MXPA97003757A - Method and system of recovery of storage to gra - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is a bulk storage facility, having a recovery system for providing controlled continuous feeding of cohesive materials that are difficult to handle, characterized by their tendency to adhere to form relatively freestanding walls, which are substantially resistant to the avalanches. The system comprises a dispatcher that passes over the top of the surface of a mountain of collected material, in a depth of infinitely variable material and transporting the material outward, to a collection conveyor placed on the periphery of the base of a mound of materi

Description

METHOD AND RECOVERY SYSTEM FOR BULK STORAGE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for recovering and storing material and to a method therefor. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for covering and recovering freestanding stacks of cohesive material, for example, materials containing lead, by recovering the material from the top of the stack and sending said material forward to a collection area that is inside the cover, along the base of the pile. Background of the Invention Since standards and knowledge regarding the environment have increased, the need to recycle materials in a way that minimizes environmental pollution has achieved great attention. These environmental problems have increased, becoming important, as well as the problems with the recycling of stored lead batteries. There have been many challenges in separating and recovering lead from the other materials and components of a battery, without producing secondary contamination, through contaminated lead dust that is scattered in the air, or discharges of contaminated lead rain. . These facilities to cover lead require bulk storage of lead-containing materials, which until now have presented many problems in handling this material, due to the unique properties of lead. Lead is an extremely dense cohesive material, which easily gathers into a mass that supports itself. Traditional methods for storing bulk materials, in which equipment used to handle material recovery, which operates at the top of the pile, are not effective for cohesive materials, for example, materials that contain lead. These conventional systems recover the material from the surface of the pile, and transport it, either outwards, through a perforated wall that holds it, or inward, to a vertical channel for collection by means of a conveyor. Both methods are limited for materials that are relatively free flowing and, therefore, are not practical for cohesive materials. Similarly, storage facilities that recover material from the bottom of the stack are not effective. The difficulty to recover the material that contains lead, duplicates when doing it from the bottom of the pile. First, the equipment would be under a considerable tension and deformation, caused by the excessive weight of the material. Second, as a result of the compressive force imparted at the top of the pile, the material packed at the bottom would be very tight. Indeed, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for the recovery of materials containing lead, in bulk storage. It is another object of the present invention to provide a system for the recovery of materials, from the surface of a freestanding storage cell. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a system for the recovery of high density materials, which are hazardous to the environment, from a covered installation for storage. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a system for recovering the material, from a freestanding stack, to a collection area at the base of the stack, in a cover isolated from the environment. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a sealed system for the environment, for the storage and recovery of cohesive and / or agglomerating materials, which are hazardous to the environment, and which have a dispenser that removes the material. from the surface of the stored pile and directs it to a collection area, along the base of the pile. It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a system for the storage and recovery of cohesive and / or agglomerating materials, in an enclosure away from the environment, where the stored materials are not in contact with the walls of the enclosure . It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a method for recovering materials that characteristically form self-supporting walls that are relatively resistant to avalanches. It is yet another additional object of the present invention to provide a system closed to the environment, for the storage and recovery of cohesive and / or agglomerating materials, in a plurality of hoppers of recovered material, wherein the system provides a current of continuous feeding. These and other objects of the present invention will be readily appreciated, after the study and understanding of the present invention, as described below.