GB166576A - New or improved process for the utilization of peat as fuel and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

166,576. Klasson, R., and Kirpotschnikoff, V. Oct. 19, 1918. No Patent granted (Sealing fee not paid). Multi-stage centrifugal fans and pumps.-In a process of making peat briquettes, the peat is washed away from the walls of the peat bog or pit and collected in a deep part of such bog or pit whence it is pumped by a turbine pump constructed to act also as a crushing-machine, and delivered by piping to a drying-field whereon the peat is spread out in a thin layer to be cut into blocks by known means. The pump with its .accessories is suspended from a crane running upon rails and is connected by flexible connections to the piping so that the crane can travel along the rails and the pump can be raised or lowered without disturbing the piping; or the pump with its accessories may be suspended by means of a pulley from a block adapted to travel along a rope stretched between two supports near the sides of the peat dog or pit. A multi-stage turbine pump shown in vertical section in Fig. 5 may be employed. Each stage a consists of a guide portion 3 which is contracted upwardly and carries vanes 5 and a delivery portion 1, Fig. 5, which widens upwardly and encloses a vane-wheel 4 mounted upon a central shaft 11. The lowest stage a<1> of the pump is preferably formed with an enlarged inlet passage obtained by using a cylindrical portion 6 or a conical portion with its wider end downwards. The hub 2 of each vanewheel conforms to the internal form of its corresponding portion 3 or 1 so that the passage for the peat pulp is approximately constant throughout the pump. Roots and other hard substances in the peat are prevented from entering the pump by a vane-wheel 4<1> on the lower end of shaft 11. A blade 9 preferably having a serrated cutting edge coacting with the sharp edges of the vane-wheel 8 is secured by means of a plate 10 to the lowest portion 6 of the pump. The number of turbine stages may be reduced to the smallest necessary to effect the grinding and crushing of the peat; if this number of stages is too small to generate the necessary delivery pressure of the peat pulp, the extra pressure required can be obtained by using another pumping-apparatus. Fig. 11 shows such an apparatus. The shaft 11 carries a two-stage apparatus of the kind already described and also a centrifugal vane-wheel 14 enclosed within a casing 13. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specification 1725/75 and 13391/10, [both in Class 50, Fuel, Manufacture of], and 12101/13.