WO2025121829A1 - Apparatus for fermenting and processing food waste - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus for fermenting and processing food waste and, more specifically, to an apparatus for fermenting and processing food waste, which comprises: a hopper for receiving food in a casing; a preprocessing part equipped with a pulverizing device in which crushing rollers and grinding rollers are vertically arranged in the lower portion on the inside of the hopper, so as to pulverize the food; a fermentation part, which transfers pulverized food introduced from the preprocessing part to an upper portion and ferments the transferred food; and a discharge part, of which one side is connected to the fermentation part so as to discharge the food fermented by the fermentation part.

Description

Food waste fermentation treatment device

The present invention relates to a fermentation treatment device for food waste, and more specifically, to a fermentation treatment device for food waste, which mixes and ferments food materials located at the upper and lower portions in a fermentation portion that transports pulverized food materials introduced from a pretreatment portion that compresses pulverized food materials upward, and discharges the fermented and dried food materials through a discharge portion.

In general, food waste generated from homes and restaurants becomes a major cause of river pollution when discharged into the sewer, and when buried in the ground, it rots and causes various pathogens to appear along with a foul odor.

As such, the disposal of food waste is emerging as a serious social problem, and recently, there has been a demand for a method to recycle food waste into feed or fertilizer by fermenting it with microorganisms.

In particular, looking at the "Fermentation Tank of Food Waste Treatment Device", which is a Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2002-0060669 (published on July 18, 2002), as a prior art, it includes a fermentation tank into which food waste and fermentation microorganisms are fed into a main body having a cover that can be opened and closed, a stirring rod provided inside the fermentation tank and rotated by a motor, and a plurality of stirring blades provided at regular intervals around the stirring rod to stir the fed food waste and microorganisms.

The lower part of the above fermentation tank is provided with a heater in the form of a heating wire that is heated by electricity, so that the space inside the fermentation tank can always be maintained at a set temperature through the heater, thereby providing an optimal habitat environment for microorganisms.

However, when using the fermentation tank of such conventional food waste disposal devices, the interior of the fermentation tank is heated by an electric heating wire, which consumes a lot of electricity, making it costly to process food waste and thus uneconomical.

[Prior art literature]

[Patent Document]

(Patent Document 1) Republic of Korea Publication Patent No. 10-2002-0060669 (Published on July 18, 2002)

The present invention provides a new structure of a food waste fermentation treatment device, which mixes and ferments food materials positioned at the upper and lower portions in a fermentation portion that transports pulverized food materials introduced from a pretreatment portion that compresses pulverized food materials upward, and discharges the fermented and dried food materials through a discharge portion, in order to solve the problems of the prior art as described above.

In addition, a food waste fermentation treatment device is provided that minimizes the moisture content of crushed food by discharging moisture generated by food being collected by a compression unit to a moisture discharge unit.

In addition, the present invention provides a food waste fermentation treatment device that forms a predetermined angle so that one side of the collection plate faces the fermentation casing to reduce the amount of food falling into the inlet and causes a large amount of crushed food to fall into the fermentation casing.

In addition, a food waste fermentation treatment device is provided, which comprises a tube connected to a fermentation unit, an active filter unit inside the tube, and a gas discharge unit that forms plasma at the end to remove odors.

The present invention is to solve the above problems.

A preprocessing unit that forms a hopper for receiving food inside a casing and a pulverizing device having a pulverizing roller and a grinding roller arranged vertically on the inner lower side of the hopper to pulverize the food;

A fermentation unit that transports the crushed food material flowing in from the above preprocessing unit upward and ferments the transported food material; and

One side is formed to be connected to the fermentation unit and includes a discharge unit for discharging fermented food through the fermentation unit.

