WO1992006583A1

WO1992006583A1 - Apparatus for harvesting and processing raw materials, advantageously plants, without transfer operations

Info

Publication number: WO1992006583A1
Application number: PCT/FR1991/000834
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jean-Pierre Martel
Original assignee: Distillation Chimie Fine Aromaprocess
Priority date: 1990-10-23
Filing date: 1991-10-23
Publication date: 1992-04-30
Also published as: FR2668026A1; FR2668026B1

Abstract

Apparatus for loading and processing raw materials without transfer operations. The apparatus comprises an elongate tank (10) and is characterized in that it includes a device (30) for tilting said tank (10) in order to place it (10) with its longitudinal sides (12) in a horizontal position when loading, and with its longitudinal sides in an inclined or substantially vertical position when processing with a fluid, fluid-conveying means (22) being arranged in the vicinity of the bottom of the tank (10) in said inclined or substantially vertical position. The apparatus enables raw materials, preferably aromatic plants, to be processed more effectively, with less energy and with fewer operations.

Description

Apparatus allowing the harvesting and the treatment of raw materials, advantageously vegetable without transshipment

The present invention essentially relates to an apparatus allowing the harvesting and processing of advantageously vegetable raw materials without transhipment.

Traditionally, and still in most cases, plant materials such as aromatic plants are steam distilled in static stills in order to recover the corresponding essential oils. These static stills comprise a vertical cylindrical tank with an upper cover with total opening. The loading is carried out on trays or grids, or in a basket, to facilitate the unloading operation thanks to an elevating bearing. The manipulations, however, require a lot of manpower, especially for the transfer of plants from trucks or trailers from the harvest fields to the tanks, and for their homogeneous compaction, the apparent density being generally low. When unloading, handling is necessary on wet material at a temperature very close to 100 C, and is therefore painful and dangerous.

At present, trailers in the field are known in the USA at the same time as the harvester, and are continuously loaded by lift. Back at the farm, the trailer is fitted with a sealed cover connected to a condenser, via a steam pipe. Live steam is injected into the base of the trailer, which is therefore used as a distillation tank. Emptying of exhausted plants after distillation is done by tilting. In France, skips of the “skip” type are used which can be placed on a platform of a special carrier truck for loading. These skips are then placed on the ground for the distillation sequence. In both cases, the shape of the grab is parallelepedic and its arrangement is horizontal. Thereby. The bottom of the bucket or trailer has a large area. It is therefore necessary to design an expensive steam distribution network. Then, this tube network must have a simple geometry to prevent the plants from clinging to it at the time of emptying by tilting.

It is also necessary to avoid that the plants are burnt on contact with the steam distributor. These different constraints are difficult to reconcile. In addition, and decisively, the height of the bucket is low, compared to its surface on the ground. It is in fact practically essential for easy loading of the plants into the bucket or trailer that the latter be of large volume, or of elongated shape, arranged horizontally with a large upper opening. This plant loading geometry is opposite to that sought in stationary stills or for good distillation, where it is necessary to have the largest dimension of the tank arranged vertically.

Therefore, in the solutions of the prior art, the drive steam follows a short course, generally 1.5 to 2 m, through the plant material. This vapor therefore does not have time to saturate with essential oil. This translates into a significantly higher consumption of steam per kilogram of oil produced than in a traditional still. The present invention therefore aims to solve the new technical problem consisting in providing a solution allowing the treatment of raw materials, advantageously vegetable, without transhipment with a large volume treatment tank with a good yield of treatment. The present invention also aims to solve the new technical problem stated above in the context of the treatment of vegetable raw materials, such as aromatic plants, thereby obtaining a yield of active principle, in particular essential oil, superior to the processes. with less consumption of treatment fluid, in particular steam. The present invention makes it possible for the first time to simultaneously solve the new technical problems stated above in a simple, inexpensive manner and therefore usable on an industrial scale. The present invention solves these problems by providing a tilting device for the large-volume tank in which the raw material is loaded, making it possible to position the tank in a horizontal position during loading and in an inclined or substantially vertical position during treatment with a treatment fluid. The tank is then modified so that the fluid supply means are arranged in the vicinity of the bottom of the tank in its inclined or substantially vertical position.

