A rotatable filtration apparatus includes a partially submergeable, rotatable filter in a shape of a torus having a central axis of rotation, the filter comprising an upper half and a lower half, with the lower half comprising a permeable membrane, the permeable membrane comprising at least one pore configured to pass a filtrate while excluding solids, a rotation motor configured to rotate the filter about the central axis of rotation, an anchor configured to anchor the rotatable filter in a body of liquid, and a pump to extract the filtrate from the filtrate chamber into a filtrate line.
B01D 33/27 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation with rotary filtering surfaces, which are neither cylindrical nor planar, e.g. helical surfaces
B01D 33/74 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation having feed or discharge devices for discharging filtrate
A rotatable filtration apparatus includes a partially submergible, rotatable filter in a shape of a torus having a central axis of rotation, the filter comprising an upper half and a lower half, with the lower half comprising a permeable membrane, the permeable membrane comprising at least one pore configured to pass a filtrate while excluding solids, a rotation motor configured to rotate the filter about the central axis of rotation, an anchor configured to anchor the rotatable filter in a body of liquid, and a pump to extract the filtrate from the filtrate chamber into a filtrate line.
B01D 63/16 - Rotary, reciprocated or vibrated modules
B01D 69/02 - Semi-permeable membranes for separation processes or apparatus characterised by their form, structure or propertiesManufacturing processes specially adapted therefor characterised by their properties
A rotatable filtration apparatus includes a partially submergeable, rotatable filter in a shape of a torus having a central axis of rotation, the filter comprising an upper half and a lower half, with the lower half comprising a permeable membrane, the permeable membrane comprising at least one pore configured to pass a filtrate while excluding solids, a rotation motor configured to rotate the filter about the central axis of rotation, an anchor configured to anchor the rotatable filter in a body of liquid, and a pump to extract the filtrate from the filtrate chamber into a filtrate line.
B01D 33/27 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation with rotary filtering surfaces, which are neither cylindrical nor planar, e.g. helical surfaces
B01D 33/74 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation having feed or discharge devices for discharging filtrate
A shear retort mill for slow ablative pyrolysis features friction heating between shearing surfaces on a rotating disk and a static or rotating cylindrical drum enclosing the disk. A feed enters the workspace between the rotating disk and the bottom of the drum through a hollow feed shaft coupled to the rotating disk. Preferably, an auger compacts and moves the feed downward, and a shredder reduces the feed's particle size. The feed is increasingly ground and pyrolyzed as it is forced between the drum and disk shearing surface. As the dense processed material extrudes at the edge of the workspace, the gases and liquid products are forced inward by the barrier of dense solids. A static exhaust pipe at the center of the rotating feed shaft allows for the exit of these gases, which preferably go to a heat exchanger to recover any condensable fractions.
C10B 57/00 - Other carbonising or coking processesFeatures of destructive distillation processes in general
B01J 8/08 - Chemical or physical processes in general, conducted in the presence of fluids and solid particlesApparatus for such processes with moving particles
C10B 27/00 - Arrangements for withdrawal of the distillation gases
B01D 45/16 - Separating dispersed particles from gases or vapours by gravity, inertia, or centrifugal forces by centrifugal forces generated by the winding course of the gas stream
B03C 3/00 - Separating dispersed particles from gases or vapour, e.g. air, by electrostatic effect
B01J 8/00 - Chemical or physical processes in general, conducted in the presence of fluids and solid particlesApparatus for such processes
5.
Radial counterflow separation filter with focused exhaust
An improved apparatus for filtration has a fluid mixture feed comprising light and heavy fractions fed into the workspace between counter-rotating disk impellers within a tank, thereby forming vortices in the workspace. A static radial exhaust array is located axially in the workspace, comprising exhaust channels, each of which has a peripheral end facing the workspace and an inner end communicating with an axial exhaust drain. An axial pump produces low pressure in the axial exhaust drain, thereby drawing in and anchoring the vortices to the peripheral ends of the exhaust channels so that the exhaust channels can extract the contents of the vortex cores. Vanes can be incorporated into the workspace surface of each disk impeller so that the opposed vanes pass in close proximity, forming vortices along a plurality of radial lanes of intersection, with the peripheral openings of each of the exhaust channels aligned with at least one of the lanes of intersection in the workspace. The feed can be a peripheral feed which enters the workspace radially inward through the periphery of the workspace, or the feed can enter the workspace radially outward through a static axial feed array.
