GB1100539A - Improvements in centrifugating apparatus for separating the components of a gaseous mixture from each other - Google Patents

Abstract

1,100,539. Centrifugal separators. SOCIETE D'EXPLOITATION DES MATERIELS HISPANO-SUIZA. 24 June, 1966 [5 July, 1965], No. 28504/66. Heading B2P. A centrifuge for separating a mixture of gases. e.g. isotopes, into components comprises a cell 1, Fig. 1, rotatable about its axis XX and into which the mixture is introduced into an intermediate region of the cell at a distance both from the axis XX and from the periphery of the cell, the heavy gaseous component being collected from a peripheral zone P and the light gaseous component from an axial zone A of the cell. As shown, the raw gas is fed through a conduit 2, passes through the annular space between a deflector disc 3 and one end 1a of the cell and enters an intermediate zone I inside the cell. The light gas is discharged through a conduit 6 and the heavy gas passes from the zone P via the annular passage 4 between a plate 5 and the other end 1b of the cell and is discharged via an annular conduit 4a. To facilitate the setting in rotation of the raw gas the interior of the cell is filled with porous material 7, in the form of a metallic sponge, metallic straw or partitioned or alveolate material, through which the gas circulates radially. Separation is preferably effected in a battery of co-axial cells arranged in series and rotating in the same direction, the arrangement preferably being such that a peripheral mixture gradually enriched in heavy gas and an axial mixture gradually enriched in light gas circulate through the cells in counter-current fashion. In one series arrangement, Fig. 1a, each of the end plates 1a, 1b of an intermediate cell 1 is formed with an annular passage through which extends an annular member having inner and outer radial flanges 3a, 5a so that passages are provided for the flow of the heavy and light gas mixtures as indicated 'by the arrows. Figs. 2 to 5 (not shown) illustrate different arrangements of a number of cells connected in series depending whether the raw gas is cheap or expensive and whether a mixture enriched in light or heavy gas is required as end product. In order to facilitate the flow of the heavy and light gas mixtures through the the battery of cells, a shaft 25, Fig. 6, extending axially through the cells carries discs 26, each housed in a cell and located close to one of the end walls 27 of the cell. Turbine blades 28 are carried at the periphery of the disc and serve to recuperate a portion of kinetic and pressure energy of the gaseous stream enriched in heavy gas to drive the disc, the heavy gas stream passing through a diffuser 28a into the intermediate zone of the adjacent cell. Suction blades 29 in an intermediate zone of the disc collect the stream of gaseous mixture enriched in light gas passing from the axial zone of the adjacent cell through a convergent collector 30 and discharge it into an intermediate zone of the cell under consideration. The shaft 25 may further be driven by a motor externally of the apparatus.