Fluent material handling – with receiver or receiver coacting mea – With soil removing – coating – lubricating – sterilizing and/or... – Drip collection
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-04
2004-06-01
Mar, Michael (Department: 3751)
Fluent material handling, with receiver or receiver coacting mea
With soil removing, coating, lubricating, sterilizing and/or...
Drip collection
C141S31100A, C141S088000, C137S347000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06742550
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of environmental protection mechanisms. More specifically the present invention relates to a secondary containment cap apparatus for incorporating into the turret structure of a hazardous fluid primary container to provide secondary containment against fluid leakage into the natural environment from liquid and vapor passing container valves. Such primary containers may be free-standing or vehicle-mounted. The hazardous fluid within the primary container is a gas or a liquid or a combination of the two, which is poisonous, caustic or otherwise health threatening, such as chlorine and sulphur dioxide liquified gas.
The turret of each type of primary container includes a turret opening in the primary container wall with a tubular turret opening perimeter wall extending outwardly from the container wall and having a perimeter wall rim, and the secondary containment cap apparatus fits and is sealingly secured to the turret opening perimeter wall with high tension bolts mounting through existing bolt holes, such as in a turret mounting flange protruding laterally from the perimeter wall rim, and retains any gas leaking from the liquid and vapor valves into the interior of the cap apparatus to prevent escape into the environment. The cap apparatus preferably includes a valve mounting plate mounted sealingly across the perimeter wall rim, the valves extending through and being sealingly secured within the valve mounting plate, and a containment cap which, in its essential form, includes a substantially cup- or bubble-shaped cap wall defining a concave cap interior and a cap abutment port surrounded by a cap port rim fitting sealingly against the valve mounting plate to enclose the valves, vapor release means for controlled release of gas contained within the cap wall into secure containers or scrubber means, and attachment means for securing the valve mounting plate to the primary container with the valve mounting plate sealingly fitted against the turret opening perimeter wall rim. The cap wall preferably is a wide cylindrical tube with an open cap side wall remote end and a cap wall mounted end welded onto the valve mounting plate, and a spring-loaded hinged hatch is sealingly secured onto the open cap side wall remote end.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years there have been numerous instances of chlorine gas released from bulk storage tanks, railroad tanker cars, tanker trucks and barges. Many communities have adopted new regulations requiring containment of toxic gas releases, such as Article 80 of the Uniform Fire Code and the Toxic Gas Ordinance. A problem with existing chlorine tanks and valves has been that they have no secondary containment, so that a release of chlorine from the tank or tank valving causes an instant and life threatening discharge of chlorine gas. Valves within valve mounting turrets of tank railroad cars, trucks and barges, and bulk storage tanks are particularly prone to hazardous leakage. Yet valve covers provided on existing, prior art valve mounting turrets are not pressure covers and are not configured, are not of sufficient gauge and are not otherwise designed to provide secondary containment around the valves in the event of a hazardous gas leak. Furthermore, these prior covers do not include release valves for metered release of any gas which might enter the cover and do not provide fail-safe shut down of release in the event of unauthorized movement, earthquakes or detection of other gas leakage.
There have in recent years been devices intended for containing and scrubbing chlorine gas leaking from cylinders, and vehicles. These devices traditionally have included a hood or building structure placed around the leaking cylinder or vehicle and a scrubber apparatus for gradually removing the chlorine gas from the air within the hood or building. A problem with these devices has been that the containment buildings and hoods are not capable of withstanding the pressure and corrosive nature of suddenly released quantities of chlorine gas. Being largely intended for ton and 150 pound chlorine gas cylinders, such technology is wholly ineffective and unsuited for the large, perhaps 90 ton tanks found on chlorine transport vehicles and the sometimes massive stationary bulk storage tanks.
A solution to the problem of safely draining leaking chlorine cylinders has been found and is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,607,384 and 5,819,787, issued on Mar. 4, 1997 and Dec. 13, 1998, respectively, to the present applicant. These patents disclose sealing leaking chlorine cylinders in a pressure-withstanding secondary containment vessel, resembling on some ways an iron lung. Gas is slowly released through a valve in the secondary containment vessel to a scrubber apparatus of conventional design at a suitable metered rate. In the event of a catastrophic rupture and sudden release of gas from the cylinder, the secondary containment vessel entirely and safely contains the released gas, which once again is discharged at a suitable rate to a scrubber apparatus or put into process. A limitation to this approach is that it is impractical to build secondary containment vessels of the type disclosed in these patents which are large enough to receive bulk storage tanks and chlorine transport vehicles, and it is impractical to attempt to move such a leaking storage tank or tanker vehicle to the site of such a massive vessel or to move the massive vessel to and around the tanker vehicle. Additionally, there are so many sizes and shapes of tanks and transport vehicles that no single size and shape of receiving vessel could be suitable for all of them. Further a hood or alternative method may not fully comply with fire codes.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a secondary containment cap apparatus for enclosing release ports and liquid and vapor passing valves mounted in the release ports within a turret of a primary container such as a hazardous fluid containment bulk storage or vehicle tank, the containment cap apparatus being manufactured separately from the primary container, so that any fluid subsequently leaking from the valves or release ports of the primary container is contained within the containment cap apparatus and can be drained off through a port and valve in the cap apparatus into cylinders or other receiving means in the conventional way for ordinary usage, and in which the secondary containment cap apparatus is capable of withstanding the maximum hazardous fluid pressure which can be exerted by the quantity of retained hazardous fluid so that the natural environment is safely shielded from the hazardous fluid. As a result, there is no need to go to the considerable expense of scrubbing the leaking fluid and no need to expose anyone to the dangers involved in such a clean-up operation.
It is more specifically an object of the present invention to provide such a cap apparatus which encloses the gas release ports and valves of the primary container in a limited secondary containment structure which is less expensive than providing secondary containment of the entire primary container.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a cap apparatus which can be permanently or removably secured with high tension bolts fitted into existing bolt passing holes or notches manufactured as an original structure of the primary container, and which provides safe containment during primary container transport and operation at the job site.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide such a cap apparatus in which the primary container gas release port is fitted with a remote operating container valve which is operable from outside the containment cap apparatus so that the valve can be operated without entering the containment cap apparatus and no personnel are therefore exposed to leaking hazardous fluid.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a cap apparatus which is equipped with a
Huynh Khoa
Kubler Frank L.
Mar Michael
LandOfFree
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