Liquid purification or separation – With movable support – Float
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-13
2002-10-29
Upton, Christopher (Department: 1724)
Liquid purification or separation
With movable support
Float
C210S923000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06471862
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to apparatuses for removing spilled oil from the surfaces of water bodies, and more particularly to apparatuses and methods for removing oil using drum skimmers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
When oil is spilled into a water body, such as from a damaged oil tanker, the spilled oil forms a thin film on the surface of the water body. This film is sometimes referred to as an oil slick or sheen. Oil films are detrimental to the marine environment, and will damage shorelines if allowed to drift ashore. The following is a summary of the many different apparatuses and methods have been developed for collecting spilled oil from the surface of water bodies.
The closest known prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,363 (Pole), which differs significantly from the present invention. Pole describes an oil retrieving vessel having a cylindrically shaped collection surface. Preferably, the cylindrically shaped collecting surface is a drum having closed ends. The drum is preferably watertight and is light weight so that it is buoyant enough to float on the oil alone or on the oil and water. The drum moves up and down with the waves on the water independently of the rest of the vessel. (Col. 3, lines 27-35). Pole mentions that the drum can be set in a fixed vertical position relative to the pontoons, and further mentions that if an open ended drum is used, it can be made of lightweight durable material that will float. (Col. 9, lines 38-42). Pole does not explain how a drum having open ends would be mounted on the vessel. Pole does not teach scrapping of a central baffle or the use of a unitary vessel having an incorporated oil collection tank fixed therein. Nor does Pole suggest that the interior of a hollow cylinder could be scraped. Pole does not disclose a unitary vessel. Rather, Pole discloses a pair of pontoons joined together by cross-members. (Col. 4, lines 5-11). The oil collection tank is separate from the pontoon system, and is changed as needed. (Co. 4, lines 16-30, 58-63). Oil scraped from the outer surface of the drum is diverted directly into a forward end of the separate oil collection tank. (FIG. 3)
The only known prior art that teaches scraping from inner and outer surfaces of a cylinder is U.S. Pat. No. 2,242,861 (Keene). However, Keene relates to an entirely different field of art, namely the filtering of solid matter from a liquid. (Col. 1, lines 1-5). The device of Keene is used in a tank of liquid. Nothing in Keene suggests that the device could be adapted for use on a hull of a floating vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,618,420 (Stella) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,522,990 (Davidian) disclose scraper collection of oil from opposite sides of rotating members, e.g. conveyor belts and rotating disks. U.S. Pat. No. 4,100,072 (Uchida) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,041 (De Voss) disclose the use of conveyor drums and conveyor belts for lifting oil from the surface of the body of water.
The use of rotating drums as a means of collecting oil from a surface of a water body is well known. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,536 (McCall) (FIG. 4 near element 34), U.S. Pat. No. 3,576,257 (Yates) (element 50), U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,431 (Newsom) (FIG. 11 element 40 or element that is perpendicular to element 42 in FIG. 2).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,013,561 (Murphy), U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,360 (Fast), and U.S. Pat. No. 3,838,775 (Larsson) show roughening the texture of an oil collection drum in order to improve adherence of oil.
An example of an early patent that relates to a method for the separation of oil and water from an emulsion is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,685,653. The '653 patent relates to the facilitating and expediting of separation of oil/water emulsions by passing the emulsion as a surface film on a rotating pick up roller into a bight formed by a closely spaced parallel roller arrangement to coalesce the oil particles, break up the emulsion and liberate free oil.
A system for removing floating oil from water is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,807 issued to Loyd Jones. The invention relates to water pollution control and especially concerns a system for removing dispersed oil from a floating inland stream. A bed of granular sulfur is provided within a unique container buoyantly supported by the stream. In most oily streams the oil, due to gravity, accumulates on the surface in a very thin film, sometimes referred to as an oil slick or sheen. This top portion of the stream is directed through the bed of granular sulfur where the oil is coalesced and removed, leaving clean water flowing from the container.
The Ayers, et al, Pat. No. 3,959,136 relates to a method and apparatus for removing oil from a surface of a body of water with a skimmer, the apparatus including a skimmer with baffled entry ports arranged on a plane inclined to the direction of current flow or about the periphery of a drum so that oil enters through the baffles into a chamber which is beneath an inverted funnel or within the axle of the drum; the method involving providing a skimmer having submerged baffle entry ports inclined to the direction of a current flow, allowing the oil to enter the skimmer, and returning the skimmer to a horizontal position for removal of the oil therefrom through an inverted funnel suspended over the confined oil.
A method and apparatus for pollutant spill control is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,420. The apparatus includes an aquatic vessel comprising a buoyant storage tank, a rotatable cylinder mounted on the tank normal to the relative flow of the aquatic body, a plurality of magnetic bands mounted circularly about the drum and parallel relation.
The Morris Pat. No. 4,360,429 discloses an apparatus for recovering fluids floating on a body of water. The apparatus comprises a support structure and two rows of discs mounted on the support structure so that the discs are in contact with the fluid. The discs of each row are spaced-apart coaxially along a shaft. There is a motor coupled to the shafts for rotating the shafts and the discs. Wipers contact the sides of the discs for wiping the fluid from the discs as the discs rotate and collect the fluid. The shafts are parallel and spaced-apart a distance such that the discs of the two rows interdigitate.
The Wylie Pat. No. 4,510,054 relates to an oil spill recovery method and apparatus. The method of recovery involves the pumping of an oil/water mixture from a concentration area to a submerged portion of a vertically oriented cylinder, open at both ends, and the separation of the oil from the water in the cylinder. Oil floats to and accumulates on the surface of the water in the cylinder and uncontaminated water flows out through the lower open end of the cylinder. The apparatus includes a collection unit which defines the concentration area within three walls thereof, a recovery unit which follows the collection unit and mounts the cylinder therein, and a submerged pumping unit which carries an oil/water mixture from the concentration area in the collection unit to the cylinder in the recovery unit. There is very little emulsification of the oil in the cylinder and hence there is very efficient separation of the oil from the water.
An apparatus for recovery of oils or other similar pollutants floating on bodies of water is disclosed in the Ayroldi Pat. No. 4,514,299. The recovery unit includes two large rotating horizontal axis drums surrounded on the lateral and the rear sides of an apron to contain the floating oils, and is towed by a support vessel to float independently.
An oil recovery vessel is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,156. The vessel admits oily water through bow openings to sluiceway and an adjustable height weir for skimming oil, debris and other pollutants from the sea water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,287 discloses an oil spill recovery method and apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,618 discloses a single drum skimmer and weir skimmer for recovering all types of oil from the surface of a body of water. An aluminum high density polyethylene lined drum, floated by adjustable pontoons is rotated clockwise by a hydraulic driv
Adams and Reese LLP
Upton Christopher
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