B01D 45/14 - Separating dispersed particles from gases or vapours by gravity, inertia, or centrifugal forces by centrifugal forces generated by rotating vanes, discs, drums or brushes
B01D 21/26 - Separation of sediment aided by centrifugal force
C02F 1/469 - Treatment of water, waste water, or sewage by electrochemical methods by electrochemical separation, e.g. by electro-osmosis, electrodialysis, electrophoresis
C12M 1/00 - Apparatus for enzymology or microbiology
C12N 1/12 - Unicellular algaeCulture media therefor
B82Y 30/00 - Nanotechnology for materials or surface science, e.g. nanocomposites
C01B 32/162 - Preparation characterised by catalysts
B01J 19/08 - Processes employing the direct application of electric or wave energy, or particle radiationApparatus therefor
An apparatus for filtration has a feed of sludge, containing liquid, solids and gases fed into a tank, the tank containing at least one spinning separation filter comprising a filter cone set having a filter screen, and a barrier cone, arranged roughly in parallel, and defining a conical workspace between them, the conical workspace having a peripheral opening to the tank and a central opening communicating with the interiors of one or more hollow shafts supporting the barrier cone and the filter cone, the upper shaft supporting the barrier cone having an upper axial channel for the exit of gases, the lower shaft supporting the center of the filter cone having a lower axial channel for the exit of liquid or oil, motor means for producing rotation in said at least one spinning separation filter, and a filtrate liquid reservoir located underneath the filter cone for capturing the filtrate passing through the filter screen.
B01D 33/35 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation with multiple filtering elements characterised by their mutual disposition
B01D 33/39 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation with multiple filtering elements characterised by their mutual disposition in parallel connection concentrically or coaxially
B01D 46/26 - Particle separators, e.g. dust precipitators, using rigid hollow filter bodies rotatable
An apparatus for filtration has a feed of sludge, containing liquid, solids and gases fed into a tank, the tank containing at least one spinning separation filter comprising a filter cone set having a filter screen, and a barrier cone, arranged roughly in parallel, and defining a conical workspace between them, the conical workspace having a peripheral opening to the tank and a central opening communicating with the interiors of one or more hollow shafts supporting the barrier cone and the filter cone, the upper shaft supporting the barrier cone having an upper axial channel for the exit of gases, the lower shaft supporting the center of the filter cone having a lower axial channel for the exit of liquid or oil, motor means for producing rotation in said at least one spinning separation filter, and a filtrate liquid reservoir located underneath the filter cone for capturing the filtrate passing through the filter screen.
B01D 33/35 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation with multiple filtering elements characterised by their mutual disposition
B01D 33/39 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation with multiple filtering elements characterised by their mutual disposition in parallel connection concentrically or coaxially
B01D 46/00 - Filters or filtering processes specially modified for separating dispersed particles from gases or vapours
An apparatus for filtration has a feed of sludge, containing liquid, solids and gases fed into a tank, the tank containing at least one spinning separation filter comprising a filter cone set having a filter screen, and a barrier cone, arranged roughly in parallel, and defining a conical workspace between them, the conical workspace having a peripheral opening to the tank and a central opening communicating with the interiors of one or more hollow shafts supporting the barrier cone and the filter cone, the upper shaft supporting the barrier cone having an upper axial channel for the exit of gases, the lower shaft supporting the center of the filter cone having a lower axial channel for the exit of liquid or oil, motor means for producing rotation in said at least one spinning separation filter, and a filtrate liquid reservoir located underneath the filter cone for capturing the filtrate passing through the filter screen.
Coaxial disk armatures, counter-rotating through an axial magnetic field, act as electrolysis electrodes and high shear centrifugal impellers for an axial feed. The feed can be carbon dioxide, water, methane, or other substances requiring electrolysis. Carbon dioxide and water can be processed into syngas and ozone continuously, enabling carbon and oxygen recycling at power plants. Within the space between the counter-rotating disk electrodes, a shear layer comprising a fractal tree network of radial vortices provides sink flow conduits for light fractions, such as syngas, radially inward while the heavy fractions, such as ozone and elemental carbon flow radially outward in boundary layers against the disks and beyond the disk periphery, where they are recovered as valuable products, such as carbon nanotubes.
