1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for generating energy and more particularly, to a method and apparatus which may be used in combination with a scrubber and a furnace and which is effective to increase the efficiency of operation of the furnace while reclaiming otherwise wasted energy, and to a new and novel scrubber and furnace.
2. Background of the Invention
Furnaces are used in a wide variety of applications in which material is to be burned or incinerated. Further, oftentimes a scrubber is used in combination with many such furnaces, and functions to clean or remove various types of particulates which emanate from the gaseous type output of the furnace (these particulates are formed in the burning process), and then to allow the substantially “cleaned” output of the furnace to emanate into the environment.
While such furnaces do indeed desirably incinerate a wide variety of materials, and while such scrubbers do indeed clean the material emanating from such furnaces, the furnaces and the scrubbers often require much energy with which to operate and are relatively inefficient. Typically such energy, which is consumed by the various furnaces and scrubbers, is created by the burning of coal which further undesirably impacts our environment.
There is therefore a need for a method for increasing the energy efficiency of such furnaces and scrubbers and the present inventions provide such a methodology. There is therefore a further need for a new and improved furnace and/or scrubber assembly and the present inventions do indeed provide such a new and improved furnace and scrubber assembly. The present inventions also provided many other benefits which will be more fully set forth and apparent from the discussion set forth below.
It is a first non-limiting object of the present inventions to provide a methodology which overcomes the various drawbacks of current and prior furnace and scrubber operating methodologies.
It is a second non-limiting object of the present invention to provide a new and improved furnace assembly which overcomes some or all of the various drawbacks which have been delineated above.
It is a third non-limiting object of the present invention to provide a new and improved scrubber assembly which overcomes some or all of the various drawbacks which have been delineated above.
According to a first non-limiting aspect of the present invention, a methodology is provided for the generation of electrical energy and includes the steps of providing a turbine assembly; and directing the output of a furnace to the turbine assembly, effective to cause the directed output to impact the provided turbine assembly, thereby causing the provided turbine assembly to generate electrical energy.
According to a second non-limiting aspect of the present invention, a furnace assembly is provided and includes a first portion which receives material, which burns the first material, and which produces output gas due to the burning of the first material; and a turbine assembly which is coupled to the furnace and which extracts heat from the first material and thereby generates electrical energy from the first material.
According to a third non-limiting aspect of the present invention, a first turbine assembly is provided which extracts heat from a gaseous output; a scrubber assembly is provided and includes a scrubber which receives a gaseous output, which cleans the received gas, and which produces output material; and a second turbine assembly which receives the output material and which generates electrical energy from the received output material.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention (including the subjoined claims) and by reference to the following drawings.
Referring now to
Particularly, furnace assembly 10 includes a burner assembly 12 which receives material 11 and which is adapted to burn the material and emit a gaseous output stream 16. The burner assembly also receives electrical power 17 to operate. The stream 16 may or may not include particulate type material. The furnace assembly 10 further includes an energy generation assembly 19 which is coupled to and receives the stream 16 and which generates electrical energy 22 by use of the received stream 16. One non-limiting example of energy generation assembly 19 is an Organic Rankine Cycle Engine, although other types of assemblies may be utilized. The stream 16 may pass through the assembly 19, after causing the assembly 19 to generate electrical energy 22, and form an output 30. Electrical power 22 may be used to operate burning assembly 12. The traveling stream 16 may cause the assembly 19 to generate electrical energy by impinging upon and moving the blades or other elements of a turbine which forms assembly 19.
In a second non-limiting embodiment of the invention, as best shown in
According to a third non-limiting embodiment of the invention (
According to a fourth non-limiting embodiment of the invention, as shown in
The invention provides many benefits, by way of example and without limitation, by use of a diffuser rather than a conventional venturi for the scrubber process, the back pressure on the furnace or burner assembly 12 is reduced; thereby, the power consumption of the furnace blower is reduced and proportionately, the efficiency of the system is improved. Further; the increased velocity through the scrubber portion will improve scrubber performance from ˜96% to virtually 100% which will yield reduced downtime and maintenance for downstream equipment.