Thus, the present invention provides an apparatus allowing both the loading, for example during the harvesting, and the processing of raw materials, advantageously vegetable, without trans¬ boarding, comprising a tank of elongated shape comprising longitudinal sides more large dimension and smaller lateral sides, said tank comprising an opening for loading raw materials arranged on a longitudinal side allowing loading on the site, means for sealingly sealing said loading opening during said treatment, means for fluid inlet and fluid discharge means, for circulating a treatment fluid through said raw material, a raw material discharge opening, for example arranged on a small lateral side, and means for sealed closure of said discharge opening, characterized in that it comprises a device tilting of said tank for positioning said tank with its longitudinal sides in a horizontal position during loading and with its longitudinal sides in an inclined or substantially vertical position during treatment with said fluid, said fluid supply means being arranged in the vicinity of bottom of the tank in said inclined or substantially vertical position and the fluid discharge means being arranged in the vicinity of the top of the tank in said inclined or substantially vertical position. According to a particular embodiment, a lateral side forming the bottom of the tank in an inclined or vertical position comprises an opening bottom which defines the unloading opening in the open position and which constitutes the sealing means of this unloading opening in the closed position .

According to an advantageous embodiment, the means for supplying treatment fluid are integral with the opening bottom and advantageously comprise a fluid distribution device disposed inside the opening bottom. According to a particular variant embodiment, the aforementioned tank is of parallelepiped shape.

According to another alternative embodiment, the aforementioned tank is provided with support means making it possible to support it stably in a horizontal position, or inclined or vertical. These support means can be constituted either by feet or a base, or by a parallelepiped type frame. The tank can be of circular or polygonal cross section.

According to a particular embodiment, the aforementioned tilting means comprise at least one hooking means disposed on an appropriate side of the tank, cooperating with a lifting device, for example with an articulated arm, making it possible to carry out the operations of aforementioned tilting.

According to an advantageous embodiment, at least two hooking means are provided, arranged on two consecutive sides, one of which hooking means is arranged on a side opposite the loading opening.

According to a particular embodiment, the tank comprises a device for compacting the raw material, for example a device with a circular plate displaceable in translation inside the tank along an axis of translation parallel to a longitudinal axis of the tank.

According to a particular variant embodiment, the tank is designed to be mounted mobile on a truck or a trailer.

According to an advantageous embodiment of the device according to the invention, it comprises equipment for producing treatment fluid vapor assembled on a bucket type tray which can be loaded onto a truck or trailer. Likewise. The apparatus may include condensation-decantation equipment for the vapors of the treatment fluid, containing the active principle, in particular an essential oil in the case of aromatic plants, with a view to its recovery, assembled on a bucket type tray so that it can be loaded on a truck or trailer.

Thanks to the invention, the loading of the raw material, advantageously of the vegetable raw material, such as aromatic plants, is carried out in a substantially horizontal position simultaneously with the harvest, while the processing, in particular the dist llation, is carried out. in vertical position, that is to say in identical configuration to a conventional static still. When switching between the horizontal position and the vertical or inclined position, there is a distribution and packing of the raw material inside the tank.

There is also obtained a yield of active principle, in particular essential oil, much higher, without degradation of the active principle, with a lower specific consumption of treatment fluid, and with better depletion of the raw material.

Furthermore, the design of the device according to the invention makes it possible to produce a completely homogeneous device, and the device which can be placed on any site. According to the invention, the means for supplying fluid being integral with the opening bottom, complete disengagement of the supply means is carried out at the time of emptying by tilting the tank. There is no risk of catching raw materials. In addition, it is very easy to clean the interior of the opening bottom to prevent fine particles fallen under the fluid dispensing device from coming to burn, which would communicate an empyrenmatic odor in the case of essential oil of aromatic plants.

Other objects, characteristics and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the preceding description as well as from the following description. with reference to the accompanying drawings showing two currently preferred embodiments of the invention given simply by way of illustration and which therefore cannot in any way limit the scope of the invention. In the drawings:

- Figure 1 is a schematic profile view of the tank constituting the main part of the processing apparatus according to the invention, in a horizontal position, mounted on the platform of a truck, during loading simultaneous to harvesting; - Figure 2 shows schematically the unloading of the tank full of raw materials on the treatment site;

- Figure 3 schematically shows the substantially vertical position of the full tank at the end of the truck's unloading operation; - Figure 4 schematically represents the complete apparatus during the treatment of the raw material in combination with equipment for producing treatment fluid vapor and equipment for condensing-settling the treatment fluid charged with the desired active ingredients; - Figure 5 shows the unloading operation of

The raw material of the tank, after treatment; and

- Figure 6 shows a second embodiment of a tank according to the invention, this tank also being equipped with a compacting device of the raw material. Referring to Figures 1 to 5, an apparatus according to

The invention mainly comprises a tank 10 of elongated shape comprising longitudinal sides of larger dimension such as 12, and lateral sides of smaller dimension 14, 16. It is understood that the sides of small dimension will constitute in vertical position of the tank respectively the bottom (side 14) or the top of The tank (side 16), Figure 3.

The tank 10 also comprises an opening 18 for charging raw materials 20, advantageously vegetable raw material, such as aromatic plants. This loading opening 18 is arranged on a longitudinal side allowing the loading of the raw material on site, as clearly understandable in Figure 1, as well as means 19 for sealingly closing the loading opening 18, after charge¬ ment.