Provides a food waste fermentation treatment device.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the pretreatment unit may further include a compression unit that forms a sloped portion having a lower height in one direction at the bottom of the hopper and pushes the ground food along the sloped portion to the lower side of the other side of the casing; and a washing unit that forms a plurality of spray nozzles that spray water along the inner surface of the casing and has a high-pressure pump provided on the outer side of the casing to supply water to the spray nozzles.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the fermentation unit may further include: a fermentation casing formed to be in communication with the lower side of the other side of the casing and having a heater provided at the lower side; a shaft portion formed with a reduction motor provided in the fermentation casing and a rotational axis connected to the reduction motor and rotating along the longitudinal direction of the fermentation casing; and a collection plate portion formed with an inlet portion partitioned by forming a predetermined space on one side of the fermentation casing, at least one collection shaft formed in a direction orthogonal to one side of the rotational axis, and at least one collection plate formed at an end of the collection shaft at a predetermined angle so as to face the fermentation casing, wherein the collection plate portion may be characterized in that it transports food ground by the rotation of the rotational axis to the upper part of the fermentation casing.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the fermentation unit may further include a mixing unit having a support unit spaced apart from the rotational axis at a predetermined interval and extending in different directions, and a mixing plate coupled to an end of the support unit to mix pulverized food located at the upper and lower portions of the fermentation casing in response to the rotation of the rotational axis.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the fermentation unit may be characterized in that it forms a hole that is discharged to the outside at the lower side of the other side of the casing, and forms at least one or more laminated nets in the hole to form a moisture discharge unit that discharges moisture generated when food is collected by the compression unit.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the discharge unit may further include a discharge casing formed so that one side is connected to the upper portion of the fermentation unit; and a collection unit disposed inside the discharge casing to receive fermented and dried food and discharge it to the outside.

An embodiment of the present invention may include a gas discharge unit formed as an extended tube communicating with the upper portion of the fermentation unit and discharging gas generated in the fermentation unit to the outside.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the gas discharge unit may further include an active filter unit disposed inside the tube to purify moving gas; and a plasma disposed at the end of the tube to further purify unpurified gas.

The food waste fermentation treatment device according to the present invention has the advantage of being able to treat food waste on its own by feeding food waste from a school, a restaurant in a large shopping mall, or an apartment complex into a pretreatment unit, crushing and compressing the food waste in the pretreatment unit, and then transporting the crushed food waste to a fermentation unit, where it is fermented and dried, and then discharged through a discharge unit.

In addition, since the interior of the preprocessing section has a slope that lowers toward the fermentation section and the crushed food is pushed and compressed along the slope toward the fermentation section to remove moisture and transport the food to the fermentation section, there is an advantage in that the fermentation time of the food can be saved.

In addition, there is an advantage in that multiple spray nozzles are formed on the inner side of the pretreatment section, making internal cleaning convenient and easy, thereby facilitating management.

In addition, there is an advantage in that one side of the collecting plate is formed at a predetermined angle toward the fermentation casing, thereby reducing the amount of food falling into the inlet, and preventing food from flowing back into the pretreatment section by dropping a large amount of ground food into the fermentation casing.

In addition, there is an advantage in that it can be used cleanly by forming plasma at the active filter section and the end of the pipe connected to the fermentation section and deodorizing and removing bad smells.

Figure 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a food waste fermentation treatment device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged illustration of a collection plate section of a food waste fermentation treatment device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram schematically illustrating a mixing unit of a food waste fermentation treatment device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the attached drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail so that those with ordinary skill in the art can easily implement the present invention. However, when describing the operating principles of preferred embodiments of the present invention in detail, if it is determined that a specific description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Additionally, the same drawing symbols are used for parts that have similar functions and actions throughout the drawing.

In addition, when a part of the specification is said to be 'connected' to another part, this includes not only cases where it is directly connected, but also cases where it is indirectly connected with other components in between. Also, 'including' a component does not mean excluding other components, unless otherwise stated, but rather includes other components.

Hereinafter, a food waste fermentation treatment device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a fermentation treatment device for food waste according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged exemplary diagram illustrating a collection plate section of a fermentation treatment device for food waste according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram schematically illustrating a mixing section of a fermentation treatment device for food waste according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a food waste fermentation treatment device (10) according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a pretreatment unit (100), a fermentation unit (200), and a discharge unit (300).

More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a food waste fermentation treatment device (10) according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a pretreatment unit (100) for pulverizing food waste by forming a hopper (120) for accommodating food waste inside a casing (110), a crushing device (130) in which crushing rollers (131) and grinding rollers (132) are arranged vertically on the inner lower side of the hopper, a fermentation unit (200) for transporting crushed food waste flowing in from the pretreatment unit upward and fermenting the transported food waste, and a discharge unit (300) for discharging food waste fermented through the fermentation unit.

