Specialized metallurgical processes – compositions for use therei – Processes – Producing or treating free metal
Patent
1996-02-26
1998-02-03
Andrews, Melvyn
Specialized metallurgical processes, compositions for use therei
Processes
Producing or treating free metal
75573, 75581, C21B 500, C21B 1102, C21B 1106
Patent
active
057139830
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method for the disposal and utilization, i.e., re-use, of gas cylinders containing fillers.
Gas cylinders containing fillers are used for storing unstable fuel gases such as acetylene, propylene and the like. A filler can consist of a dumped, pebble-like, possibly baked material or of a monolithic block of a kind of building material, where these fillers each include a network of cavities containing a solvent such as acetone for the actual absorption and storage of gas. In practical usage, gas cylinders are not only sorted out because of their old age, but again and again there are detected damages in the fillers of such gas cylinders, for instance unfavorably large gaps or cracks in the same, so that these cylinders must be prematurely withdrawn from service. On the whole, a large number of cylinders must therefore constantly be put to an appropriate disposal. Because of impurities in the fillers (e.g. caused by the solvent), but above all due to the fact that for strength reasons the monolithic fillers contain chemically extremely stable fibers such as asbestos fibers or special glass fibers, these gas cylinders constitute goods requiring a specific disposal. Up to now, gas cylinders that had been sorted out were either subject to a final storage as a whole, or in a complex process--as the steel jacket and filler can often not easily be separated--the cylinders were split up into their components. The steel jacket was then further processed, and merely the filler was disposed of in an appropriate manner.
These disposal methods are disadvantageous on the one hand for reasons of an economic handling of raw materials and on the other hand for reasons of expenditure, so that the resulting object underlying the invention consisted in improving this situation in the disposal of corresponding gas cylinders.
In accordance with the invention, this object is achieved in that the gas cylinders together with the filler contained therein are supplied as charge in the opened and relieved condition to an iron smelting furnace, in particular a cupola furnace, blast furnace or rotary drum type furnace. The gas cylinders are supplied as a whole, i.e., in one piece, or merely comminuted or broken-up into larger pieces.
The invention is based on the idea that in particular the combination of materials-existing in the form of gas cylinders containing fillers might well be suited for use in slag-forming iron melting furnaces. This assumption is on the one hand justified in that the gas cylinders contain iron material (namely the steel jacket) that can probably easily be converted into the corresponding product iron (cast iron, raw iron, certain steels), and on the other hand that the fillers contained therein in all probability represent a suitable starting material for the formation of slag during the corresponding melting processes. As was discovered by the applicants, these assumptions have proved to be true, where in addition the fibrous materials possibly contained in the fillers, in particular the asbestos fibers, are advantageously converted into slag and bound therein (the fibers are probably molten and solidify in conjunction with other slag components). Thus, an extremely advantageous disposal and also utilization of the gas cylinders and comparable gas accumulators is ensured.
A particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention is obtained in conjunction with cupola furnaces, and here the gas cylinders are in any case first comminuted or broken-apart into larger pieces. These pieces are then provided as charge and are introduced as such in the cupola furnace, where they extremely advantageously act as both iron-forming and slag-forming material.
In the larger-dimension blast furnaces and rotary drum type furnaces (as to the latter see for instance German Patent document DE-OS 41 42 401), however, whole uncomminuted gas cylinders can also be introduced. The whole uncomminuted gas cylinders must, however, be in the opened, degasified and possibly
REFERENCES:
patent: 5066326 (1991-11-01), Agarwal et al.
patent: 5248100 (1993-09-01), Arakawa
Butschek Uwe
Sadjina Heinz
Andrews Melvyn
Linde Aktiengesellschaft
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