DE69002161T2 - DEVICE FOR FILLING A CONTAINER WITH SCHUETTGUT. - Google Patents

Description

Filling containers with solid particles (granular solids) is generally done by transferring the solids using a funnel and/or a hose, either manually or mechanically or by pneumatic transfer.

In general, there is great interest in filling the maximum amount of product in a given volume, in order to minimize storage costs, as well as for other specific reasons, such as, for example, to homogenize this stock or to reduce the volume of air or gas in the container. The object of the present invention is to describe a device that makes it possible to achieve an increase in the amount of solid that can be filled in a given volume.

Usually, storage concerns grains from cereals (silos), foodstuffs intended for consumption or as animal feed, agricultural grains, fertilizer grains, chemical products, plastic granules, pharmaceutical and/or cosmetic products and lumpy solids (grains or dragees or extruded, compressed, agglomerated, crushed, etc. granules). Their other field of application is in chemical tanks or reactors intended to be filled with solids: catalysts, adsorbents, reagents, packing, various filling equipment...

In this case, it is almost always advantageous to fill the maximum amount of solid product into the inside of the reactor in order to increase its activity per unit volume and therefore the effectiveness and operating time (cycle time or lifetime).

A useful method consists in using the device described in French patent no. 2,431,449. Other devices are already described in the prior art, in particular the device described in patent DE-A-2,703,329. Patent DE-A-2,703,329 (see in particular figure 2 of the said patent) describes a device for filling a container with a lumpy product or lumpy solids, comprising:

- a hopper (15) provided with a motor (M) which is firmly connected to the hopper,

- a shaft (10) driven by the motor (M), the axis of which is exactly vertical ,

- a distributor head which is set in rotation by said motor, the distributor head comprising at least 3 plates (6, 7 and 8) which are arranged exactly parallel and coaxially, exactly circular and arranged one below the other, and whose radius decreases progressively from the uppermost plate (8) to the lowermost plate (6), each plate (with the exception of the lowermost plate (6)) having a recess in the form of an annular space into which the lumpy solids fall due to their weight, the annular spaces being concentric. The diameter of each annular space becomes progressively smaller from the annular space associated with the uppermost plate (8) to the annular space above the lowermost plate, part of the solid particles falls from each annular space into the annular space immediately below, another part of the solid particles falls from each annular space onto the plate (6-7) above which it opens, the solid particles falling onto this plate (6-8) are subjected to a rotational movement due to the rotation of the plate onto which they have fallen; due to the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the plates (6-8), the solid particles are ejected into the container to be filled. The device according to the present invention, however, has other advantages and in particular certain advantages which will be understood from the following description.

Figure 1 illustrates the invention. The device consists of a fixed feed hopper (1) which preferably has a motor (2) at its centre, for example a pneumatic motor, possibly powered by a gas (for example air). This motor is integral with the hopper. The motor (2) drives a shaft (3) which rotates a distributor head to which this shaft is attached. This distributor head comprises at least two plates and preferably at least three or four plates. Figure 1 shows four plates (4), (5), (6) and (7) which are generally integrally connected to one another, for example by means of a support, for example the rod (19) in Figure 1.

The powdered solids fall by their weight from top to bottom through a series of concentric tubes (at least two tubes and preferably three or four) whose diameter tapers from top to bottom. Thus, the solid falls first into the tube (9), then into the concentric, coaxial tubes (10), (11) and (12) of increasingly smaller diameter. These tubes can be removable and movable if necessary and are characteristic of the present invention.

At each change of tube, at least part of the granular solid falls on one of the plates (7), (6), (5) and (4). The plate (7) rotates around the tube (10) and is fed by the discharge pipe (9) which is preferably fixed and is itself connected to the bearing (8). The other solid discharge pipes (10), (11) and (12) are fixed or preferably set in a slight rotational movement and have a progressively smaller radius, forming concentric annular spaces which allow the grains or granular solids to feed the plates (6), (5) and (4) respectively. The plates (6) and (5) rotate around the tubes (10), (11) and (12) respectively. The plate (4) rotates around the shaft (3). Under the influence of centrifugal force, the solid particles are thrown into the space to be filled. The plates (7), (6), (5) and (4) can be provided with at least one deflector (see Figure 2). If several deflectors are used, they can be identical or different, flexible or rigid (such as (14), (15), (16) in Figure 2, whose purpose is to promote the distribution and throwing away of the grains). Figure 2 represents a plate, in this case plate 7 in perspective. Its deflectors have different and appropriate shapes, adapted to the shape of the powdery particles. The radius of the plates can be adjustable, i.e. it can be increased or decreased to set or increase the size of the cone of solid material thrown onto the bottom of the tank (for example, cones E1, E2, E3 and E4 in Figure 4). This also provides plates that are easy to adapt and modify for preliminary filling tests. The plates can have a continuous or interrupted surface. Figure 3 shows a plate in the following four cases: deflector (18) of Figure 2, deflector (16) of Figure 2, plate with straight or curved grooves, plate with a wavy surface (for better interaction with the solid material).

