COST OF PLANT. The plant as originally constructed cost approximately $85,000, including tanks, etc., as follows: Original cost of plant. Two 27,000-barrel residuum tanks.. One 15,000-barrel slop distillate tank.. Six 1,000-barrel receiving tanks (water-sealed). Total...... Evaporators, separators, heat exchanger condenser, etc., in cluding all apparatus built in the shop..... Piping and fittings.. Heaters and brickwork.. Excavation, erecting, labor, and foundations. Total....... $13,000 2,200 6,000 21, 200 24,000 18,000 6,000 15,800 85,000 These figures, excluding tankage, represent a cost of $5.60 per barrel of capacity, a cost considerably lower than the cost of the conventional plants previously described. The plant had been operating continuously and successfully since its completion. Several improvements suggested by operation have been incorporated in later installations and are subsequently discussed. COALINGA PLANT. A small Trumble plant constructed by a producing company at Coalinga, Cal., embodied all the improvements developed by operation of previous installations. Construction began in May, 1915, and was completed in December of the same year. The company shipped its production by pipe line to a large refinery on San Pablo Bay, but as the local market for distillates and fuel oils assumed greater proportions this plant was projected. Its purpose was therefore to produce sufficient quantities of distillates and fuel oil to supply the local demands. Any surplus residuum was then pumped with the remainder of the production to the large refinery to be further reduced or sold as a fuel oil. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF APPARATUS. HEATERS. One battery of two heaters discharging into a single evaporator was constructed. The heaters are each composed of six horizontal rows of eight 4-inch lapwelded pipes, 18 feet 9 inches long, laid parallel to each other, and connected together by flanged return bends on one end and screwed on the other end. The bottom row is placed 30 inches above the furnace floor, subsequent rows being each in turn 42-inch by 24-foot evaporator -Hot oil to evaporator Hot oil to evaporator 1 foot higher than the one preceding. A steel frame adjacent to the inner face of the heater brickwork supports these pipes independent of the heater walls and permits them to freely move longitudinally under temperature stresses. The heater brickwork completely in FIGURE 26.-Pipe retorts and settings, Trumble plant at Coalinga. Has 96 joints of 4-inch pipe with total effective length of 1,728 feet; closes the pipe within the furnace except for the return bends. The two lowest rows are in contact with the fire, and the others are heated by escaping flue gases. The heaters are inclosed on top by brick arches, and the entire interior lined with fire brick. (See fig. 26.) EVAPORATOR. The evaporator is 42 inches in diameter and 24 feet high, being similar to those previously described, and heated by the flue gases leaving the heaters. Crude enters the lowest coil of the right and left heaters nearest the evaporator, travels backward, forward, and upward through each row of pipes, and thence through 4-inch pipes to the tee, 4 by 4 by 6 inches, at the top of the evaporator. |