AU2243300A - Chimney smoke filtration plant - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990' COMPLETE SPECIFICATI ON.

STANDARD PATENT CHIMNEY SMOKE FILTRATION PLANT THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS A FULL DESCRIPTION OF THIS INVENTION, INCLUDING THE BEST METHOD OF PERFORMING IT KNOWN TO ME: 1 CHIMNEY SMOKE FILTRATION PLANT This invention relates to the filtration of chimney smoke.

Most of the smoke particles being expelled when burning fuel are toxic.

The toxic substance being exhausted pollute the air and are most likely harmful to our health.

To minimize this hazard smoke filtration plant is connected to the chimney drawing the fumes into the filtration plant.

The size of the smoke filtration plant would vary depending on the size of the chimney or number of chimneys. One unit can be 10 used to accomodate more than one chimney restricted only by their proximity.

o The smoke filtration plant utilises water to cool down the fumes and convert the smoke particles into solids.

To prevent the recirculating water from becoming hot and polluted, water is pumped through the cooling and filtering section of the plant and detergent would be added to the water to maintain the system clean.

Fig. I shows the lay-out of the smoke filtration plant with o.

connections to the furnace.

Fig. 2 shows the lay-out of the water cooling section and interconnections to the filtration plant.

Fig. 3 and 4 shows how the trays are used to collect solids.

The smoke filtration plant works by drawing smoke fumes into the chimney tube (refer fig. 1) by suction fan There is a large vent tube containing a butterfly valve The suction sensor unit is there to control the opening and closing of the butterfly valve to prevent excessive suction at the chimney tube 2 The vent tube is connected to the top of the water cooling section of the plant (refer fig. 2) and also could be used to draw in fumes from other processes in the vicinity of the filtration plant.

The chimney tube should be made of steel with other tubes made from stainless-steel or where not exposed to excessive heat, plastic or fibreglass could be used.

The suction fan driven by the electric motor has to be capable of maintaining adequate pressure into the cooling 10 chamber in order to prevent excessive back pressure.

.o At the top edge of the cooling chamber a large quantity of water is injected in downwards spray pattern from tube Some of e• the water will vapourise as it come in contact with hot fumes therefore the cooling chamber has to be large enough to 15 acomodate this expansion.

The hollow plates are located in the cooling chamber to slow down the progress of fumes and water in order to achieve complete cooling. There are four plates shown on the diagram (refer figures 1 and 2) but more plates could be added if 20 required. The cooling chamber and the hollow plates should be made from stainless-steel.

The main water tank (10) is filled with water and the bottom is sloped to settle the heavy particles at the deep end of the tank.

The valve (11) is used to drain out the sludge periodically.

Lighter particles will float on the surface of the water and will be carried with the overflow onto the conveyor belt (12) or onto the trays (32) (refer figures 3 and The conveyor belt and trays are made from fine mesh to allow water to drain while containing the solid particles.

3 A larger smoke filtration plant would be equipped with a conveyor belt while the smaller plants would use trays (52) (refer figures 3 and Where the tray system is in use the main tank would have two overflow slots and gates (35) (refer fig. 4) to, allow one tray to be filled while emptying the second.

The water drains off the conveyor belt or trays and would be collected by the overflow tank (13).

The tanks are filled from the mains water supply via a float valve Low water level in the overflow tank would cause the 10 valve (14) to open allowing water to flow into the main tank, as the main tank overflows the overflow tank would fill up and would shut off the valve.

The main case (15) on the top of the tank (10) would house the cooling chamber and the filter core (16).

The water tanks and cases could be made from stainless-steel, .e fibreglass or plastics.

The filter core (16) is similar to the one used in evaporative air conditioning units, water is introduced at the top and keeps the core saturated. The filter core is there to traps particles 20 that were not captured by the cooling chamber, multiple filter cores could be used if required.

The pressure that passes the filter cores will be partially exhausted at the vent pipe (17) and partially drawn into the base of the furnace by suction fan The suction fan (18) also draws air from the overflow chamber (19).

In the overflow chamber (19) there is a pressure sensor unit which controls the opening and closing of butterfly valve (21) maintaining low pressure in chamber this system prevents pressure from escaping at the end of conveyor belt or trays.

The pump (22) (refer fig. 2) will pump water from the overflow tank (13) through filter (23) to the top of the water cooling core The suction fan (25) driven by the electric motor (26) will draw air through the core (24) thus cooling the water.

The pump (27) will pump water from tank (28) to the smoke filtration cooling chamber spray tube and to the top of the filter core (16).

The water level in the tank (28) is kept slightly higher than in the main tank When the tank (28) is full, water will overflow into the main tank through vent pipe (17).

S. The tank (28) is also filled from the mains water supply via float valve (29).

.i The water cooling section case (30) has four louvre vents (31) which are positioned on each side section of the case, but only one is shown on the drawing.

Numbers 34, 35 and 36 are the water levels in the tanks, (refer figures 1, 2 and 3.) e

Claims (3)

1. The chimney smoke filtration plant comprising of an assembly of different components which when connected to the chimney of a. furness or incinerator, would draw fumes into the plant. The fumes are cooled down and filtered thus preventing pollution of the enviroment.

2. The chimney smoke filtration plant of claim 1 comprises of a suction fan driven by an electric motor. This fan draws fumes through the chimney tube and air through the vent tube 10 compressing the mixture into the cooling chamber.

35. The chimney smoke filtration plant of claims 1 to 2 has a cooling chamber where spray of water is used to cool down the fumes. There are a number of hollow plates in the cooling chamber to slow down the progress of fumes and water to achieve complete cooling. 4. The chimney smoke filtration plant of claims 1 to 3 where the pressure coming out from the cooling chamber will go through the water saturated filter cores to achieve complete ifiltration. 5. The chimney smoke filtration plant of claims 1 to 4 where the vent tube can be connected to additional processes to draw in harmful vapours hereby providing additional filtering. 6. The chimney smoke filtration plant as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. THE APPLICANT DATE Emil M. Barkovic 21 3 2000