GB481350A - Improved arrangement of valves for use in controlling pipes or conduits in cyclical operations such as those of adsorption apparatus for the separation of gases - Google Patents

Abstract

The number of valves required in an installation comprising three or four adsorbers is reduced by means of the scheme shown from the customary five per adsorber to six for the complete plant. Rotary plug valves are used, each having as many ports as there are adsorbers, and an axial passage. The full lines <PICT:0481350/III/1> represent pipes for gaseous mixture before or after treatment; the dotted lines, pipes for desorption steam, or mixture of steam and recovered product; and the chain lines pipes for drying-fluid; fine lines indicate closed pipes, heavy lines indicate open pipes. The cycle of operations is carried out by rotating the valves H1-H3, B1-B3 intermittently through 120 DEG , as shown by the arrows; if there were four adsorbers the angle would be 90 DEG . The gaseous mixture to be treated enters by the axial passage of one of the valves and passes thence by one of the lateral passages to the adsorber in use. The valves may be driven by an explosion engine supplied by a constant fraction of the mixture to be treated so that the duration of the cycles is automatically adapted to the nature or quantity of the gas; or a disc having electrical contacts and actuated by a gas meter may be used. The cocks are coupled in pairs, H1, B1, &c., each of which controls the inlet and outlet of one and the same fluid. A single heat-exchanger or thermic battery common to all the adsorbers may be used. After treatment the gas from the adsorber enters laterally the valve coupled to the previously-mentioned valve and passes out by the axial passage.