Here, the term food as used throughout the specification includes food waste and food wastewater.

Referring to Figure 1, a preprocessing unit (100) is installed in a school, a restaurant in a large shopping mall, a hospital, or a food waste disposal site in an apartment complex to crush the food waste being fed in and transport it to a fermentation unit (200).

This preprocessing unit (100) forms a casing (110) located at the top of a hopper (120) that is open at the top and forms a slope that narrows toward the bottom, and has a lid on the upper surface of the casing (110) that opens and closes the upper part of the hopper (120). In addition, a crushing device (130) is formed on the lower inner side of the hopper (120) with a crushing roller (131) and a grinding roller (132) arranged vertically to crush food.

The crushing device (130) has a crushing roller (131) formed with a plurality of teeth, protrusions, and coil-shaped protrusions in the longitudinal direction on the outer surface thereof, and is placed at the bottom of the hopper (120). Then, food fed into the hopper (120) is crushed by the crushing roller (131), and the crushed food that falls is fed to the grinding roller (132), so that the food is crushed further and can fall to the inclined portion (140) formed at the bottom of the hopper (110).

Referring to FIG. 1, the preprocessing unit (100) further includes an inclined unit (140), a pressing unit (150), and a washing unit (160).

The slope (140) is formed as a slope that decreases in height in one direction at the bottom of the hopper (120), and the height of the slope adjacent to the fermentation unit (200) is lowered so that the crushed food can be moved to the fermentation unit (200). As a result, it is desirable to prevent the crushed food from accumulating inside the casing (110).

Referring to Figure 1, the compression member (150) serves to push the crushed food along the inclined member (140) to the lower side of the other side of the casing (110).

That is, the pressing unit (150) forms a hydraulic cylinder on one side of the casing (110), and forms a plate capable of pushing out food at the end of the hydraulic cylinder, thereby transporting food that falls through the crushing device (130) to the lower part of the fermentation unit (200).

At this time, the lower part of the casing (110) is connected to the lower part of the fermentation unit (200) so that the food is pushed out to the pressing unit (150) to press and remove moisture, and some of the food from which moisture has been removed is transferred to the lower part of the fermentation unit (200). Then, the hydraulic cylinder contracts and moves to one side of the casing (110), and the food falls through the crushing device (130) into the space formed at the lower part of the casing (110) and is deposited on the inclined part (140).

Afterwards, when the food is piled up on the slope (140) and reaches a certain height, the hydraulic cylinder is extended so that the plate pushes the food along the slope toward the lower side of the other side of the casing (110) and collects it at the lower part of the fermentation unit (200). By repeating this motion, moisture in the food is continuously removed and a portion of the food is continuously transferred to the lower part of the fermentation unit (200).

Referring to Fig. 1, the washing unit (160) is formed with a plurality of spray nozzles (161) that spray water along the inner surface of the casing (110), and a high-pressure pump (162) that supplies water to the spray nozzles (161) is provided on the outer side of the casing (110).

For example, when repeating the operation of feeding food into the hopper (120) and stacking it inside the casing (110) and transporting the food to the fermentation unit (200), the inside of the casing (110) may become dirty or the operation of the pressing unit (150) may malfunction due to remaining food, or the lower part of the fermentation casing (210) described later, which is connected to the lower part of the casing (110), may become clogged with food.

At this time, a cleaner can enter the interior of the casing (110) and clean the interior of the casing (110) by spraying water through a spray nozzle (161) via a high-pressure pump (162) supplied with external water before cleaning.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, in the food waste fermentation treatment device (10) according to the embodiment of the present invention, the fermentation unit (200) transports crushed food waste flowing in from the pretreatment unit (100) upward and ferments the transported food waste.

For this purpose, the fermentation unit (200) further includes a fermentation casing (210), an axis unit (220), and a collection plate unit (230).

The fermentation casing (210) is formed to be connected to the lower side of the other side of the casing (110) and is provided with a heater (211) at the lower side. It forms a space in which food particles crushed in the preprocessing unit (100) are introduced and fermented, and the food particles with reduced volume are moved to the discharge unit (300).

