Power plants – Fluid motor means driven by waste heat or by exhaust energy... – Having fluid motor motive fluid treating – controlling or...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-25
2001-10-23
Nguyen, Hoang (Department: 3748)
Power plants
Fluid motor means driven by waste heat or by exhaust energy...
Having fluid motor motive fluid treating, controlling or...
C060S616000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06305170
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an engine waste heat recovering apparatus and particularly to an apparatus recovering heat generated by engine used as a power source in a cogeneration system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the need for global environmental protection has been focused, cogeneration system are widely proposed for generation of electric power and supply of hot water with the use of a gas engine as the power source which consumes city gas and the like as a fuel. Such a type of cogeneration systems are preferably featured for recovering heat not only from the engine but also from its exhaust gas through conveying a thermal medium to an exhaust gas heat exchanger.
As the exhaust gas heat exchanger permits the exhaust gas to be cooled down by the function of heat exchanging with the thermal medium and release condensed water, there is a mixture of the exhaust gas and the condensed water at its outlet. In general, the mixture is conveyed through a conduit to a silencer where it is separated into the exhaust gas and the condensed water. However, the condensed water is often trapped at the inlet of the silencer. As the exhaust gas is continuously conveyed into the silencer, it runs through and may lift up a part of the trapped condensed water which has a tendency to flow down along the bottom of the silencer due to the gravity force hence producing a sound (harshnoise) of blowing up. Also, portions of the condensed water may be discharged together with the exhaust gas from the silencer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been developed in view of the above drawback and its object is to provide an engine waste heat recovering apparatus adapted for inhibiting the production of the blowing sound caused by condensed water which is separated from the exhaust gas and trapped about at the inlet of a silencer while making the separation of the condensed water from the exhaust gas easy.
As a first feature of the present invention, an engine waste heat recovering apparatus having an exhaust gas heat exchanger for recovering heat from the exhaust gas of the engine and a drain passage for discharging the condensed water produced due to the function of heat exchange in the exhaust gas heat exchanger, comprising, a lift-up passage extending upwardly from the exhaust gas heat exchanger, an expansion chamber communicated with an upper end of the lift-up passage, a fall-down passage extending downwardly from the expansion chamber, and an exhaust gas discharge passage communicated with a lower end of the fall-down passage, wherein the drain passage is communicated at its bottom.
As a second feature of the present invention, the fall-down passage is larger than the lift-up passage in a size of the cross sectional area.
As a third feature of the present invention, the expansion chamber is of a horizontally extending tubular form and communicated at one end of its lower wall to an upper end of the lift-up passage and at the other end of its lower wall to an upper end of the fall-down passage.
As a fourth feature of the present invention, the fall-down passage is communicated at its intermediate with a second expansion chamber, and a first passage between the second expansion chamber and the separation chamber is larger than a second passage between the expansion chamber and the second expansion chamber in a size of the cross sectional area.
As a fifth feature of the present invention, the lift-up passage, the expansion chamber, the separation chamber, the exhaust gas discharge passage, and the fall-down passage are in an integral form.
As a sixth feature of the present invention, the lift-up passage, the expansion chamber, the separation chamber, the exhaust gas discharge passage, the fall-down passage, and the second expansion chamber are in an integral form.
As a seventh feature of the present invention, the drain passage includes a waster water trap.
According to the first to seventh features of the present invention, a mixture of the exhaust gas and the condensed water is accelerated at the velocity in the lift-up passage and promptly conveyed to the expansion chamber where it is separated. This allows the condensed water to be conveyed separately of the exhaust gas and hardly be trapped at the inlet of the silencer, thus rarely producing a sound of blowing up. As the mixture of the exhaust gas and the condensed water is forced into the expansion chamber at a high speed, it strikes against the inner wall of the chamber for promoting the separation from each other. The condensed water separated in the expansion chamber is then forced down into the fall-down passage by the pressure of the exhaust gas and then flows smoothly along the passage with the help of the gravity and the pressure of the exhaust gas. In the separation chamber or the lower portion of the exhaust gas discharge passage, the condensed water is discharged to the drain passage by the back pressure as not allowed to stagnate.
According to the second to fourth features of the present invention, the exhaust gas and the condensed water can be conveyed more smoothly. According to the fifth and sixth features, as the passage for conveying the mixture of the exhaust gas and the condensed water, and the exhaust gas discharge passage are formed integral with each other, their fabrication as well as their installation to the waste heat recovering apparatus can be simplified.
According to the seventh feature, the exhaust gas is inhibited from flowing into the drain passage by the condensed water trapped in the waster water trap and readily discharged upwardly through the separation chamber.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3092958 (1963-06-01), Duncan
patent: 3986575 (1976-10-01), Eggmann
patent: 5056315 (1991-10-01), Jenkins
Kitani Hiroyuki
Nakagawa Yoshinori
Armstrong Westerman Hattori McLeland & Naughton LLP
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Nguyen Hoang
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