be driven back again into the washer. Clearly if the waste lime of the generator occurs as a dry or damp powder, the plan mentioned is not to be recommended; but when the waste lime is a thin cream--water being in large excess--it may be adopted. If the generator produces lime dust among the gas, and if the acetylene enters the washer through minute holes, a mechanical filter to remove the dust must be inserted between the generator and the washer, or the orifices of the leading pipe will be choked. Whenever a water-cooled condenser is employed after the generator, in which the gas does not come in contact with the water, that liquid may always be used to charge the generator. For compactness and simplicity of parts the water of the holder seal is occasionally used as the was.h.i.+ng liquid, but unless the liquid of the seal is constantly renewed it will thus become offensive, especially if the holder is under cover, and it will also act corrosively upon the metal of the tank and bell. The water-soluble impurities in acetylene will not be removed completely by merely standing over the holder seal for a short time, and it is not good practice to pa.s.s unnecessarily impure gas into a holder.

[Footnote: This is not a contradiction of what has been said in Chapter III. about the relative position of holder and chemical purifiers, because reference is now being made to ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen only.]