The bottom plate (4) in Figures 1 and 4 can be equipped with a self-regulating flow rate system (with an automatic opening) that adapts to the rotation speed or to the filling level (feeder (13) in Figure 1). The other plates can be equipped according to the same principle.

In short, the invention relates to a device for filling a container with a lumpy product or lumpy solid, comprising (see Figure 1):

- a hopper (1) provided with a motor (2) which is firmly connected to the hopper,

- a precisely vertical shaft (3) driven by the motor (2),

- a distributor head which is set in rotation by said motor, the distributor head comprising at least two plates, preferably three or four (such as (7), (6), (5) and (4)) which are arranged exactly parallel and coaxially and are exactly circular, being arranged one below the other and their radius decreasing from the uppermost plate to the lowermost plate,

- a series of at least three tubes, preferably at least four, such as for example (9), (10), (11) and (12), which have the exact shape of concentric cylinders, stacked and coaxial and possibly dismountable and movable, in which the lumpy solid falls under its weight, the lower end of each cylinder being located above a plate and the upper end of each cylinder except the uppermost one being exactly level with the lower end of the cylinder above it, and the diameter of each tube being smaller than the diameter of the tube above it and larger than the diameter of the tube over which it is located, and so each plate is connected to a tube around which it rotates; the lowest plate rotates around the shaft (3); a portion of the lumpy solid falls from each tube into the tube directly below, another portion of the solid falls from each tube onto the plate above which it opens, the lumpy solid falling onto this plate is subjected to a rotational movement due to the rotation of the plate onto which it has fallen; the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the plates enables the solid to be ejected at different distances from the axis of the shaft, which are exactly proportional to the radius of the plate from which the solid has been ejected into the container to be filled.

It should be noted that in Figure 2, for the plate (7), the rod (19) is also shown, which is firmly connected to the plate (7) and which in particular has a spacer (105), a threaded rod (106) and the support (107) for placing the device on the ground.

As a characteristic feature, the rotation speed can vary between 15 and 780 revolutions per minute.

Figure 4 also illustrates the invention. It shows a container (100) which is to be filled with powdered solids using the device according to the invention. The line (101) allows the granulated solids to be filled into the device according to the invention. The filling opening (103) (or the flange of the reactor) allows the inventive Device to be fixed in the upper part of the container (100). In general, a grate (104) can facilitate the falling of the solid material towards the device according to the invention. This figure 4 clearly shows that each plate (or level) deposits its own cone of material at the bottom of the container, which it gradually fills in a homogeneous form.

The advantages of such a system are basically the following:

- Compactness,

- Simplicity,

- intrinsic safety (stopping the pneumatic fluids stops the rotation of the plates and thus prevents them from falling),

Ventilation of the environment through the shape of the baffles and elimination of the fine material,

- Homogeneity of filling and large space gain,

- wide range of possible throughput for a same device thanks to the flexibility of ∅ hopper and ∅ plate,

- convenient control of rotation speed,

- Control of throughput independent of rotation speed,

- continuous variation of throughput.

The design of the system also allows loading with lumpy solids of high density (such as heavy catalysts with a density between 2 and 4). In addition, loading with dusty catalyst can be carried out without the presence of people inside the reactor.

In this way, a gain in filling of the order of 10 to 35% is achieved compared to state-of-the-art systems.

The invention is particularly well suited to equipping reactors for reforming and producing aromatic hydrocarbons from different feedstocks, for example C₂-C₃, C₂-C₅, C₂-C₇, C₅-C₇, C₂-C₅, etc... with catalysts, with reforming catalysts or with catalysts based on zeolites of the MFI type, which may or may not contain various promoters, such as gallium.