An improvement is described for the processing of biological material in a continuous stream by the application of radiant energy taken from the wavelengths from infrared to ultraviolet, and its absorption by a feedstock in a workspace of featuring controlled turbulence created by one or more counter-rotating disk impellers. The absorbed energy and the controlled turbulence patterns create a continuous process of productive change in a feed into the reactor, with separated light and heavy product output streams flowing both inward and outward from the axis in radial counterflow. The basic mechanism of processing can be applied to a wide range of feedstocks, from the promotion of the growth of algae to make biofuel or other forms of aquaculture, to a use in the controlled combustion of organic material to make biochar.
C12N 1/12 - Unicellular algaeCulture media therefor
C12N 13/00 - Treatment of microorganisms or enzymes with electrical or wave energy, e.g. magnetism, sonic waves
C12P 7/64 - FatsFatty oilsEster-type waxesHigher fatty acids, i.e. having at least seven carbon atoms in an unbroken chain bound to a carboxyl groupOxidised oils or fats
A01K 61/59 - Culture of aquatic animals of shellfish of crustaceans, e.g. lobsters or shrimps
11.
Reactors for forming foam materials from high internal phase emulsions, methods of forming foam materials and conductive nanostructures therein
An RF inductor such as a Tesla antenna splices nanotube ends together to form a nanostructure in a polymer foam matrix. High Internal Phase Emulsion (HIPE) is gently sheared and stretched in a reactor comprising opposed coaxial counter-rotating impellers, which parallel-align polymer chains and also carbon nanotubes mixed with the oil phase. Stretching and forced convection prevent the auto-acceleration effect. Batch and continuous processes are disclosed. In the batch process, a fractal radial array of coherent vortices in the HIPE is preserved when the HIPE polymerizes, and helical nanostructures around these vortices are spliced by microhammering into longer helices. A disk radial filter produced by the batch process has improved radial flux from edge to center due to its area-preserving radial vascular network. In the continuous process, strips of HIPE are pulled from the periphery of the reactor continuously and post-treated by an RF inductor to produce cured conductive foam.
B01D 33/00 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation
B01D 24/28 - Filters comprising loose filtering material, i.e. filtering material without any binder between the individual particles or fibres thereof with the filter bed moving during the filtration
B01D 39/00 - Filtering material for liquid or gaseous fluids
B01D 39/14 - Other self-supporting filtering material
B01D 39/16 - Other self-supporting filtering material of organic material, e.g. synthetic fibres
B01D 33/15 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation with rotary plane filtering surfaces
B01D 33/21 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation with rotary plane filtering surfaces with hollow filtering discs transversely mounted on a hollow rotary shaft
B01D 33/23 - Construction of discs or component sectors thereof
C08J 9/00 - Working-up of macromolecular substances to porous or cellular articles or materialsAfter-treatment thereof
C08J 9/28 - Working-up of macromolecular substances to porous or cellular articles or materialsAfter-treatment thereof by elimination of a liquid phase from a macromolecular composition or article, e.g. drying of coagulum
B01D 24/00 - Filters comprising loose filtering material, i.e. filtering material without any binder between the individual particles or fibres thereof
B01D 25/00 - Filters formed by clamping together several filtering elements or parts of such elements
42 - Scientific, technological and industrial services, research and design
Goods & Services
consulting services in the field of environmental assessment and planning and pollution prevention; technical consulting in the field of environmental engineering, climate change and global warming; research in the field of climate change and pollution prevention; providing scientific information in the fields of climate change and global warming; providing a website featuring environmental information about climate change and pollution prevention
13.
