Gas separation: processes – Filtering
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-07
2002-06-04
Smith, Duane (Department: 1724)
Gas separation: processes
Filtering
C095S232000, C095S237000, C095S287000, C096S351000, C096S366000, C055S385300, C055S409000, C055S459100, C055S482000, C055S485000, C055SDIG003, C055S317000, C060S279000, C060S902000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06398851
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a method for the purification of exhaust gas of internal combustion engines and more particularly to an apparatus for significantly reducing the amount of incompletely burned fuel that is discharged from the exhaust system of an internal combustion engine to the atmosphere, thereby increasing the said engines fuel economy.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The exhaust gases which are emitted from present day automotive vehicles using unleaded gasoline consist primarily of unburned hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), other natural by-products of combustion and nitrogen oxides (NOx). The CO gas when inhaled by humans combine with their blood cells and prevents them from conveying the oxygen (O2) content of air to their lungs, causing breathing problems. The HC and NOx constituents combine in the presence of heat and sunlight as they escape into the atmosphere to form Ozone (smog). Inhalation of Ozone has been documented to cause lung cancer. However, leaded gasoline operated automobiles also emit lead particles which causes lead poisoning if ingested by humans. Whereas, the diesel operated automobiles are known to emit micron size, carbon particles and sulfur dioxide/trioxide gases. The carbon particles are embedded in the human lungs, if inhaled and are known to cause lung cancer. The sulfur and nitrogen oxide gases are dissolved in rainwater to create acid rain which have devastated some forest lands through out the world.
Additionally, recent research has established that carbon dioxide (CO2)~the main exhaust gas component although not a pollutant gas has been proven to be a green house gas (GHG). These gases are trapped in the lower atmosphere and prevent the radiation of solar heat from the earth's heated surface to the atmosphere thereby causing Global Warming. For reducing this warming, it is of paramount importance to reduce the generation of GHG or carbon dioxide gases by the conservation of fuel/energy in all types of internal combustion engines, which currently use about one-quarter of our national petroleum consumption.
For the protection of our environment, the US Clean Air Act, 1970 stipulated the maximum emissions permissible for the various pollutant gases from new cars as under:
HC=0.41 gram/mile, CO=4.0 grams/mile, NOx=1.0 gram/mile. These values were to be observed in a Cold Start, Dynamometer Test run per the 1975 CVSII FTP. There was no requirement for in-use car tests or permissible reduced standards. However, twenty years later, the US EPA observed the progressive degradation of the air quality of the one hundred largest U.S. cities to below the mandated limits of the said Act. The cause for this degradation was traced to the failure of the Catalytic Converter System~the sole automobile emission control system available ever since 1974~by the deposit of lead particles on the platinum catalyst from the small quantity of lead in today's blend of the “lead free” (unleaded ) gasoline. The non-methane HC gas conversion efficiency as a function of lead concentration on the catalyst of a three-way catalytic converter degrades from 100% to 48% with 0.01% ~10% by weight of lead deposited on the catalyst: Reference: “Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals”, Dr. John B. Heywood, Prof. Mech. Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988, FIG. 11-55. McGraw Hill Publications.
Similar degradation of the OEM catalytic converter has been recorded in the Federally-sponsored, “Reliability and Lifecycle Testing of The Automobile, Anti-Air Pollution and Energy Conservation System, hereafter referred to as the Bose System.” US D.O.E Report, March 1980. During the U.S.D.O.E dynamometer controlled, 50,000 miles lifecycle tests with the Bose System, the OEM catalytic converter was tested at 1,134 miles (Test #1) and 12,140 miles (Test #2), before the removal of the converter and installation of the Bose Experimental System. The emissions control (grams/mile of the pollutant gases) and gravimetric fuel rates (m.p.g.) as recorded for Test #1(new converter), Test #2 (converter at 12140 miles), Test #9 (Bose System at 32,500 miles) and Test #12 (Bose System at 49.000 miles) are shown below
Test
HC
CO
NO
x
(HC + CO + NO
x
)
Emission
Fuel
Fuel
#
Miles
gm/mi
gm/mi
gm/mi
Total Emissions
Efficiency
(m.p.g.)
Economy
New Car Stds.
0.41
4.0
1.00
5.41
100%
—
−12%
1
1,134
0.72
5.31
2.11
8.14
66%
11.76
(Penalty)
2
12,140
0.94
18.72
1.81
21.47
25%
13.37
Baseline
9
32,500
2.25
12.82
2.88
17.95
30%
14.12
5.6%
12
49,100
2.07
14.22
1.86
18.15
29.8%
14.26
6.7%
The emissions control efficiency recorded for the Bose Experimental System was constant at 30% of the new converter efficiency. However, the new converter's efficiency dropped from 100% to 66% at 1,134 miles, 25% at 12,140 miles and a projected 5% at he end of its 50,000 miles' service life. A lifecycle pollutant emissions study based on these test data has estimated that the lifecycle pollutant emissions for the catalytic converter is 2,621,488 grams as compared to the Bose System's emissions of 900,000 grams. The Bose System's fuel economy based on the converter's fuel consumption was 6.7% in city driving and 19% in highway driving conditions.
Extensive road tests made with the preliminary prototypes of the Bose System on cars operating with leaded fuels in 1973, showed that the System was functional. The System separated the pollutant gases along with lead particles, from the fully burned carbon dioxide gases which were allowed to escape to the atmosphere. However, it was observed that the smaller lead particles were emitted along with the lighter pollutant gases via the turbine hollow shaft and slight accumulation in the mixing chamber contaminating its sodium hydroxide solution. Also, very large lead particles were observed to be exiting from the outlet pipe of the second stage separation's gas collector chamber, which were being deposited in the mixing chamber, with much heavier contamination of the sodium hydroxide scrubber solution.
The creation of these unusually large lead particles was traced to the “agglomeration of particles” phenomenon observed on the inside surface of the said gas collector chamber, caused by the particles high speed, hot impact at 90 degrees angle of incidence with subsequent re-boundings. Such rebound impacts created a “scoring” and roughness on the gas collector inside surfaces, whereon larger particles were noticed to grow before being dislodged. This adverse phenomenon required frequent scrub down of the gas collector inside surfaces and needed further research for overcoming these “agglomeration” problems. Fortunately, by Mar. 4, 1974~the filing date of my prior Art: U.S. Pat. No. #3,861,142~the Federal/State laws had been promulgated for the exclusive sale of unleaded gasoline through out USA. Also, I lacked the funds needed to carry out the said research. This research has been done during the last few years~particularly, as the demand for the micronsize carbon particles separation/re-combustion from the diesel operated, internal combustion engines exhaust, have become critical from the point of view of health and fuel/energy conservation. My present invention describes the new technology developed for reducing the “agglomeration of particles” problem that makes the Bose System universally interchangeable between the internal combustion engines operated by leaded or unleaded or diesel or natural gas fuels respectively.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART~37 CFR 1.97 AND 1.98
Most previously used processes for separating gases of dissimilar molecular masses, and, or lead or carbon particles generally have required complex and expensive equipment, and additionally must be carefully controlled in order to effect the desired separation. Other devices suffer from serious disadvantages, such as, generally requiring the application of external energy for speeding up the
Greene Jason M.
Smith Duane
LandOfFree
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