Liquid purification or separation – With movable support – Float
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-10
2001-01-16
Simmons, David A. (Department: 1724)
Liquid purification or separation
With movable support
Float
C210S923000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06174436
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an irrigation type oil skimmer and a method for skimming oil. More specifically, the present invention relates to an irrigation type oil skimmer and a method for skimming oil, in which an oil drawing means and an oil separating/extracting means are installed on a floating/submerging type hull, and a main floater is installed on the top of the hull to provide floatation, thereby forming an all-weather type oil skimmer.
BACKGROUND ART
Recently, accidents of large ships (particularly oil tankers) at sea are becoming more frequent and spillage of oils raises alarming concern for the natural environment. Consequently, the oil spills drift toward the coasts, killing various natural wild life at sea, incurring enormous property loss.
Further, when removing the oil spills, chemicals are frequently used. As a result, the oil spills are only emulsified or are made to sink to the sea bottom, so that only the visible oil spills are removed, and no attempt has been made for the complete removal.
In order to overcome this disadvantage, Korean Utility Model Publication No. 82-1602 was proposed. In this proposal, a spiral rotor which has a spiral form side view and freely rotatable is installed on a frame in the longitudinal direction, and a driving means is installed for driving the spiral rotor, with its opening directed forward. Further, rotary vanes are installed on the frame, with the lower portion of the vane submerged into the sea water. In order to drive the rotary vanes, a driving gear is meshed with an annular rack.
However, in this apparatus, a drum with a plurality of brushes attached thereon is installed at an upstream of the spiral rotor. Further, a scrubbing roller removes the oils adhered to the brushes. However, the drum cannot be made to revolve fast due to the viscosity of the oils. As a result, the oils cannot be removed in a speedy manner. Further, there is no means for handling the water adhered to the oil, thus increasing the recovered amount (mixture of water and oil), making it necessary to have a large storage tank. As a result, the amount of actual recovered in the storage tank is relatively small.
In an attempt to overcome this disadvantage, an oil recovering ship was proposed by the present applicant under Korean Patent Application No. 95-32192. This oil recovering ship comprises: a hull having a plurality of partitioned tanks, each having floating force; an oil introducing means installed on the front part of the hull, for introducing the oil from the sea into the ship; and an oil drawing means installed on the tail part of the hull, for drawing the introduced oil.
This oil recovering ship further comprises: an oil separating/extracting means installed at the rear of the oil drawing means, for separating/extracting/recovering the drawn oil; and an adjusting means for adjusting the height of the oil drawing means and the oil separating/extracting means.
The oil drawing means consists of a water wheel having a plurality of blades, being forcibly rotatable.
However, this oil recovering ship is only capable of simply carrying out the recovering task, and therefore, a towboat is required to pull the ship to the site of an oil spill. Therefore, in an emergency, the oil recovering ship cannot be mobilized in a speedy manner.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is intended to overcome the above described disadvantages of the conventional techniques.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an irrigation type oil skimmer and a method for skimming oils, in which the oil is carried to and accumulated at a central tank to become a thickened layer, and then, the upper layer of oil is separated and recovered.
In achieving the above object, the irrigation type oil skimmer according to the present invention is characterized in that an upper hull raises, separates, and extracts the oil, being supported by a lower hull; the lower hull being capable of floating/submerging, while afloat, the lower hull enables the skimmer for speedy mobilization, and while submerged, the lower hull enables the upper hull to draw, separate and extract the oil.
That is, the irrigation type oil skimmer according to the present invention comprises: a lower hull capable of floating and submerging, and further capable of discharging the sea water through an opening to thicken the oil layer; an oil drawing means having a shape of a water wheel, installed on the deck of the lower hull, for drawing an oil layer from the sea surface toward a central tank when the lower hull is submerged; a main floater for providing a floating force to the deck, and having a guide path partly communicating with the central tank; and an oil separating/extracting means having a shaft at a level higher than that of the water wheel of the oil drawing means, for separating the upper oil layer of the central tank and outputting the oil through the guide path into an oil collecting tank.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the method for skimming oils comprises the steps of: retrieving an oil layer at the sea level together with the sea water toward a central tank having a certain space (first step); sinking and discharging the sea water through the opening at the bottom, and floating the oil by the help of the floating force to thicken oil layer (second step); and outputting only the surface oil to a water wheel to separate and extract the oil from the residual sea water (third step).
REFERENCES:
patent: 3623609 (1971-11-01), Ainlay
patent: 3731813 (1973-05-01), Tipton
patent: 3785496 (1974-01-01), Smith, Jr.
patent: 5030363 (1991-07-01), Pole
patent: 5043064 (1991-08-01), Abell et al.
patent: 821602 (1982-07-01), None
patent: 0161609 (1998-12-01), None
Bibliographical Particulars of KR 82-1602 of Jul. 1982.
Bibliographical Particulars of KR 0,161,609 of Dec. 1998.
Ladas & Parry
Lawrence Frank M.
Simmons David A.
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