It is to be understood that the various inventions are not limited to the exact construction or methodology which has been illustrated above, but that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the various inventions as they are delineated in the following claims.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2436683 | Wood | Feb 1948 | A |
2579932 | Kobernick | Dec 1951 | A |
3589313 | Smith et al. | Jun 1971 | A |
3670669 | Hoad | Jun 1972 | A |
3741890 | Smith et al. | Jun 1973 | A |
3750001 | McCloskey | Jul 1973 | A |
3827946 | Grimett et al. | Aug 1974 | A |
4010098 | Fassell | Mar 1977 | A |
4024229 | Smith et al. | May 1977 | A |
4157961 | Borst | Jun 1979 | A |
4290269 | Hedstrom et al. | Sep 1981 | A |
4291636 | Bergsten et al. | Sep 1981 | A |
4316774 | Trusch | Feb 1982 | A |
4321151 | McMullen | Mar 1982 | A |
4346302 | Bozzuto | Aug 1982 | A |
4454427 | Sosnowski et al. | Jun 1984 | A |
4624417 | Gangi | Nov 1986 | A |
4657681 | Hughes et al. | Apr 1987 | A |
4733528 | Pinto | Mar 1988 | A |
4750454 | Santina et al. | Jun 1988 | A |
4762527 | Beshore et al. | Aug 1988 | A |
4769149 | Nobilet et al. | Sep 1988 | A |
4784770 | Nagao | Nov 1988 | A |
4818405 | Vroom et al. | Apr 1989 | A |
4880533 | Hondulas | Nov 1989 | A |
4991408 | Liszka | Feb 1991 | A |
5024770 | Boyd et al. | Jun 1991 | A |
5032289 | Martineau | Jul 1991 | A |
5279637 | Lynam et al. | Jan 1994 | A |
5428906 | Lynam et al. | Jul 1995 | A |
5445088 | Daugherty et al. | Aug 1995 | A |
5451137 | Gorlov | Sep 1995 | A |
5500306 | Hsu et al. | Mar 1996 | A |
5534659 | Springer et al. | Jul 1996 | A |
5553659 | Hegel et al. | Sep 1996 | A |
5556232 | Malmgram | Sep 1996 | A |
5642984 | Gorlov | Jul 1997 | A |
6036443 | Gorlov | Mar 2000 | A |
6155892 | Gorlov | Dec 2000 | A |
6216463 | Stewart | Apr 2001 | B1 |
6223535 | Kitz | May 2001 | B1 |
6253700 | Gorlov | Jul 2001 | B1 |
6286314 | Kitz | Sep 2001 | B1 |
6293835 | Gorlov | Sep 2001 | B2 |
6299774 | Ainsworth et al. | Oct 2001 | B1 |
6332320 | Kitz | Dec 2001 | B2 |
6387281 | Millard et al. | May 2002 | B2 |
6539717 | Kitz | Apr 2003 | B2 |
6686556 | Mitchell | Feb 2004 | B2 |
6798080 | Baarman et al. | Sep 2004 | B1 |
6976362 | Sheppard et al. | Dec 2005 | B2 |
7105088 | Schien et al. | Sep 2006 | B2 |
7597812 | Schien et al. | Oct 2009 | B2 |
7644587 | Yakobson et al. | Jan 2010 | B2 |
7915749 | Chupa et al. | Mar 2011 | B1 |
7959411 | Schlabach et al. | Jun 2011 | B2 |
8154138 | Ganesan et al. | Apr 2012 | B2 |
8277543 | Zauderer | Oct 2012 | B2 |
8344528 | Bassett | Jan 2013 | B2 |
20010007193 | Kitz | Jul 2001 | A1 |
20010010156 | Kitz | Aug 2001 | A1 |
20020144981 | Mitchell | Oct 2002 | A1 |
20060054318 | Sarada | Mar 2006 | A1 |
20080017369 | Sarada | Jan 2008 | A1 |
20080223046 | Yakobson et al. | Sep 2008 | A1 |
20100307392 | Berthold | Dec 2010 | A1 |
20100327590 | Lee et al. | Dec 2010 | A1 |
20110221207 | Ganesan et al. | Sep 2011 | A1 |
20120060418 | Epstein et al. | Mar 2012 | A1 |
20120137877 | Zauderer | Jun 2012 | A1 |
20120175888 | Chupa | Jul 2012 | A1 |
20120190102 | Gitschel et al. | Jul 2012 | A1 |
20120200092 | Johnson et al. | Aug 2012 | A1 |
Entry |
---|
Cogenderation of the RObert O. Pickard Envirnmental Centre Jun. 10, 2008. |
Sanitary Sewar—published by Wikipedia doenloaded on Jun. 21, 2010. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20110298223 A1 | Dec 2011 | US |