Photo - sweating plant at Pumpherston Refinery.
code: LVSAV2019.039
Description
B&W negative copied in 1990 from official albums then held at Grangemouth refinery.
Wax sweating was one of the processes used for removing oil from waxes and then separating those waxes into fraction of different melting point. This photograph appears to be of vertical wax sweaters which were installed at Pumpherston refinery in 1939. Each vertical vessels contained tubes through which water of steam can be passed. The space around these tubes were filled with molten wax which was then allowed to harden. The temperature of the water or steam passing through the tubes was then gradually increased and different fractions of oil or wax was collected as it sweated out of the wax. This plant is thought to have survived, latterly in a disused condition until c.1985.