This tank also comprises means 22 for supplying treatment fluid and means 24 for discharging treatment fluid.

An opening for unloading 26 of raw materials is also provided, for example arranged on a lateral side (such as 14) of small dimension, and means for sealing said opening, for example here constituted by the lateral side 14 constituting a bottom. opening hinged at 28 preferably on its upper edge.

According to the invention, this device is characterized in that it comprises a tilting device represented by the general reference number 30, allowing tilting of the tank 10 so that the tank can be positioned with its longitudinal sides 12 in position horizontal when loading the raw material as shown in FIG. 1 and with its longitudinal sides in an inclined or substantially vertical position during treatment with said fluid, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

Also, the means 22 for supplying fluid are disposed in the vicinity of the bottom of the tank 10 in the inclined or substantially vertical position shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the tank 10 comprises a opening bottom 14 thanks to a hinge 28, preferably on its upper edge defining the discharge opening 26 in the open position shown in FIG. 5. According to an advantageous embodiment, the means for supplying fluid are integral with the opening bottom 14 and understand a distribution device disposed inside the opening bottom 14, well known to those skilled in the art and which is not shown here. According to the invention, the closure means 19 comprise a sliding shutter providing a sealed closure of the opening 18. The fluid discharge means 24 are disposed substantially opposite the fluid supply means 22, so as to allow the treatment fluid to pass through the raw material completely in the inclined or vertical position of the tank 10 as well understandable in consideration of Figures 3 and 4.

The tilting device 30 comprises, according to a particular embodiment, at least one hooking means 32, and preferably two hooking means 32, 34 which cooperate with a lifting means 36, such as articulated arms , well known to those skilled in the art.

According to the preferred embodiment where two hooking means 32, 34 are present, as shown, these hooking means 32, 34 are arranged on two adjacent sides of the tank 10, a hooking means (34) being disposed on the side opposite to the loading opening 18. In a preferred embodiment, as shown in Figures 1 to 5, the tank 10 is provided with support means 40, here constituted by a frame, for example a metal profile of parallelepiped shape which has the advantage of ensuring robustness for the handling of the tank 10. In addition, provision can advantageously be made for interposing thermal protection means 42 in the space provided between the support means 40 and The tank 10. The support means 40 thus offer the additional advantage of allowing a permanent presence of thermal protection means and of avoiding any damage to these.

The tank 10 can be cylindrical in shape with a circular or polygonal cross section.

According to the invention, the raw material treatment apparatus also advantageously comprises equipment 60 for producing treatment fluid, in particular water vapor in the case of water vapor entrainment for the treatment of materials. vegetable, in particular aromatic plants. This processing fluid production equipment 60 can advantageously be assembled on a tipper-type plate 62 comprising a hooking means 64, allowing easy loading onto a truck or trailer platform and allowing connection- quick to the means for supplying fluid 22 to the tank through the intermediary of a connecting pipe 66. Similarly, it is advantageous according to the invention to provide equipment for condensing and settling 70 of the fluid treatment after treatment, also assembled on a tray 72 of the tipper type comprising a hooking means 74, allowing loading and unloading easy on a truck or trailer platform. This conden¬ sation-settling equipment 70 also comprises means for quick connection to the means 24 for evacuating fluid from the tank 10 by a corresponding pipe 76 with quick connection. The equipment for producing treatment fluid vapor 60 and condensing-settling 70 for separating the active principle from the raw material, in particular essential oils from plant materials such as aromatic plants, are well known to humans. of art and are therefore not detailed here.

It is understood that the treatment apparatus according to the present invention operates in the following manner:

First of all, the tank 10 provided with its support means 40 constitutes in a way a type of tipper type tray which is mounted movably on a tray 78 of a truck 80, which makes it possible to transport the tank 10 to the site of loading of the raw material, here for harvesting the vegetable raw material, such as aromatic plants, as shown in FIG. 1, where the pipe 82 for loading the vegetable raw material 20 ends above the opening. of loading which is here cleared.

At the end of loading, the sliding flap 19 is closed, which sealingly closes the opening 18. The tank 10 is then brought to the treatment site where it is discharged by means of hooking means 32 cooperating with the arm handling 36. These tilting means are provided according to the invention so as to allow positioning in an inclined position or better in a substantially vertical position of the tank 10 as shown in Figure 3. For example, this is achieved thanks to the presence of the second attachment means 34 cooperating with the articulated arm 36 as shown in FIG. 3. The next step is to make the connection using the quick connection ducts 66 and 76 with respectively the equipment for producing treatment fluid vapor 60 and the condensation-settling equipment 70 so as to obtain the separation of the active ingredient sought in the raw material, in particular an essential oil in the case of aromatic plants, as shown clearly in FIG. 4 in the treatment position.

