Liquid purification or separation – Tangential flow or centrifugal fluid action
Patent
1987-06-10
1989-07-18
Sever, Frank
Liquid purification or separation
Tangential flow or centrifugal fluid action
209144, 209211, B01D 17038
Patent
active
048491071
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates generally to cyclone separators for separating multi-phase mixtures such as, for example, oil/water mixtures.
Early work in connection with cyclone separators of this type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,007 where certain dimensional relationships between various portions of a cyclone separator are described. The present applicant has also conducted extensive investigations in this area and reference should be made to applicant's many co-pending applications.
Initial investigations in this area indicated that for good separation efficiency in cyclone separators and, in particular, to those suited for fluid/fluid applications, it was necessary to define a cyclone separator in the terms given in the aforementioned U.S. Patent and as described in applicant's many co-pending applications.
Significant research has since been carried out and it has now been found that the criteria important to cyclone separator design in particular relating to mixtures such as oil/water mixtures are the three dimensional shear planes and stagnation flows.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cyclone separator which is arranged so to minimize or avoid high shear planes and stagnation flows.
Basically, it has been found that this can be achieved by the use of gradual changes of section which leads to improved phase separation and reduced energy consumption.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a cyclone separator comprising elements, designed, sized and arranged for treating a mixture of fluids (in particular but not exclusively multi-phase liquids such as oil/water) for separating a more dense component from a less dense component thereof, the separator comprising:
(a) an elongated separating chamber having a longitudinal axis of symmetry between opposite first and second ends, the separating chamber being of greater cross-sectional dimension at the first end than at the second end, the separating chamber having an overflow outlet and at least one underflow outlet; and
(b) at least one feed inlet which is preferably tangentially directed and which is proximate to the first end and disposed in a plane containing a secondary axis which extends from the longitudinal axis in a direction normal thereto, characterized in that the profile of said separating chamber is at least in part of generally exponential form.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a cyclone separator comprising elements, designed, sized and arranged for treating a mixture of fluids (in particular but not exclusively multi-phase liquids such as oil/water) for separating a more dense component from a less dense component thereof, the separating comprising:
(a) an elongated separating chamber having a longitudinal axis of symmetry between opposite first and second ends, the separating chamber being of greater cross-sectional dimension at the first end than at the second end, the separating chamber having an overflow outlet and at least one underflow outlet; and
(b) at least one feed inlet which is preferably tangentially directed and which is proximate to the first end and disposed in a plane containing a secondary axis which extends from the longitudinal axis in a direction normal thereto, characterized in that the profile of said separating chamber is at least in part of generally cubic form.
In one preferred form, the profile meets the following requirement: the point in a direction downstream thereof.
In another preferred form, the profile meets the following requirement:
Preferably, the overflow outlet is at the first end and the underflow outlet is at the second end.
The separating chamber may include a swirl chamber section at the upstream end thereof the swirl chamber section being in one form substantially cylindrical in cross-section.
An embodiment will be hereinafter described by way of example with reference to the drawing in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic side elevation showing the general form of the cyclone separator of the invention.
FIG. 1 sh
REFERENCES:
patent: 4394138 (1983-07-01), Schilling
Colman Derek A.
Thew Martin T.
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