Referring to Fig. 1, the shaft (220) is connected to a reduction motor (221) provided in the fermentation casing (210) and a rotation shaft (222) that rotates along the longitudinal direction of the fermentation casing (210).

Here, the rotation shaft (222) is formed to pass through the longitudinal direction of the central portion of the fermentation casing (210), one side of the rotation shaft (222) is positioned at the inlet portion (231), and the other side is connected to a reduction motor (221) provided inside the discharge portion (300) communicating with the other side of the fermentation casing (210), and rotates in response to the operation of the reduction motor (221).

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the collection plate section (230) forms an inlet section (231) by forming one side of the fermentation casing (210) into a predetermined space, and forms at least one collection shaft (232) formed in a direction perpendicular to one side of the rotation axis (222) and at least one collection plate (233) formed at a predetermined angle at the end of the collection shaft (232) so as to face the fermentation casing (210).

The inlet (231) is a space formed as a predetermined space on one side of the fermentation casing (210) into which food can be introduced when food located at the end of the inclined portion (140) is pushed out to the pressing portion (150).

This collection plate (230) serves to transport the crushed food by the rotation of the rotation shaft (222) to the upper part of the fermentation casing (210).

For example, as shown in Fig. 2, food that has entered the lower portion of the inlet (231) is partially received by the collecting plate (233), and the collecting plate (233) is moved upward by the rotation of the rotating shaft (222). At this time, the collecting plate (233) is so that its end is in close contact with the bottom surface and side surface of the inlet (231) that the rotating movement of the collecting plate (233) causes only a portion of the food to fall to the lower portion of the inlet (231). In addition, when the collecting plate (233) is positioned at the upper portion, the food is caused to fall to the upper portion of the fermentation casing (210).

Meanwhile, in the food waste fermentation treatment device (10) according to the embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the fermentation unit (200) further includes a mixing unit (240) and a moisture discharge unit (250).

The mixing section (240) is spaced apart from the rotation axis (222) at a regular interval and is connected to the ends of the support sections (241) extending in different directions to form a mixing plate (242) that mixes the crushed food located at the upper and lower portions of the fermentation casing (210) in response to the rotation of the rotation axis (222).

In particular, since the newly pulverized food material introduced into the upper part of the fermentation casing (210) receives less heat from the heater (211) provided at the lower part of the fermentation casing (210), the fermentation time is delayed. Therefore, the fermentation time can be shortened by repeating the process of moving the food material located at the lower part to the upper part and moving the food material located at the upper part to the lower part through the rotational movement of the mixing plate (242).

In addition, the mixing plate (242) located on the other side of the rotation axis (222) can be formed to be inclined in the direction of the discharge casing (310) described later. Accordingly, when the crushed food from the inlet (231) is continuously fed into the fermentation casing (210), the fermented food is moved to the discharge casing (310) provided on one side of the fermentation casing (210).

Referring to Figure 1, a moisture discharge unit (250) forms a hole that discharges to the outside at the lower side of the other side of the casing (110), and forms at least one layered net in the hole to discharge moisture generated when food is collected by the compression unit (150).

Due to this, since the moisture in the food that flows into the casing (110) is discharged to the outside and transferred to the inlet (231), it becomes possible to quickly ferment the food with most of the moisture removed in the fermentation casing (210).

As illustrated in FIG. 1, in the food waste fermentation treatment device (10) according to the embodiment of the present invention, the discharge unit (300) is formed so that one side is connected to the fermentation unit (200) and serves to discharge fermented food through the fermentation unit (200).

For this purpose, the discharge unit (300) further includes a discharge casing (310) and a collection box (320).

The discharge casing (310) is formed as a space in which one side is connected to the upper part of the fermentation unit (200). In addition, a door is formed on the other side to enable replacement of the collection unit (320) described later.

The collection bin (320) is placed inside the discharge casing (310) to receive fermented and dried food and discharge it to the outside. It is formed at a predetermined height and can be placed in multiple units with the top open.

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the food waste fermentation treatment device (10) according to the embodiment of the present invention may include a gas discharge unit (400) formed as an extended pipe that communicates with the upper portion of the fermentation unit (200) and discharges gas generated in the fermentation unit (200) to the outside.