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a bulk storage facility, having a recovery system for providing controlled continuous feeding, of cohesive materials that are difficult to handle, characterized by their tendency to adhere, to form walls that are relatively they sustain themselves, which are substantially resistant to avalanches. In one embodiment, the system contains a freestanding stack of material, a reclaimer and a conveyor for collection, placed at least along a portion of the periphery of the base of the stack. The recuperator goes through the entire surface of the pile, removing an infinitely variable depth of material, and directing the material to the point where it can fall freely inside the collection conveyor. The collection conveyor transports the recovered material to a feeding point for further processing. Another embodiment of the present invention comprises an enclosure to prevent any substantial part of the stored material from being released into the environment, either in the form of dust that is scattered in the air, leaks of contaminated material, vaporization or the like. The length and width of the enclosure, are designed taking into account, the angle of the material at rest, because when the piles of material have the maximum weight allowed for the enclosure, the material can form a freestanding pile that is not supported by the sides of this one. The enclosure is equipped with a rail and an assembled dispenser, which is suspended from the inside of the roof. The rail extends along the enclosure, and the dispenser extends the width of the enclosure. The rail is mounted horizontally along the roof, and the dispenser is adjustably attached to the rail. The rail and dispatcher assembly has the ability to traverse back and forth over the length of the floor and adjust the lift of the dispenser on the floor. These combined movements make it possible for the dispatcher to recover substantially all the material that is inside the enclosure. The dispenser contains two screw conveyors, mounted in a horizontal plane that extends horizontally across the width of the enclosure. The two screw conveyors, make it possible for the dispatcher to recover the material in both directions, forward and backward. The screw conveyors, have in each half of said screw, movements directed in opposite way .. These opposite movements, make it possible for the dispatcher to move the material simultaneously, towards opposite sides of the pile, where it falls freely to the floor . The floor of the enclosure is surrounded by a system of four screw conveyors, which collect and transport the recovered material to a point outside the enclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is an elevation view of one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 is a view of a section along line 2-2 of Figure 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Before the present invention is explained in detail, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited in its application, to the details of construction and the distributions of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. . The present invention has the ability for other modalities to be practiced, or for the described modalities to be carried out in different ways. It will also be understood that the phrases and terms used herein are for the purpose of description, and should not be construed as limitations of the invention. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate a modality that is representative only for purposes of illustration. The storage and recovery system 10, includes an enclosure 12, with a floor 16, four side walls 18, and a roof 20 to cover a pile of freestanding material A. The types, quantities, placements, shapes, construction materials and dimensions of the enclosures, will vary depending on the particularities of the application to which they will be allocated. The 16th floor is surrounded by a series of conveyors, 22, 24, 26 and 28, placed near the perimeter of the floor, adjacent to the walls or between the end of the floor and the inside of the walls 18. The conveyors can be of any type suitable for this purpose, including worm screws, endless belts or combinations thereof. The conveyors are placed to collect the material that falls on the other side of the wall of the pile, and take it to another place. Normally, this will be done towards a specific point, and / or through a series of transports, to combine all the material recovered from this and, optionally, from other enclosures. The material A, can be any material that forms a freestanding pile, and that does not require vertical support. Normally, the material will be a cohesive material that tends to adhere, or stick, under storage conditions. More typically, the material will be of the class that is resistant to avalanches, which means that the end of the surface remains essentially intact, as the material passes over the end.

