Power plants – Motive fluid energized by externally applied heat – Process of power production or system operation
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-31
2002-11-05
Nguyen, Hoang (Department: 3748)
Power plants
Motive fluid energized by externally applied heat
Process of power production or system operation
C060S653000, C060S618000, C060S670000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06474067
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for resource recovery from organic substances such as organic wastes containing biomass (biological resource), utilizing superheated steam.
The inventors of the present invention have put their efforts to research and development of technologies for utilizing superheated steam to a high degree for many years, and have succeeded in development and commercialization of, for example, novel food processing methods and apparatuses that allow the characteristics of atmospheric pressured heated steam to be utilized as a food processing technique.
In recent years, under the circumstances that scientific and basic research regarding superheated steam is advancing, the inventors of the present invention found that organic wastes can be reduced by carbonization, utilizing various characteristics of the superheated steam as a thermal radiation gas, an anoxic gas and a reducing gas, and proposed a novel method for producing a carbide and an apparatus thereof, utilizing the characteristics of the superheated steam (see the specification and the drawings of Japanese Patent Application No. 11-309982)
Conventionally, various attempts for resource recovery from food wastes or the like have been made by pulverizing and drying food wastes or the like, and performing carbonization with a carbonizing apparatus and cooling for production into various carbonized products.
However, in this method, a regular fuel for the carbonizing apparatus is used, and food wastes or the like is carbonized by dry-distillation, utilizing the energy of the fuel. Therefore, this method has the following problems: There is a high possibility of generation of hazardous substances in the dry-distilled gas; Carbonization and cooling take a long time; A large amount of energy consumption is required; The apparatus is of a large-scale batch system, and the obtained carbonized products are expensive because of a high cost heat source.
On the other hand, to generate the superheated steam, conventionally, it is general that steam generated by a boiler is heated with a heater or the like to produce superheated steam controlled to a predetermined temperature.
To produce hot water with a high temperature, a boiler can be used, and it is also known that an electrically powered high temperature heat storage reservoir utilizing inexpensive night-time electricity is used and hot water is produced in the high temperature heat storage reservoir.
Thus, conventionally, various research and development have been made and many efforts have been reported, regarding the production of carbonized products by dry-distilling organic substances containing biomass (biological resources) of food wastes or the like with a carbonizing apparatus, the production of high temperature hot water by utilizing night-time electricity, utilization of the organic substances gasified in a large-scale gasification furnace as regular combustion energy or the like. However, these methods have various problems to be solved, such as treatment of hazardous substances contained in the dry-distilled gas, inefficiency of a large scale batch system, and much time and cost for the treatment. Therefore, there is a strong demand for solving these problems and developing a new system for resource recovery that immediately can be applied to resource recovery from organic substances.
Under these circumstances, the inventors of the present invention have studied hard to develop a new system that permits resource recovery from organic substances and consequently constructed a new system that converts energy obtained by gasifying organic resources to superheated steam and a new carbonizing system that carbonizes organic substances using the above system for resource recovery, and thus realized the present invention.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new system for carbonization and resource recovery by carbonizing organic substances containing biomass for resource recovery by utilizing superheated steam.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new system as a heat source for generating superheated steam.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a new system for converting energy obtained by gasifying organic substances to superheated steam.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a new energy conversion system, utilizing a cogeneration including an engine that converts the energy from gasification to electric power and hot water.
Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to achieve effective utilization of the dry-distilled gas generated in a carbonizing furnace in the system for resource recovery by heating the organic substances in the superheated steam.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to achieve these objects, the present invention provides an apparatus for resource recovery from an organic substance for gasification containing biomass by converting energy obtained by gasifying the organic substance for gasification to superheated steam. The apparatus of the present invention includes a gasification furnace for generating a combustible gas containing at least one of hydrogen and carbon monoxide from the organic substance for gasification; a cogeneration including an engine that uses the combustible gas generated by the gasification furnace as a fuel, an electric generator driven by the engine, and a radiator for generating hot water by heating water by cooling the engine; and superheated steam generating means for generating superheated steam from the hot water generated by the radiator of the cogeneration. The superheated steam generated by the superheated steam generating means is supplied to another apparatus.
Furthermore, the apparatus of the present invention may include a carbonization furnace for generating a dry-distilled gas and a carbide by heating an organic substance for carbonization containing biomass in the superheated steam generated by the superheated steam generating means.
In the above invention, in the gasification furnace, a combustible gas is generated from the organic substance for gasification containing biomass, and this combustible gas is supplied to the cogeneration. In the cogeneration, the combustible gas from the gasification furnace is combusted in the engine, so that the engine is operated. This engine drives an electric generator to output electric power, and water is heated by heat exchange in the radiator to produce hot water. In the superheated steam generating means, atmospheric pressured superheated steam is generated from the hot water produced by the radiator of the cogeneration, and this superheated steam is supplied to another apparatus. Furthermore, the superheated steam generated by the superheated steam generating means is supplied to the carbonization furnace, and in this carbonization furnace, an organic substance for carbonization containing biomass is heated in the superheated steam so that a dry-distilled gas and a carbide are generated. Therefore, the present invention provides the following distinguished advantages: (1) A novel system for carbonizing organic substances for resource recovery utilizing superheated steam can be obtained; (2) A conventional treatment of organic substances containing biomass commonly is performed by combustion, which causes problems such as air pollution due to exhaust gas, whereas the present invention can convert energy obtained in the system directly to superheated steam, which is clean and low cost, and can recover the organic substances as the superheated steam without generating hazardous substances; (3) A new system for converting energy obtained by gasifying organic wastes to superheated steam can be obtained; (4) Since the cogeneration allows high-output energy to be collected with a generated gas with a lower calorie than that of town gas, the gasification. furnace can be small; (5) Since the superheated steam can be generated and supplied without using a boiler or the like, the apparatus can be small; (6)
Omoda Norio
Shishido Hiromu
Chugoku Maintenance Co., Ltd.
Nixon & Peabody LLP
Studebaker Donald R.
LandOfFree
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