Finally, FIG. 5 shows the next step after treatment where the treated raw material, therefore exhausted in the desired active ingredient, can be discharged at any site, or at the time when the tank 10 is reloaded on the tray 78 of the truck 81 by opening the opening bottom 14 releasing the unloading opening 26. In the case of processing mint at harvest, that is to say in green, the invention makes it possible to obtain a yield on raw materials of 0.46% with a necessary steam consumption per kilogram of essential oil of 86 kg, which constitutes a very significant saving compared to the steam consumption necessary within the framework of the prior art.

A comparative test, compared to the conventional static still whose capacity is limited to 6 m and to a horizontal tank with a capacity of 12 m, is the subject of Table I below.

TABLE I

It is thus found that the invention makes it possible to gain envi¬ ron 50% of steam consumption compared to the prior art, without complicating the process. In addition, the tilting movements which are produced according to the invention make it possible to compact the raw material which is of low apparent density by also improving the distribution of this raw material. The emptying is extremely easy with the invention thanks to the opening bottom 14 whose articulation 28 is mounted at the upper edge of the tank 10 and supports inside the distribution device for the treatment fluid, this distribution device is released at time of discharge of the raw material and is very easy to clean. The invention also allows to preserve the active principle of the raw material, in particular of essential oils of aromatic plant materials, while providing better exhaustion of the raw material. In addition, there is no transhipment step from harvest to processing, so that the requirements for economy of labor and safety are also maintained.

Referring to Figure 6, there is shown another advantageous embodiment of the invention, according to which the tank 100 comprises support means such as feet 140 which can be reinforced by a reinforcing element 141 such as a circle . On the other hand, according to a preferred embodiment, the tank 100 is here equipped with a compacting device 190 allowing so much to compact The raw material which is of low apparent density. This compacting device 190 may comprise a plate 192 possibly perforated by multiple perforations 194, mounted displaceable in axial translation along the Longitudinal axis XX of the tank 100. This plate 192 can be moved by being connected to a rod 194 cylinder 196. It is understood that this compacting device improves the filling of the tank 100. Naturally, the invention includes all the means constituting technical equivalents of the means described as well as their various combinations.

Claims

1. Apparatus allowing in particular the loading, for example during the harvest, and the processing of raw materials, advantageously vegetable, such as aromatic plants, without transhipment, comprising a tank (10; 100) of elongated shape comprising longitudinal sides ( such as 12) of larger dimension and lateral sides (14, 16) of smaller dimension, said tank (10, 100) comprising an opening (18) for loading raw materials (20) arranged on a longitudinal side (12 ) allowing the loading on the site, means (19) of sealing said loading opening during said treatment, means for supplying fluid (22) and means for discharging fluid (24), for circulating a treatment fluid through said raw material (20), an opening (26) for discharging the raw material, for example arranged on a lateral side (14) of small dimension, and closing means (14) leaktight of said discharge opening, characterized in that it comprises a device (30) for tilting said tank (10), making it possible to position said tank (10) with its longitudinal sides (12) in a horizontal position during loading and with its longitudinal sides in an inclined or substantially vertical position during treatment with said fluid, said means (22) for supplying fluid being arranged in the vicinity of the bottom of the tank (10) in said inclined or substantially vertical position.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the tank (10) comprises an opening bottom (14) which defines the unloading opening (26) in the open position and which constitutes the sealing means of the opening (26).

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the fluid supply means (22) are integral with the opening bottom (14) and advantageously comprise a device for repairing the fluid arranged inside the bottom opening (14).

4. Apparatus according to one of claims 1 to 3, charac- terized in that the tank (10) is provided with support means (40), for example a frame which can be parallelepipedic, or feet (140).

5. Apparatus according to one of claims 1 to 4, charac¬ terized in that the tilting device (30) comprises at least one hooking means (32, 34), one of which (34) is preferred ¬ rence arranged on the side opposite the opening (18) for loading, cooperating with a lifting device for example comprising articulated arms (36).

6. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it comprises an equipment (60) for produc¬ tion of treatment fluid vapor, assembled on a plate (62) of bucket type which can be loaded on a truck or trailer.

7. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises equipment for condensation-settling of the treatment fluid vapors containing the active principle, in particular an essential oil in the case of aromatic plants. view of its recovery, assembled on a tipper-type platform so that it can be loaded onto a truck or trailer.

8. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to

7, characterized in that the tank comprises a device (190) for compacting the raw material (20), for example a device with a circular plate ⁽ 192) which can be translated in translation inside the tank along a parallel axis of translation to a longitudinal axis of the tank.

9. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to

8, characterized in that the tank (10, 100) is intended to be mounted mobile on a truck or a trailer.