Claims
- 1. An apparatus for separating a suspension, comprising:a collection vessel; an inlet for receiving the suspension; a cyclone in communication with said inlet said cyclone having a frusto conical wall; said wall including a filter medium and a catalyst section in communication with the filter medium, said wall defining a hollow axial core; a lower underflow outlet in communication with the hollow axial core; and a vortex finder extending into the hollow axial core.
- 2. An apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the vortex finder outlet is porous.
- 3. An apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the filter medium is porous.
- 4. An apparatus for separating a suspension, comprising:1) a collection vessel; 2) a cyclone having a plate, a cylindrical wall extending from the plate, and a truncated frustoconical wall extending from the cylindrical wall, the truncated frustoconical wall having a tip wherein the tip of the truncated frustoconical wall defines an exit orifice; a) wherein the walls define a hollow axial core, the walls having a filter medium in communication with the collection vessel for separating the suspension into a carrier fluid, a thickened slurry, and a dilute slurry; b) wherein the frustoconical wall is porous and wherein at least a portion of the cylindrical wall is porous; 3) a filtrate outlet formed within the collection vessel for dispensing the carrier fluid from the collection vessel; 4) a lower underflow outlet, for dispensing the thickened slurry, extends through the collection vessel communicating with the exit orifice; 5) an overflow orifice formed within the plate; 6) a porous vortex finder defining a channel for dispensing the dilute slurry extending from the plate into the hollow axial region and is in communication with the overflow orifice and the hollow axial region.
- 5. An apparatus as in claim 4 wherein the filter medium is a porous catalyst for reacting with the carrier fluid.
- 6. An apparatus as in claim 4 wherein the filter medium is a porous hydrophobic material.
- 7. An apparatus as in claim 4 wherein the filter medium is a porous hydrophillic material.
- 8. The apparatus as in claim 4 further comprising a pump connected to the channel.
- 9. An apparatus for separating a suspension, comprising:a cyclone having an inlet for receiving the suspension; and a wall having a filter medium and a reactive material selected from the group consisting of a catalyst material, a hydrophillic material and a hydrophobic material, wherein said wall defines a hollow axial core.
- 10. An apparatus as in claim 9 wherein the cyclone defines an underflow orifice, the cyclone has a lid, wherein the lid defines an overflow orifice; and an upper overflow outlet in communication with the overflow orifice extending from the lid into the hollow axial core.
- 11. An apparatus as in claim 10 wherein the upper overflow outlet is a solid porous member.
- 12. An apparatus as in claim 11 wherein the upper overflow outlet is a hollow porous tube.
- 13. An apparatus as in claim 11 wherein the outlet porous section extends into the hollow axial core.
- 14. An apparatus as in claim 9 further comprising a lower underflow outlet for dispensing the thickened slurry, and an upper overflow outlet for dispensing the dilute slurry.
- 15. An apparatus as in claim 9 wherein the filter medium has a porous section.
- 16. An apparatus as in claim 15 wherein the reactive material is adjacent to the porous section.
- 17. An apparatus as in claim 16 wherein the reactive material is dispersed within the porous section.
- 18. An apparatus as in claim 15 wherein the porous section has two layers sandwiching the reactive material.
RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/846,598 filed on Apr. 30, 1997 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,530.
GOVERNMENT RIGHTS
This invention was made with government support under a cooperative agreement awarded by Ohio Space Grant Consortium Scholarship. The government may have certain rights to this invention.
US Referenced Citations (11)
Foreign Referenced Citations (3)
Number |
Date |
Country |
25 11 632 |
Sep 1976 |
DE |
0 093 203 |
Nov 1983 |
EP |
2 520 632 |
Aug 1983 |
FR |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08/846598 |
Apr 1997 |
US |
Child |
09/268113 |
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US |