Gas separation: apparatus – Solid sorbent apparatus – Plural solid sorbent beds
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-13
2003-03-04
Simmons, David A. (Department: 1724)
Gas separation: apparatus
Solid sorbent apparatus
Plural solid sorbent beds
C055S502000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06527837
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotor for a rotary adsorber of the type in which a partitioning plate mounted on the case defines the end surface of the rotatably held rotor into at least an adsorbing zone, a recycling zone, and a cooling zone, and more specifically, to a rotor for rotary adsorbers provided with arc-shaped sectors formed of a gas adsorptive element of honeycomb construction having a number of small through holes in the cylindrical rim partitioned by spokes radially extending therein into arc-shape portions in cross section, and having calking material interposed between the mating surfaces of these sectors and the combination of the spoke and rim.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to a sealing device for sealing between the end surface of a rotor and a partitioning frame of a casing of the rotary adsorber that clarifies gas containing an organic solvent by passing the same between end surfaces of the rotatable rotor including an adsorptive element to allow the adsorptive element to adsorb an organic solvent and blowing a hot air in the opposite direction to separate and blow off the organic solvent adhered on the absorptive element to recover the adsorptive element to the state in which it can be reused.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring now to
FIGS. 11
to
14
, the structure of the rotor for rotary adsorbers of the related art will be illustrated.
FIG. 11
is a perspective view showing a principal portion of the rotary adsorber having a rotor rotatably held therein,
FIG. 12
is a perspective view of the rotor,
FIG. 13
is a cross sectional view of
FIG. 12
taken along the line A—A showing seal-mating surfaces of each arc-shaped sector and the spoke, and
FIG. 14
is a partially exploded perspective view showing the entire construction of the rotor including the outer peripheral rim
507
.
In the rotary adsorber
500
specifically for an organic solvent provided with a conventional adsorptive element
504
, adsorbed organic solvent has been removed by rotating the rotor
501
in the holding case
510
that is divided into an adsorbing zone S, a cooling zone T, and a recycling zone U, thereby temporarily defining an adsorbing zone and a recycling zone on one of the end surface of the rotor, adsorbing the organic solvent contained in gas onto the adsorbing element
504
carried by the rotor
501
when the surface of the rotor passes through the adsorbing zone S, and allowing recycling air heated to the temperature higher than 180° C.-200° C., which is a boiling point of an organic solvent, to pass through the adsorptive element
504
from the end surface opposite from the end surface in the recycling zone U.
Among gases containing an organic solvent, a gas generated in the manufacturing process of semi-conductor components, for example contains organic solvents such as DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide), MEA (monoethanol amine), HMDS (hexamethilenedisilazane), and so on. These organic compounds cannot be removed sufficiently at a recycling temperature of 180 to 200° C. Therefore, such organic compounds are increasingly accumulated on the rotor, which may result in deterioration of performance or burning of the rotor. In order to remove such organic compounds, it is required to send hot air heated to about 200-350° C. to the rotor
501
at the recycling zone U.
The rotor
501
of honeycomb construction integrally formed into a cylindrical shape by combining a plurality of arc-shaped sectors
502
is reinforced by a plurality of metallic spokes
503
extending radially outwardly from the hub
505
. The metallic spoke and the sectors
502
of honeycomb construction are joined or bonded by the use of heat resistant calking material
508
such as silicone. In addition, the metallic outer peripheral rim
507
for protecting the outer periphery of the rotor
501
and the honeycomb construction
504
itself are also bonded via a calking material
508
of silicone.
As described above, the rotor
501
is rotatably mounted to the holding case
510
, and the partitioning plates
511
for defining the adsorbing zone S, the recycle zone U and the cooling zone T are provided with seal (not shown) formed of silicone rubber with PTFE film applied thereon so as to slidably press against the end surface of the rotor
501
to prevent leakage or mixing of gas passing therethrough.
When attempt was made to send a hot air over 200° C. as described above to the rotor of such a structure for recycling, since a calking material of silicone or rubber could not resist such a high temperature, silicone or rubber was deteriorated and thus the joining performance or adhering performance between the spoke and the rotor was lowered, whereby the arc-shaped sectors constituting the rotor might fall off so that the rotor itself could not be used any more.
Therefore, there was a limit on the temperature of the air to be passed through, and thus the accumulated high boiling organic solvent or polymer could not be removed sufficiently. As a consequence, the cleaning performance was lowered, or when using the solvent that can be polymerized within the rotor in which the solvent is accumulated, it could not be recycled and the polymer gave damage to pores of the adsorptive element like zeolite, thereby lowering the cleaning performance as an adsorptive element.
Next, a conventional sealing device for a rotary adsorber is discussed. As discussed above, an organic solvent adsorber rotatably holds a rotor by a motor in a box-shaped casing having partitioning frame for dividing the surface of the rotor into an adsorbing zone, a recycling zone, and a cooling zone. On the other hand, the rotor includes an adsorptive element forming a plurality of fan-shaped sectors defined by a metallic cylindrical rim, which has a honeycomb construction in which a plurality of pores pass through from one end surface to the other end surface, and has the plurality of fan-shaped sectors inserted in fan-shaped spaces defined by radially extending metallic spokes.
In the actual use, when a gas containing an organic solvent is blown onto the portion of one of the end surfaces of the rotor positioned at the adsorbing zone toward the other end surface thereof, an organic solvent contained in gas is adsorbed and clarified gas is discharged from the other end surface, and the rotor is rotated by a prescribed angle to move from the adsorbing zone to the recycling zone, and then the organic solvent adsorbed thereon is removed by separating and blowing off bypassing a recycling air heated to the temperature higher than 180° C. to 200° C. that exceeds the boiling point of the adsorbed organic solvent from the other side to the one side to recycle the adsorptive element.
In addition, the partitioning frame defining these adsorbing zone and the recycling zone on the end surface of the rotor also includes at least three radially extending partitioning plates and an annular plate or an arc shaped plate facing toward the outer peripheral portion of the end surface of the rotor and defines each fan-shaped zone by being combined with the outer end portion of the partitioning plates.
These partitioning plates are further provided with sealing strips or resilient sealing blocks facing the end surface of the rotor so as to be slidable toward the end surface for preventing mutual interference of air in each fan-shaped zone. Such kind of seal has a disadvantage in that it cannot establish complete sealing performance in the cases where flatness of the end surface of the rotor is not satisfactory as the first problem, and where the end surface of the rotor during rotation does not form a plane exactly perpendicular with respect to the axis of rotation as the second problem.
Especially in the rotary gas adsorber of the type described above, there is a problem in that the rotor develops deflection during rotation so that the end surface of the rotor does not form a perpendicular plane at an exact right angle with respect to the axis of rotation. In addition, these sealing strips
Asahina Shusaku
Kurosawa Masaji
Tanaka Yasuhiro
Yamashita Katsuhiro
Lawrence Frank M.
Nichias Corporation
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Simmons David A.
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