Dubbs process

Thermal cracking or pyrolysis, the oldest of the these processes,1 was first carried out by Burton2 in his treatment of the residue remaining from the distillation of volatile components (so-called straight-run gasoline) of oil. The residue was treated in a horizontal drum by heating to 450-550°C under 5-6 atm. The volatile components were distilled off continuously until only coke remained in the still. The Burton process was supplanted by the continuous Dubbs process Operating... 

The most popular design of the day was the Dubbs process (2). The Dubbs process (Figure 2) was licensed by the Universal Oil Products Co. (now UOP), which was founded in 1913 by T. Ogden Armour by purchasing the Standard Asphalt Co. and the Jesse Dubbs patents. UOP guaranteed a 23% yield of gasoline and a 24 hour cleanout period for the 250 bpd Dubbs unit ... 

The Dubbs process (5) was a continuous thermal cracking process in which a relatively clean feedstock was cracked in furnace tubes with the continuous removal of heavy cracked residue from the system. This process was patented (1,049,667) in 1913. 

In 1914, Jesse A. Dubbs and J. Ogden Armour founded the National Hydrocarbon Company, which later became Universal Oil Products (UOP). ° UOP grew to become the world s largest licensor of process technology for the oil refining industry. In 1919, UOP commercialized the Dubbs process, which solved some of the problems associated with the Burton-Humphreys process. The Dubbs process produced fewer coke deposits, it could process heavier petroleum fractions, and it ran longer between shutdowns. 

By the early 1930s, thermal cracking had achieved a fairly high level of operation. Both the Dubbs (UOP) and Tube-and-Tank (Jersey Standard) Processes represented the state of the art in the field. Between the end of World War I, when the Burton Process was still revolutionary, and the early 1930s, octane ratings of gasoline increased 36 percent. This improvement resulted from the existence of more advanced thermal plants and the increasing use of additives, espe-... 

Burton The first commercial process for thermally cracking heavy petroleum fractions to obtain gasoline. Invented in 1912 by W. M. Burton at Standard Oil (Indiana) and operated commercially from 1913 through the 1920s. See also Dubbs. 

Fleming An early liquid-phase, thermal process for cracking petroleum. See also Dubbs. Flesch-Winkler See Winkler. 

Cracking gas was briefly described in Vol 3 of Encycl, p C552-L, while cracking processes, such as of Dubbs and of Houdry are described in Ref 4, pp 429—31. See also Ref 9, p 528-R... 

Dubbs cracking an older continuous, liquid-phase thermal cracking process formerly used. 

Morgan, S.W.K., Zinc and Its Alloys and Compounds, Ellis Horwood, Chichester, UK, 1985, 117. Jenkins An early liquid-phase thermal cracking process. See also Dubbs. 

Potential competing processes existed in 1912, and more arose very quickly. Two dominant alternatives to the Burton process were the Dubbs and the Holmes-Manley thermal processes and two similar catalytic processes advanced by the Texas Company (Texaco) and by Gulf Refining (Gulf and Texaco are now incorporated into Chevron). 

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