Electrohydraulic and shear cavitation radial counterflow liquid processor
Axially fed fluid is sheared during long residence time in a radial workspace between counter-rotating coaxial disk-shaped centrifugal impellers. Gases evolve in the fractal turbulence of a shear layer, which is forced between laminar boundary layers, and an axial suction pump axially extracts evolved noncondensables and volatiles through cores of radial vortices in the shear layer. Cavitation due to shear between the impellers kills pathogens by shock waves, microjets, OH radicals, and nearby UV light pulses. Oppositely charged electrodes bounding the workspace cause electroporesis and electrohydraulic cavitation. The electrodes are counter-rotating ridged armatures of disk dynamos, forming a dynamic capacitor having audio frequency pulsed electric fields. Electrode erosion by arcing is prevented by shear between the electrodes.
Mechanical visbreaking and pyrolysis between counter-rotating coaxial centrifugal impellers in a continuous radial counterflow process minimizes wastewater discharges. In one example, a cataclastic shear retort comminutes, shear thins, and shear heats an axial feed, such as tar sand, oil shale, coal tailings, distillation bottoms, or lignite. Pyrolyzing the feedstock in this shear retort yields a product stream of gases, naphthas, and oils which first mixes with the feedstock and then is axially extracted, while spent solids are simultaneously extruded from the periphery as coked devolatilized residue, such as char sand for upgrading soil to terra preta. Recirculation of shear-heated solids in long residence time within the shear retort brings heat from the spent solids at the periphery to the feedstock without an external heated sand loop. CO2 emissions from combustion to heat water for oil extraction are eliminated.
B01D 3/00 - Distillation or related exchange processes in which liquids are contacted with gaseous media, e.g. stripping
C10B 53/06 - Destructive distillation, specially adapted for particular solid raw materials or solid raw materials in special form of oil shale or bituminous rocks
C05F 11/02 - Other organic fertilisers from peat, brown coal, or similar vegetable deposits
C10B 55/00 - Coking mineral oils, bitumen, tar or the like, or mixtures thereof, with solid carbonaceous materials
C10G 1/04 - Production of liquid hydrocarbon mixtures from oil shale, oil-sand, or non-melting solid carbonaceous or similar materials, e.g. wood, coal by extraction
F01N 5/04 - Exhaust or silencing apparatus combined or associated with devices profiting by exhaust energy the devices using kinetic energy
F01N 3/01 - Exhaust or silencing apparatus having means for purifying, rendering innocuous, or otherwise treating exhaust by means of electric or electrostatic separators
F01N 3/037 - Exhaust or silencing apparatus having means for purifying, rendering innocuous, or otherwise treating exhaust for cooling, or for removing solid constituents of, exhaust by means of inertial or centrifugal separators, e.g. associated with agglomerators
F01N 1/18 - Silencing apparatus characterised by method of silencing by using movable parts having rotary movement
B01D 53/32 - Separation of gases or vapoursRecovering vapours of volatile solvents from gasesChemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases or aerosols by electrical effects other than those provided for in group
C25B 9/12 - Cells or assemblies of cells comprising at least one movable electrode, e.g. rotary electrodes; Assemblies of constructional parts thereof
F01N 1/08 - Silencing apparatus characterised by method of silencing by reducing exhaust energy by throttling or whirling
F01N 3/08 - Exhaust or silencing apparatus having means for purifying, rendering innocuous, or otherwise treating exhaust for rendering innocuous
Mechanical visbreaking and pyrolysis between counter-rotating coaxial centrifugal impellers in a continuous radial counterflow process minimizes wastewater discharges. In an embodiment, a cataclastic shear retort comminutes, shear thins, and shear heats an axial feed, such as tar sand, oil shale, coal tailings, distillation bottoms, or lignite. Pyrolyzing the feedstock in this shear retort yields a product stream of gases, naphthas, and oils which first mixes with the feedstock and then is axially extracted, while spent solids are simultaneously extruded from the periphery as coked devolatilized residue, such as char sand for upgrading soil to terra preta. Recirculation of shear-heated solids in long residence time within the shear retort brings heat from the spent solids at the periphery to the feedstock without an external heated sand loop. CO2 emissions from combustion to heat water for oil extraction are eliminated.
