Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids – Apparatus – For diverse operations on treated material
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-15
2001-10-09
Walberg, Teresa (Department: 3742)
Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids
Apparatus
For diverse operations on treated material
C071S012000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06298576
ABSTRACT:
This invention broadly relates to the machines for treating waste materials from industrial manufacturing plants or municipal wastes and more particularly concerns a compactor and dryer apparatus for such waste materials.
The design of an apparatus of this kind should be based upon a plurality of considerations relating to the individual waste materials to be treated, by way of explanation and not by way of limitation, in the working residuals of the foodstuff transformation industry, in the industrial textile wastes, in the differentiated and sorted municipal wastes Particular reference is made to the latter materials, in view of the ever increasing relevance that the disposal of solid waste materials is gaining in the modern society organisation
As essential items of this design effort, it worthwhile to mention:
the energetic value of the waste material,
the methods to be used for recovering such energetic value,
the economic burden connected with such recovery
Many variables are to be accounted for in defining the above mentioned items and not all of them appear to be compatible or harmonised with one another, so that all up to now proposed technical approaches appear to be incomplete and inadequate. In any case, two objects of fundamental relevance are to be considered as essential: the volumetric reduction of the waste materials and the inertization of any putrescible component.
The technical procedures up to now applied aiming at compacting the waste materials and at reducing their humidity content by heat and pressure administration are not comparable to the manufacturing requirements of the industrial plants. As a consequence of this, the machines as presently designed are not economically convenient, particularly from an operation view point, because they have characteristics that reduce their working performances.
As an illustrative example of the problems considered and only partially solved in the prior art, reference can be made to Italian Patent No. 1 262 260. This prior art document discloses a horizontal pressing system in which the material to be treated is compacted and dried by removal of the first extrusion water in a container having a proper stopper. Subsequently, the waste material is pushed out of the container near the inlet of a furnace, generally having a parallelepiped shape. A hollow space is provided on the side skirt of the furnace and a heat transfer fluid flows through it in order to transfer heat to the material. Upon loading the furnace, a subsequent heating step is carried out, in order to cause the residual water to vaporise, while the water vapour outflows through discharge openings provided through the side surface of the furnace.
A drawback of this known system is that it is not possible to obtain a regular hydraulic behaviour of the heat transfer fluid which flows within the channel shaped hollow space applied to the side skirt of the furnace, so that the possibilities of thermal exchange are jeopardised.
A further drawback is that also the strength of the furnace body is jeopardised even in respect of very low pressure stresses, due to the openings (having the shape of circular or oval holes) provided in the side surface of the heating chamber for discharging the resulting water vapour.
A still further drawback of the prior art apparatus is that the contact surface between the waste materials to be treated and the heated regions is significantly restricted due to the presence of said side openings, the more so when these openings are provided in large numbers so as to guarantee a complete and continuous discharge of the water vapour so produced. As a matter of fact, a compromise is unavoidably to be arranged between the number and the size of the openings which permit the water vapour to be discharged and the loss of mechanical strength which is caused by such increase in the number and in the size of said openings.
In strict connection with the latter drawback, it is also to be mentioned that the contact surface between the waste materials to be treated and the heated regions of the apparatus is significantly reduced, from an operation efficiency point of view, by the presence of the above mentioned openings, particularly when, as above said, it is desired to assure a complete and continuous outflow of the water vapour by increasing the number and the size of the discharge openings.
Lastly, it is not advisable to disregard the high values of the strains that are developed due to the rectangularly shaped cross-section of the concerned furnace.
It is a broad object of this invention to eliminate the above mentioned drawbacks and particularly to realise a dryer and compactor apparatus such that all problems relating to the hydraulic behaviour of the heat transfer fluid are eliminated and such that not only all problems concerning the heat exchange from the heat transfer fluid to the waste materials to be treated, but also all problems relating to the outflow of the water vapour are unexceptionally solved, without incurring any conflict between the above two requirements.
It is a further object of this invention to eliminate the above mentioned drawbacks by means of a construction of completely novel design, not only adapted to solve the problems of the hydraulic circulation of the heat transfer fluid and of the heat exchange with subsequent outflow of the water vapour produced during operation, but also having characteristics of high strength and perfect resistance to thermal and mechanical stresses as developed during the various operation steps.
In view of the solutions proposed by this invention, it is possible to realise an improved cage like compactor and dryer apparatus for compacting and drying waste materials of any kind, as resulting from processes and industrial and municipal activities, in such amounts as to be utilised in operation cycles involving 70-90 tons of waste material in each working turn, with resulting reduction of the unit cost of the final product It is specific subject-matter of this invention, therefore, a cage like compactor and dryer apparatus for waste materials, such as working residuals of the foodstuff transformation industry, industrial textile wastes, solid differentiated and sorted municipal wastes, comprising container means for containing the waste materials to be treated, means for compacting them, means for heating them, as well as means for discharging the water vapour generated by the heating step, wherein:
said means for containing the waste materials to be treated comprise a cylinder shaped body formed by longitudinal heating conduits run through by a heat transfer fluid, such heating conduits being arranged according to the generatrix lines of said cylinder and in spaced apart relation and having the functions both to act as the bearing structure of the apparatus and to transfer heat from said heat transfer fluid to the waste materials to be treated contained therein,
said heating conduits are constrained together by means of retainer hoops, arranged under a pre-established mutual spacing in order to assure stability of the conduits forming said cylinder shaped body under the radial stresses generated by the waste materials being pressed as well as by thermal gradients,
said means for compacting the waste materials comprise two oppositely arranged and pressing plates, operating as mobile bases of said cylinder shaped body and acting as pressing pistons,
said means for discharging the water vapour generated by the heating step of said waste materials are formed by the longitudinal slots established between said heating conduits arranged according to the generatrix lines of said cylinder shaper body and in spaced apart relation.
In the preferred embodiment, said vapour discharging longitudinal slots are cusp shaped, with variable and outwardly decreasing cross-section and they are in number equal to the number of said longitudinal conduits.
Furthermore, in the preferred embodiment, the concerned apparatus additionally includes a carter of thermoinsulating material, strictly surrounding said cyl
Fastovsky Leonid M
Smith Gambrell & Russell
Walberg Teresa
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