US1192159A

US1192159A - Process of separating slate from coke.

Info

Publication number: US1192159A
Application number: US84984914A
Authority: US
Inventors: Warren S Blauvelt; William T Harms
Original assignee: Semet Solvay Co
Current assignee: Semet Solvay Co
Priority date: 1914-07-08
Filing date: 1914-07-08
Publication date: 1916-07-25
Anticipated expiration: 1933-07-25

Description

w. s. BLAUVELTKL w. T. HARMS.

PROCESS OF SEPARATING SLATE FROM CdKE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 8.19M.

1 1 92,1 59. Patented July 1916.

anvemfow WARREN S. BLAU'VELT, OF GROSSE ILE, AND WILLIAM T. HARMS, OF DETROIT, MICHI- GAIN, ASSIGNORS, BY MESN E ASSIGNMENTS, T0 SEMET-SOLVAY COMPANY, OF SOLVAY, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF -NEW YURK.

I TROCESSDF SEPARATING SLATE FROM COKE.

To all whom it may concern.

, Be it known that we, Wanner; S. BLAU- vEL'r'and WILLIA T. HARMS, citizens of the United States, residing, respectively, at Grosse Ile and Detroit, in the county of l/Vayne and State of Michigan, have -invented a new and Improved Process of Separating Slate from Coke, of whichthe following is a specification.

As is well known, in the production of coke from coal as in retort coke ovens, the coal is charged into the oven in a pulverized state. With the coal is also charged into the oven such slate as may have been present in the coal and crushed therewith, in

pieces the maximum dimensions of which range from one-sixteenth to three-eighths of an inch. Such pieces of slate are not changed in character by the coking process. While their presence, in the usual proportion, does not injuriously affect the character of the coke as a whole, they do tend to weaken the coke structure at the points where they occur so that the coke fractures at these points and the pieces of slate, which produce the fractures, break off and are mixed and collected with the small pieces of coke, or breeze, which thus becomes over-' charged with slate. In order to make the coke breeze desirable for commercial use it is necessary to separate the slate, or some portionof it from the coke. Various means which have been operatively inefiicient or commercially unsuccessful have been devised and attempted for this purpose. Thus, the slate may be removed in the well known hydraulic process with jigs, but in this case the coke becomes so -saturated with water that in order to make it fit for commercial use it must be dried at a prohibitive cost. Various attempts to utilize the greater specific gravity of the slate to effect its separation in the dry state have also been made, as by dropping the material in front of an air blast. This, however,=h'as proved unsuccessful since a large proportion of the fiat pieces of slate in falling present their widest surface to the air current so that they are carried off and deposited with the coke.

, The success of our process depends upon two observed characteristics of the pieces of intermixed slate as distinguished from the coke. First that in proportion to volume the pieces of slate are heavier than the Specification of Letters Patent. Patented J 111 25 1 916. Application filed July 8, 1914. Serial No. 849,849. 7

pieces of coke. Second that the pieces of slate are relatively thin and flat, whereas the In carrying our process into effect we deliver the material to be treated, in a dry state, in a thin layer onto a slowly mowing *belthaving a substantially flat, horizontally disposed surface so that the material will rest thereon, across which, preferably at right angles to its direction-of motion, is directed an air blast of sufficient force to move the pieces of coke across and off the belt. The scales of slate,by reason of lying fiat on the belt, expose their smallest surface, z'. 6., their edges, to the blast pressure, so that a greater force is required to move them than the pieces of coke, which present a greater surface. For this reason, and also because ofthe greater specific gravity of the slate, the pieces of slate remain on the belt and are carried off inthe tailings.

The operation of our invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, F igure 1 of which shows aside View and Fig. 2 an end view of a front of apparatus which may be employed in carrying it into effect.

In the drawings, A indicates a substan tially horizontally disposed belt traveling over rollers, B B, and .C, a twyer, or nozzle, by which an air blast is delivered across the belt and substantially at right angles thereto.

The pieces of coke, 0, c, and of slate, s, s, are, as shown, delivered onto the belt in a thin layer, as from a hopper, D, so that the pieces of slate, 8, lie upon their sides on the belt. Thus their edges are presented to the air blast, across which they are carried by the movement of the belt While the' pieces of coke are blown off from the side of the belt the slate is carried along without being disturbed and finally delivered into a separate receptacle or heap at the end of the belt. 4

In order to accomplish the best results, we grade the material to be treated so as to deliver it to the belt in pieces of substantially uniform size and treat the different grades separately, 6. 9., we may divide it into two sizes, the larger size comprising those pieces which will pass through an opening one-half inch square and over a screen having one-fourth inch square openings, and the smaller size those which will pass through the. one-fourth inch square openings, and over one-eighth inch square openings. In this manner we avoid the difliculty, encountered if the two sizes are treated together, that an air blast of a strength'suflicient to blow the pieces of coke of thelarger size off the 'belt will also take with them the pieces of slate of the smaller size, while a blast of so low a velocity as not to move the smaller pieces of slate will permit the larger pieces of coke to go with the slate into the tailings. By grading the material, however, as above described, so that only pieces of coke and slate of substantially thesame size shall be associated and subjected to the air, blast at the same time, the strength of the air blast can be so regulated as to effect fine coke which consists in disposing the material to be treated in a thin layer in a submanner that the edges of the pieces of slate shall be presented to the action of the blast whereby the pieces of coke are separated from the slate by the action of the blast and the pieces of slate aremoved across and out of the air blast.

2. The process of separating slate from.

by the pieces of. coke are separated. from the slate by the action of 'the'blast and the pieces of slate are moved across and out of the blast. I

In testimony whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names this'29th day of June A. D., 1914. WARREN S.'BLAUVELT.

WILLIAM T. HARMS.

Witnesses: I a

PETER B. KoEBEL,

ROBERT 'E. Hammer.