Preferably, the materials will include clay, fertilizer, solid waste, fuel derived from the waste (solid waste, for example, crushed waste), mud, galena (lead sulphide), desulfurization dust from a gas stack, potassium nitrate, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide and the like. More preferably, the materials will include materials containing lead, for example, lead sulfate, lead oxide, lead carbonate, metallic lead and mixtures thereof. The enclosure 12 is equipped with a rail assembler and dispatcher 14, which contain: a rail rack 30 extending the length of the enclosure, an open carriage 32, which is suspended from the section 30, and a dispenser 34, mounted in an adjustable manner on the open carriage 32. The zipper 30 is mounted substantially horizontally close to the center of the roof 20, on the inside of the enclosure 12. The open carriage 32 has a downwardly directed mast 36. The carriage open 32, can travel in the length of the enclosure along the rack of the rail 30. The dispenser 34, is mounted in an adjustable way on the mast of the open carriage 36, making it possible to change the lift of the dispenser on the floor 16 The dispenser 34 extends approximately the entire width of the enclosure 12, as will be better seen in Figure 2. The combination of the movements to traverse the open carriage, with the lift movement of the dispenser, It makes it possible for the dispatcher to go virtually to the entire interior of the enclosure.

The dispenser 34 is equipped with two screw dispensers 40 and 42, which extend essentially across the width of the floor 16. The two screw conveyors are rotationally adhered to the dispenser in an approximately horizontal plane. The two screw conveyors, make it possible for the dispatcher to recover the material in both directions, forward and backward. The screw conveyor, which is located on the main end of the dispenser, with respect to the direction of travel, is put into action during recovery. The worm conveyor that is at the end of the rail remains idle. It will be appreciated that the dispenser and open carriage assembly 14, can be replaced by any apparatus or system that can be moved near the surface of the stack, removing a controlled amount of material from the stack, and directing it toward, at least one end of the stack. This may include a blade, contact blade, grid, brush, fan or the like. The screw conveyors, 40 and 42, of the present embodiment, as illustrated in Figure 2, start essentially from the middle of the screw conveyor, and extend along the total length of the screw conveyor, towards one end flown on the right side and on the opposite side, extends towards the opposite end flown to the left side. This facilitates the movement of the removed material, towards the sides of the stack as the dispenser traverses the length of the stack. The screw conveyors are substantially open at the bottom. The surface of the material without removing, helps to retain the material removed inside the cylinder, defined by the worm, as the material moves along the length of the screw conveyor, through the surface of the pile . When the material is moved to the other side of the end of the pile surface, the material separates from the auger conveyor and falls freely from one side of the pile, to a lower part of the pile, to the floor and / or inside the conveyors that are on the floor, 26 and 28. Because the pile is freestanding, the material moves freely in the open space, between the stack side and the walls of the enclosure. In a similar way, at the ends of the pile, any material that has been hauled by means of the dispenser, is collected by the floor conveyors, 22 and 24. Referring again to Figure 1, the upper part of the enclosure is equipped with a system of feeding 46, which supplies the material for storage in the enclosure. The feed system 46 is mounted longitudinally by the top part of the enclosure 12. This feed system contains a plurality of feed points 48, equipped with discharge valves 52, distributed along the center of the feed. enclosure . This feeding system can be controlled in such a way that the material A is fed from above into the enclosure to form a continuous, relatively uniform, self-supporting pile over the entire length of the enclosure. The system can be equipped additionally, with instruments and controls. For example, each discharge valve .52, could optionally be equipped with limit switches, to indicate the open / closed condition of the valve, and an actuator to operate the valve switch. Each feeding point 48, could optionally be equipped with a level indicator 60, which provides the indication of stack elevation at that point. These devices could be combined, within a control system that operates the discharge valves in response to the level indicators, to distribute uniformly the material that is in the enclosure. In addition, the collection transport system could be equipped with a mass flow indicator, for example, a weight indicator, to monitor the amount of material that is being recovered. In operation, the stored material is fed to a storage transport system, which directs the material to a selected hopper distribution conveyor, placed on the top of a specific hopper with the roof closed. The distribution conveyor is controlled to distribute the material within the hopper, through a plurality of discharge valves, distributed along the top of the center of the hopper, to form in it, a pile of material contiguous, reasonably uniform. Once this hopper has been filled with the desired weight, the transport system for storage is directed towards another hopper distribution conveyor. At this point, the material will be in the form of a long stack, or a series of stacks, distributed along the longitudinal center of the hopper, and the ends of the stack, or stacks, will be placed again from the walls of the hopper.

To recover the material from the hopper, a dispatcher is used. The dispenser is adjusted in such a way that it will be in contact with the surface of the stack. The rack of the rail will move the dispenser over the length of the stack. As the dispenser makes contact with the surface of the material, it will remove some of the material and move it towards the lateral end of the stack. At the point where the material reaches the lateral end of the stack, the material falls freely from the dispenser, next to the stack. Although the profile of the stack can be altered during the recovery operation, the stack continues to be freestanding in the same place where it was placed a second time, from the walls of the hopper throughout the process. Once the rail ends a trip, the dispatcher is placed again, directed down, in preparation for the return trip. The amount of material recovered is controlled by the depth of the layer that is being removed from the pile, as determined by the lift of the dispenser, and the speed of travel of the open car. As the open carriage moves to another direction, the worm conveyor dispenser at the main end is put into action and the one at the trailing end is stopped. As the process continues, the material is deposited in a collection conveyor set, placed along the periphery of the floor of the hopper. These collection conveyors transport the recovered material to a continuous feed conveyor. As the feed conveyor receives the material from various hoppers, the system has the capacity to

Claims (20)