This gas discharge unit (400) is arranged inside the pipe (410) to purify the moving gas and further includes a plasma (420) provided at the end of the pipe (410) to further purify the unpurified gas, thereby enabling removal of odor and deodorization.

As described above, the detailed description of the present invention has described preferred embodiments of the present invention, but this has been described as an example of the best embodiment of the present invention and does not limit the present invention. In addition, it goes without saying that anyone with ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention belongs can make various modifications and imitations within the scope that does not depart from the technical idea of the present invention.

Therefore, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but can be implemented in various forms of embodiments within the scope of the appended claims. In addition, it is considered that various modifications can be made by anyone with ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains without departing from the gist of the present invention claimed in the claims, and are within the scope of the claims of the present invention.

Claims (7)

A preprocessing unit that forms a hopper for receiving food inside a casing and a pulverizing device having a pulverizing roller and a grinding roller arranged vertically on the inner lower side of the hopper to pulverize the food; A fermentation casing formed in communication with the lower part of the casing and having a heater at the lower part, and a fermentation unit in which one side of the fermentation casing is divided into a predetermined space to form an inlet into which food pulverized from the preprocessing is introduced, and the fermentation unit ferments the pulverized food; and One side is formed to be connected to the fermentation unit and includes a discharge unit for discharging fermented food through the fermentation unit. The above preprocessing unit A compression unit that forms an inclined portion connected to the inlet portion by increasing the height of one side of the lower portion of the casing and lowering the other side, and pushes the ground food located in the inclined portion to the other side of the lower portion of the casing; and It further includes a washing unit having a plurality of spray nozzles formed along the inner surface of the casing for spraying water and a high-pressure pump provided on the outer side of the casing for supplying water to the spray nozzles. The above compression part A hydraulic cylinder is formed on one side of the above-mentioned inclined portion, and a plate is formed at the end of the hydraulic cylinder to collect the crushed food and move it to the lower part of the fermentation section, so that the plate closes the inlet section and seals off the foul odor of the fermentation section. The above washing part The above plate is characterized in that the inside of the casing is washed while the above plate closes the above inlet, and when the fermented food is discharged to the above discharge port, the above plate moves to the original position so that the food can be fed into the above hopper. Food waste fermentation treatment device. In paragraph 1, The above fermentation part A reduction motor provided in the fermentation casing and a shaft portion formed by connecting the reduction motor to the fermentation casing and rotating along the longitudinal direction of the fermentation casing; and It further includes a collecting plate section having at least one collecting shaft formed in a direction orthogonal to one side of the rotating shaft and at least one collecting plate formed at a predetermined angle at the end of the collecting shaft so as to face the fermentation casing. The above collection board It is characterized in that the food crushed by the rotation of the above rotation shaft is transferred to the upper part of the fermentation casing. Food waste fermentation treatment device. In the second paragraph, The above fermentation part It further includes a mixing unit that is spaced apart from the above rotational axis at a certain interval and extends in different directions, and a mixing plate that is connected to the end of the support unit and mixes the crushed food located at the upper and lower parts of the fermentation casing in response to the rotation of the above rotational axis. Food waste fermentation treatment device. In paragraph 1, The above fermentation part A water discharge unit is formed by forming a hole that is discharged to the outside on the lower side of the other side of the casing, and forming at least one or more laminated nets in the hole to discharge moisture generated by food being collected by the compression unit. Food waste fermentation treatment device. In paragraph 1, The above discharge part A discharge casing formed so that one side is connected to the upper part of the fermentation unit; and It further includes a collection unit that is placed inside the above discharge casing to receive fermented and dried food and discharge it to the outside. Food waste fermentation treatment device. In paragraph 1, It is formed as an extended tube connected to the upper part of the fermentation unit and includes a gas discharge unit that discharges gas generated in the fermentation unit to the outside. Food waste fermentation treatment device. In paragraph 6, The above gas discharge part An active filter unit arranged inside the above tube to purify the moving gas; and It further includes plasma which is provided at the end of the above tube to further purify the unpurified gas. Food waste fermentation treatment device.

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