C10G 1/04 - Production of liquid hydrocarbon mixtures from oil shale, oil-sand, or non-melting solid carbonaceous or similar materials, e.g. wood, coal by extraction
F23G 5/027 - Methods or apparatus, e.g. incinerators, specially adapted for combustion of waste or low-grade fuels including pretreatment pyrolising or gasifying
Turbine exhaust steam, axially fed between counter-rotating radial flow disk turbines, separates into: (1) a radially inward flow of low enthalpy dry steam, and (2) a radially outward flow of high enthalpy steam, noncondensibles, and condensate. The radially inward flow goes to a conventional condenser. The radially outward flow loses enthalpy turning the disk turbines as it passes in the boundary layers against the disks, thus becoming low enthalpy dry steam, and the counter-rotation of the disks by impinging mass flow of condensate, high enthalpy steam, and noncondensibles sustains a cascade of dynamic vortex tubes in the shear layer between the boundary layers. The low enthalpy dry steam resulting from work being done flows into the condenser through the vortex cores of fractal turbulence. Condensate exits the periphery of the workspace, ready to be pumped back into the Rankine cycle.
F01K 13/00 - General layout or general methods of operation, of complete steam engine plants
F01K 23/06 - Plants characterised by more than one engine delivering power external to the plant, the engines being driven by different fluids the engine cycles being thermally coupled combustion heat from one cycle heating the fluid in another cycle
B01D 53/24 - Separation of gases or vapoursRecovering vapours of volatile solvents from gasesChemical or biological purification of waste gases, e.g. engine exhaust gases, smoke, fumes, flue gases or aerosols by centrifugal force
An RF inductor such as a Tesla antenna splices nanotube ends together to form a nanostructure in a polymer foam matrix. High Internal Phase Emulsion (HIPE) is gently sheared and stretched in a reactor comprising opposed coaxial counter-rotating impellers, which parallel-align polymer chains and also carbon nanotubes mixed with the oil phase. Stretching and forced convection prevent the auto-acceleration effect. Batch and continuous processes are disclosed. In the batch process, a fractal radial array of coherent vortices in the HIPE is preserved when the HIPE polymerizes, and helical nanostructures around these vortices are spliced by microhammering into longer helices. A disk radial filter produced by the batch process has improved radial flux from edge to center due to its area-preserving radial vascular network. In the continuous process, strips of HIPE are pulled from the periphery of the reactor continuously and post-treated by an RF inductor to produce cured conductive foam.
Turbine exhaust steam, axially fed between counter-rotating radial flow disk turbines, separates into: (1) a radially inward flow of low enthalpy dry steam, and (2) a radially outward flow of high enthalpy steam, noncondensibles, and condensate. The radially inward flow goes to a conventional condenser. The radially outward flow loses enthalpy turning the disk turbines as it passes in the boundary layers against the disks, thus becoming low enthalpy dry steam, and the counter-rotation of the disks by impinging mass flow of condensate, high enthalpy steam, and noncondensibles sustains a cascade of dynamic vortex tubes in the shear layer between the boundary layers. The low enthalpy dry steam resulting from work being done flows into the condenser through the vortex cores of fractal turbulence. Condensate exits the periphery of the workspace, ready to be pumped back into the Rankine cycle.
F01K 23/06 - Plants characterised by more than one engine delivering power external to the plant, the engines being driven by different fluids the engine cycles being thermally coupled combustion heat from one cycle heating the fluid in another cycle
F01K 17/00 - Use of steam or condensate extracted or exhausted from steam engine plant
B01D 46/18 - Particle separators, e.g. dust precipitators, using filtering belts
Coaxial disk armatures, counter-rotating through an axial magnetic field, act as electrolysis electrodes and high shear centrifugal impellers for an axial feed. The feed can be carbon dioxide, water, methane, or other substances requiring electrolysis. Carbon dioxide and water can be processed into syngas and ozone continuously, enabling carbon and oxygen recycling at power plants. Within the space between the counter-rotating disk electrodes, a shear layer comprising a fractal tree network of radial vortices provides sink flow conduits for light fractions, such as syngas, radially inward while the heavy fractions, such as ozone and elemental carbon flow radially outward in boundary layers against the disks and beyond the disk periphery, where they are recovered as valuable products, such as carbon nanotubes.
