Method for continuous grease manufacture

Claim 1

In a continuous grease manufacturing process wherein a saponifiable material is reacted with an aqueous solution of a metal base in a saponification zone at saponification conditions of elevated temperature and superatmospheric pressure to produce a soap containing saponification reaction product, wherein said saponification reaction product is passed through a pressure reducing means to effect pressure reduction and to flash vaporize substantially all the water present in said saponification reaction product and the said flashed vaporized water as well as any remaining water is removed from said saponification reaction product by flash vaporization in a dehydration zone to produce a dehydrated saponification product, and wherein said dehydrated saponification product in said dehydration zone is recycled through a shear valve for conditioning said soap contained therein, and wherein lubricating oil is added to said recycled dehydrated saponification product for producing a grease product; the improvement which comprises: (a) admixing an aqueous solution of at least one water soluble additive compound, which improves properties of said grease product, with said saponification reaction product under conditions of superatmospheric pressure sufficient to maintain water present in the liquid phase and at an elevated temperature sufficiently high for flash vaporizing substantially all water present in the resulting admixture upon subsequent substantial pressure reduction, thereby forming a hot combined mixture of saponification reaction product and aqueous additive solution; and (b) passing said formed hot combined mixture through a pressure reducing means that is maintained at a pressure not greater than about atmospheric and sufficient for flash vaporizing substantially all water present in said hot formed mixture and passing the resulting substantially dehydrated mixture and vaporized water into said dehydration zone to flash vaporize any remaining water in said mixture and for producing additive particles of a size not greater than about 10 microns distributed within said dehydrated mixture.