GB378848A - Improvements in garbonizing chambers,retorts,furnaces and the like. - Google Patents

Abstract

378,848. Drying solid materials. THOMAS, O., St. Aubins, Erith Road, Bexley Heath, Kent, and KEMP, A. V., Red Cottage, Pinner, Middlesex. Feb. 16, 1931, No. 4786. [Class 34 (ii).] In the drying of solid materials such as coal or shale, the material is passed continuously or intermittently through a heated chamber, the gases or vapours evolved escaping through outlets spaced away from the chamber walls, and the material during its passage through the chamber is maintained in a series of separate charges each consisting of a predetermined quantity. The material is fed in regulated quantities from a hopper 42 on to pans 26 fixed to an endless chain 24 mounted on tumbler guide wheels 20, 22, a driving shaft 21 causing the pans to pass downwardly through a leg 1, and upwardly through a leg 2. The material is compressed as each pan passes over the upper guide wheel 20 into a horizontal position in the leg 1, and is discharged when the pans separate on passing round the lower guide wheel 22, falling into the discharge hopper 14. The legs 1, 2 are externally heated by flues 9. The distillates are withdrawn through apertures in a duct 29 which is placed centrally in leg 1, or may, in a modification, be withdrawn through holes in the links supporting the pans. Pricker bars 41 may be provided to press into each of the separate charges, and form lines of weakness in the compressed charges, so that they break easily into pieces of predetermined dimensions when discharged. When the material is charged through an inlet 46, and subjected to a preheating treatment in leg 2, a hopper 42a may be used to add more material to form a mixture which is subsequently heated in leg 1. The gas withdrawal ducts are provided with cleaning means 33, and issue either upwardly or downwardly, and may be situated adjacent a heated wall so that the outgoing gases may be heated. The apparatus may be operated by gravity, in which case the rotation of the wheels 21, 20 are controlled by bank brakes. Knockers 52 may be arranged on the tumbler wheels to consolidate the charge at the top or to facilitate discharge at the bottom. In a modification three legs are employed, the pans passing upwardly through the two outside legs and downwardly through the inside leg common to both sets of pans.