Claims
- 1. Apparatus for burning a liquid hydrocarbon such as oil floating on the surface of a body of water comprising;
- a burner having a body submergible in the water below the oil,
- sound generating means including a transducer carried by the body for producing high frequency acoustic vibrations,
- a velocity transformer carried by the body above the transducer for concentrating the acoustic vibrations at a region of maximum intensity adjacent an upper end of said transformer,
- means for adjusting the buoyancy of the body to maintain the region of maximum intensity above the surface of the water and the oil thereon, and
- an ignition system including a spark-producing device mounted on the body to project upwardly into igniting contact with a cloud of the oil atomized over the velocity transformer by operation of the sound generating means.
- 2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, in which said transducer comprises a plurality of piezoelectric ceramic plates forming a column and being interconnected to be simultaneously energized.
- 3. Apparatus for removing an oil slick from a body of water comprising;
- a raft towable through the oil slick, said raft having enclosing members of substantially negative buoyancy defining an open space,
- a plurality of burners connected together in spaced relation and secured to the enclosing members to extend across the open space, said burners each having a body,
- sound generating means carried by each body and including a transducer formed of a column of piezoelectric ceramic plates electrically connected together to be simultaneously energized whereby to propagate high frequency acoustic vibrations,
- a velocity transformer carried by each body above the transducer for concentrating the acoustic vibrations at a region of maximum intensity near and upper end of said transformer,
- means for adjusting the buoyancy of each burner to maintain the region of maximum intensity thereof a predetermined distance above the surface of the water, and
- an ignition system including a spark-producing device mounted on each body to project upwardly into igniting contact with a cloud of oil droplets atomized over the burner by simultaneous operation of the sound generating means.
- 4. A method of burning a liquid hydrocarbon such as oil contaminating the surface of a body of water comprising the steps of;
- submerging a device for producing ultrasonic vibrations in the water below a slick of the oil,
- mounting a velocity transformer in operative relation to the device and so that a region of maximum intensity provided by the velocity transformer is spaced a predetermined distance above the water surface,
- energizing the device to feed the oil upwardly of the velocity transformer to the region of maximum intensity and thereby vaporize a portion of the oil slick to create a low-lying cloud of oil droplets, and
- igniting the cloud to consume the oil slick by the continuous feeding, vaporizing and burning process.
- 5. A method as claimed in claim 4, and including the additional steps of assembling a plurality of the devices as a raft, and towing the raft back and forth through the oil slick.
- 6. Apparatus for burning a liquid hydrocarbon such as oil floating on the surface of a body of water comprising:
- a burner having a body submergible in the water below the oil,
- sound generating means including a transducer carried by the body for producing high frequency acoustic vibrations,
- a velocity transformer carried by the body above the transducer for concentrating the acoustic vibrations at a region of maximum intensity adjacent an upper end of said transformer, said velocity transformer being an electrical conductor,
- means for adjusting the buoyancy of the body to maintain the region of maximum intensity above the surface of the water and the oil thereon, and
- an ignition system including a spark-producing device mounted on the body to project upwardly into igniting contact with a cloud of oil atomized over the velocity transformer by operation of the sound generating means, said ignition system including means electrically charging the velocity transformer to a polarity opposite that of the spark-producing device whereby electrostatic and acoustic forces are produced to drive the oil upwardly as finely divided particles.
- 7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 6, in which said velocity transformer is a truncated cone having an outer surface provided with circumferentially spaced grooves extending into the upper end of said transformer.
- 8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7, in which said upper end of the velocity transformer is dished to contain a quantity of oil delivered thereto mainly from the circumferentially spaced grooves.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This is a Continuation-In-Part of application Ser. No. 948,922, filed Oct. 5, 1978 and now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (8)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
972302 |
Oct 1964 |
GBX |
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
948922 |
Oct 1978 |
|