A rotating annular crossflow filter shears radially outward flowing axial feed between counter-rotating coaxial centrifugal impellers. A radial impedance of flow at the impeller periphery slows the radially outward flow and increases residence time of feed between the impellers. Shear lift ejects solids from the boundary layer at the filter surface, and ejected solids collect by centrifugation at the impeller periphery, where they thicken into a sludge and are extruded. Gases, oils, floating solids, and fractions having a specific gravity less than water evolve into radial vortices and are sucked radially inward and out from between the impellers by an axial pump. Three way phase separation proceeds continuously in one pass through a simple mechanical device having a long residence time for feed in the processing zone.
B01D 33/17 - Filters with filtering elements which move during the filtering operation with rotary plane filtering surfaces with rotary filtering tables
B01D 35/01 - Devices for the removal of gas, e.g. air purge systems
22.
Rotary annular crossflow filter, degasser, and sludge thickener
In an embodiment, axially-fed slurry can be continuously separated into clarified liquid, stripped gas, and thickened sludge in radial counterflow between counter-rotating coaxial centrifugal impellers. One impeller comprises an annular crossflow filter through which liquids are extracted. At the periphery of the impellers, where they are narrowly separated, the sludge is shear thickened into an extruded paste. Suspended solids in the feed pass over the surface of the rotating annular crossflow filter by the shear lift effect, and the vortex-wall interaction jets water radially inward from the periphery, dewatering the sludge. Evolved gases, oils, and fractions lighter than water flow radially inward to the impeller axis through radial vortices in a shear layer between the impellers, and are extracted through an axial exhaust conduit. Feed has long residence time so that separation is complete and continuous. Municipal wastewater, produced water, beverages, food, and scrubber sludge are discussed.
Axially fed fluid is sheared during long residence time in a radial workspace between counter-rotating coaxial disk-shaped centrifugal impellers. Gases evolve in the fractal turbulence of a shear layer, which is forced between laminar boundary layers, and an axial suction pump axially extracts evolved noncondensables and volatiles through cores of radial vortices in the shear layer. Cavitation due to shear between the impellers kills pathogens by shock waves, microjets, OH radicals, and nearby UV light pulses. Oppositely charged electrodes bounding the workspace cause electroporesis and electrohydraulic cavitation. The electrodes are counter-rotating ridged armatures of disk dynamos, forming a dynamic capacitor having audio frequency pulsed electric fields. Electrode erosion by arcing is prevented by shear between the electrodes.
Simultaneous source-sink flow, or radial counterflow, is driven by a centrifugal pump disposed within a casing. Radially outward source flow of brine goes into a shrouding tank and concentrates while a radially inward sink flow of fresh water flows back over the pump to axial extraction. An axial pump drives sink flow and axial extraction. Convergent sink flow passes under an inductor to an axial exhaust port. Induced viscosity and inductive repulsion hinder the passage of brine in sink flow, so only fresh water can reach the axial exhaust port. Crystallization of scale-forming salts is aided by Joule heating from the inductor. Solvent and gases are continuously axially extracted in sink flow, favoring crystallization. Sodium chloride is cooled and crystallized in the shrouding tank. Brine comprising other salts flows out of the tank to treatment by suitable means. Thus brine is separated into fresh water, crystallized salt, and concentrated brine.
Vortex gas separation is forced in radial counterflow between counter-rotating coaxial centrifugal impellers. Feed is at the axis of rotation. Axial extraction of nitrogen and water vapor is driven by an axial pump and by back pressure from the tank while radially outward flow of carbon dioxide and scrubbing targets is driven by the impellers. Scrubbing of the concentrated targets is in high turbulence during a long residence time.
Tiny centrifugation effects of innumerable turbulent eddy vortices in a shear layer between the impellers and in the tank are integrated by the forcing regime of the impellers and the axial pump. Radial vortices caused by shear between the counter-rotating impellers provide coherent sink flow conduits for axial extraction of nitrogen ballast. Fine fly ash (PM-2.5) scrubbing is concurrent with NOx and SOx scrubbing and with carbon capture. Mechanically assisted and highly turbulent wet scrubbing shear thickens fine fly ash and precipitates into clumps of sludge, so the wastewater stream is easily treatable and requires no large storage tank.
B01D 45/14 - Separating dispersed particles from gases or vapours by gravity, inertia, or centrifugal forces by centrifugal forces generated by rotating vanes, discs, drums or brushes