In the present invention it has also been discovered that the distribution of the catalyst in the container is more uniform when using at least three plates of elliptical shape in the device of the main claim.

Figure 5 shows the device in which the embodiment of the device corresponds to a spiral shape.

Each plate 4, 5, 6 and 7 (equipped with a motor (2)) has the shape of a spiral. The spiral can be continuous. The continuity is from one plate to another, which therefore requires, above, for an intermediate plate, that the smallest radius of the spiral can correspond to the largest radius of the spiral below. The largest radius corresponds to the smallest radius of the spiral of the plate above. The plates can be provided with slats (tubes or, in particular, profiled parts), for example with flat radial slats or with curved radial slats.

Figure 5 shows an exploded view of the plates. Figure 6 shows a top view of the plates, which also shows the appearance of a continuous single spiral.

Examples

The following table gives, for various powdered solids, the filling density obtained when the lumpy solids are thrown loosely into a container and the filling density obtained when they are filled into the container in the manner according to the invention. Product Form Size mm Density when filled loose in kg/litre Density when filled according to the invention in kg/litre Volume gain Reforming catalyst Cloverleaf catalyst Hydrogenation catalyst PVC granulate Fertilizer Rice Wheat Oats Sunflower seeds Heavy catalysts extruded spheres granulated long grains short grains convex grains flat-pointed convex cut 15 to 25 % depending on shape

This results in a reduction of the proportion of intergranular volume by 20 to 50%, thus increasing the storage capacity and reducing the volume of gas contained in the environment, which in turn reduces the gas consumption required to inerte the environment.

Claims (9)

1) Device for filling a container with a lumpy product or lumpy solids, comprising: - a hopper (1) provided with a motor (2) which is firmly connected to the hopper, - a precisely vertical shaft (3) driven by the motor (2), - a distributor head which is set in rotation by said motor, the distributor head comprising at least three plates (such as (7), (6), (5) and (4)) which are arranged exactly parallel and coaxially and have exactly one of the following shapes, namely: circular, elliptical, spiral, the plates are arranged one below the other and their radius decreases progressively from the top plate to the bottom plate, - a series of at least three tubes (such as (9), (10), (11) and (12)) exactly in the shape of concentric cylinders, stacked and coaxial, slidable, in which the lumpy solids fall down by their weight, the lower end of each cylinder being above a plate and the upper end of each cylinder except the uppermost one being exactly level with the lower end of the cylinder above it, and the diameter of each tube, except the uppermost tube, being smaller than the diameter of the tube above it, except the lowermost tube, being larger than the diameter of the tube above which it is located, and so each plate, except the lowermost plate, is connected to a tube around which it rotates; the radius of the tube being less than the smallest distance between the outer edge of the plate and the axis about which said plate rotates, the lowest plate rotating about the shaft (3); part of the lumpy solids falls from each tube, except the lowest tube, into the tube immediately below, another part of the solids falls from each tube onto the plate above which it opens, the lumpy solids falling onto this plate are subjected to a rotational movement due to the rotation of the plate onto which they have fallen; the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the plates enables the solids to be ejected at different distances from the axis of the shaft, which are exactly proportional to the radius of the plate from which the solids have been ejected into the container to be filled. 2) Device according to claim 1), in which the concentric tubes cannot perform any relative rotational movement about the vertical axis with respect to the distributor head. 3) Device according to claim 1), in which the concentric tubes can perform a relative rotational movement about the same vertical axis with respect to the distributor head. 4) Device according to one of claims 1 and 3, in which at least one plate is provided with at least one deflection device. 5) Device according to claim 4, in which the size of the radius of at least one plate can be varied. 6) Device according to one of claims 1 to 5, in which the lowermost plate is equipped with a flow self-regulating system which adapts to the rotation speed or to the filling level. 7) Device according to one of claims 1 to 6, in which each of the plates is equipped with the same self-regulating system. 8) Device according to claim 7, wherein said self-regulating system consists of feeders. 9) Device according to one of claims 1 to 8, which in particular comprises at least three plates (such as (7), (6), (5) and (4) (see figure 5)) which are exactly parallel and coaxial and exactly elliptical and are arranged one below the other and the radius of which decreases progressively from the uppermost to the lowermost plate.