1. supplying a stream of material, substantially continuous, by alternately changing the hoppers, between the filling and recovery operations. CLAIMS 1. A system for the storage and retrieval of material comprising: a cover substantially enclosing said material, which has at least one side wall and a floor, wherein said cover is equipped with at least one conveyor on or on said floor, placed between a freestanding pile of said material supported by said floor, and said wall; a feeding system for forming said stack in said cover, wherein said stack is placed separate from said side wall; and a dispenser for removing a portion of said material from a surface of said stack and moving said material toward at least one end of said surface, wherein said material freely falls on said conveyor. The system as described in Claim 1, further characterized in that said dispenser is approximately as wide as said floor. The system as described in Claim 1, further characterized in that said top surface is at the top of said stack. 4. The system as described in Claim 1, further characterized in that the elevation of said dispenser on said floor is adjustable. The system as described in Claim 1, further characterized in that said dispenser is mounted on a launcher, to move near said enclosure. The system as described in Claim 5, further characterized in that said launcher moves in a forward and backward direction, and said dispenser recovers the material in both of said directions. The system as described in Claim 1, further characterized in that said dispenser contains a screw conveyor. The system as described in Claim 1, further characterized in that said material is a cohesive material. 9. The system as described in Claim 1, further characterized in that said material contains a material containing lead. The system as described in Claim 1, further characterized in that said dispenser comprises: a screw conveyor, which extends horizontally in the width of said floor; wherein said worm conveyor has a flight to the right, along the first length of said worm conveyor, which extends from a mid-point to a first end, and a flight to the left , along the second length, extending from said mid-point towards the second end, said conveyor being mounted on a launcher that traverses the length of said cover; and the elevation of said dispenser on said floor is adjustable. 1 1. A system for the storage and recovery of cohesive materials, which comprises: a cover substantially enclosing said material, having a first and a second side wall, a first and a second wall at the ends, a roof, a floor, and a transportation system between said floor and said first and second side walls, and said first and second end walls; a feeding system for feeding the material from above into said cover; an open carriage suspended from said roof, wherein said open carriage traverses between said first and second end walls; a dispenser adhered in an adjustable manner to said open cart to remove a quantity of material controlled from the top of said pile and direct said removed material, towards a first and a second end of said surface of said pile, wherein said material falls freely beside said stack within said transport system, wherein the elevation of said dispenser on said floor is adjusted, and said dispenser includes: a first and a second endless screw conveyors, which extend horizontally between said first and second end walls; wherein said first and second worm conveyors are rotatably affixed to said dispenser in a substantially horizontal plane, and both have a flight to the left from a mid-point extending along the length of said conveyor. auger, to a first end, and a flight to the right from said mid-point to a second end of said auger conveyor. 12. A method for storage and retrieval of a material, which comprises the steps of: providing a cover which has at least one side and a floor, wherein said cover is equipped with at least one conveyor, placed inside of said cover on or in said floor along said side; feeding said material into said cover to form a stack of freestanding material; removing layers of material from a limited depth, from a surface of said freestanding pile; moving said removed material toward an end of said top surface of said freestanding stack; and releasing said removed material so that it falls freely to one side of said pile inside said conveyor, and said side being without support. The method as described in Claim 12, further characterized in that said material is a cohesive material 14. The method as described in Claim 13, further characterized in that said material is resistant to avalanches. The method as described in Claim 12, further characterized in that said material comprises a lead-containing material. 16. The method as described in Claim 12, further characterized in that said material contains lead sulfate. 17, A system for the storage and retrieval of the material, which comprises: a confinement means (enclosure), to substantially prevent any release around said material; means for supplying the material, and forming a freestanding stack of said material in said enclosure; material recovery means for removing parts of said material in a controlled manner from a surface of said stack and directing said material towards an outer end of a base of said stack; and a means of transport for receiving the material along said end of said base, within an enclosure, and transporting said material out of said enclosure. The system as described in Claim 17, further characterized in that said surface of said stack is an upper surface of said stack. The system as described in Claim 17, further characterized in that said recovery means are movable to make possible the removal of all portions of said stack. The system as described in Claim 17, further characterized in that said materials fall freely from said recovery means along said stack, into said transport means. EXCERPT OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a bulk storage facility, having a recovery system for providing a controlled continuous feed of cohesive materials that are difficult to handle, characterized by their tendency to adhere to form relatively freestanding walls, which They are substantially resistant to avalanches. The system comprises a dispatcher that passes over the top of the surface of a mountain of collected material, in a depth of infinitely variable material and transporting the material outward, to a collection conveyor placed on the periphery of the base of a mound of material.