Patent Grant
9334446
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a thermal cracker device, particularly to a device that can make even thermal conduction to obtain uniform temperature during pyrolysis process.
2. Related Art
A common method for processing trash or waste is by means of burying or using incinerator, melting furnace, or thermal cracking furnace. However, in recent years, the trash or waste treatment problem has drawn more and more public attention. By the development of technology, the trash or waste caused negative effect to the environment or with poisonous chemicals, such as huge amount of obsolete tires, if not being well-managed in a proper way, will pollute the natural environment and is seriously harmful to the health of the human beings.
A burning temperature of the incinerator is about 800° C.-900° C., which can burn the trash or waste to ashy condition. A burning temperature of the melting furnace is about 1500° C., which can turn the ashes into melting condition. However, these methods cannot recycle useful materials from the trash or waste, and cannot reduce the processing cost and pollutions as well.
Pyrolysis is a method by heating the trash or waste at about 500° C.-800° C. in a non-oxygen or near non-oxygen environment (by using a vacuum pump) to separate and recycle the organic compound. The temperature needed for the pyrolysis is relatively lower than the incinerator and melting furnace. The pyrolysis products of the obsolete tires mainly include liquid oil, carbon black, steel wire, and some flammable mixed gas containing three-phase products. Thus, using pyrolysis to process the trash or waste can obtain fuels and some useful chemical products. In view of forgoing, pyrolysis is a better way to deal with the trash or waste nowadays, because some useful by-products can be obtained after the procedure.
Improving the temperature control efficiency is the most important part for rising/lowering temperature for the thermal cracking furnace. If the temperature is not correct, the heat flow characteristic will change, which will influence the yield of the pyrolysis. A conventional thermal cracking equipment includes an outer furnace and a thermal cracking furnace. A conventional heat pipe is arranged inside the thermal cracking furnace, and the heat is conducted from the inner to the outside. Even though more or taller heat pipes will improve the heat conduction effect, the volume of the thermal cracking furnace will be influenced as well. Thus, the common heat pipe is usually situated on the middle near the lower part of the thermal cracking equipment, which results in significant temperature differences between the upper part and the lower part of the thermal cracking furnace, and thus forcing the pyrolysis area to be only in the lower part of the thermal cracking furnace. And, since the conventional heat pipe is installed inside the thermal cracking furnace, the heat pipe will become a hindrance for adding a stirring mechanism inside the thermal cracking furnace.
Now the critical issue for the industrial pyrolysis lies in that: how to reach the temperature of the furnace to the final set value. Therefore, it is necessary to have an improved thermal cracking furnace structure to replace the conventional heat pipe heating structure, and further keeping the temperature of the furnace within ±5° C. of the set value to achieve fine tuning function.
The present invention relates to a thermal cracker device with even thermal conduction to obtain uniform temperature during pyrolysis process.
In order to achieve the aforementioned goal, the thermal cracker device according to the present invention includes an outer furnace and a thermal cracking furnace being accommodated in the outer furnace, wherein an outer surface of the thermal cracking furnace is provided with a fin structure, a space is defined between an outer side of the thermal cracking furnace and an inner side of the outer furnace, and an air flow channel is defined in the space by the fin structure.
When using the thermal cracking furnace to do the pyrolysis reaction, the first step is heating the thermal cracking furnace. At this time, the heated air will flow along the fin structure, and the heating for the whole thermal cracking furnace will be in an uniform condition. Compared to the conventional technique, the thermal cracking furnace according to the present invention allows the heated air to flow from a heating hole into a closed space, and the heated air will flow upward along the spiral structure of the exterior wall of the thermal cracking furnace, and finally flow into an exhaust pipe via an exhaust vent installed on the top of the outer furnace. From the flowing path of the aforementioned heated air, we can find that heated air evenly flows in the closed space between the outer furnace and the thermal cracking furnace, and meanwhile, the flowing path distance for the heated air is increased, which means the time that the heated air stays in the furnace is increased as well. By this arrangement, the heating effect of the heated air and the pyrolysis efficiency are improved, and the pyrolysis speed and the yield rate will largely increase also.
The fin structure of the outer side wall of the thermal cracking furnace is thermal electrical couple type fin structure which can conduct the heat. The fin structure can be lateral type, vertical type, or spiral type. The range of the slope of the spiral type fin is ±(0.015 to 0.23). The fin structure can replace the conventional heat pipe heating structure. The fin structure can be added with a thermal electrical couple to detect the temperature, and the detected temperature can be transmitted to short or long distance auto heating control device to keep the temperature within ±5° C. by fine tuning, thereby improving the whole temperature control system of the furnace.
These and other features and advantages of the various embodiments disclosed herein will be better understood with respect to the following description and drawings, in which like numbers refer to like parts throughout, and in which:
Referring to
As shown in
The aforementioned outer furnace 10 has an insulating and cooling function. An inner surface of the outer furnace 10 is covered with a layer of insulating material 1110 to seal the heat inside the whole furnace system. As shown in
When using the thermal cracking furnace 2 to do the pyrolysis reaction, the first step is heating the thermal cracking furnace 2. At this time, the heated air will flow along the fin structure 21, and the heating for the whole thermal cracking furnace will be in a uniform condition. The heating hole 350 used for heating the thermal cracking furnace 2 is provided near the lower part of the left side wall 150 of the outer furnace 10. The heating hole 350 connects the hollow chamber 100. The exhaust vent 360 is provided on the upper part of the front side wall 130 of the outer furnace 10. The exhaust vent 360 connects the hollow chamber 100 to exhaust waste gases generated during the heating process. When the heated air enters from the heating hole 350 into the closed space, the heated air will flow upward along the spiral fin structure 21 of the exterior wall of the thermal cracking furnace 2, and finally flowing into an exhaust pipe via the exhaust vent 360 installed on the top of the outer furnace 10. From the flowing path of the aforementioned heated air, we can find that heated air evenly flows in the closed space between the outer furnace 10 and the thermal cracking furnace 2, and meanwhile, the flowing path distance for the heated air is increased, which means the time that the heated air stays in the furnace is increased as well. By this arrangement, the heating effect of the heated air and the pyrolysis efficiency are improved, and the pyrolysis speed and the yielding rate will largely increase as well.
Improving the temperature control efficiency is the most important part for rising/lowering temperature for the thermal cracking furnace. If the temperature is not correct, the heat flow characteristic will change, which will influence the yield of the pyrolysis. The spiral shape fin structure 21 in the present embodiment is consisted of thermal electric couple type fins, and the thermal electric couple type fin structure 21 can replace the conventional heat pipe structure. The fin structure 21 added with a thermal electrical couple can detect the temperature, and the detected temperature can be transmitted to short or long distance auto heating control device to keep the temperature within ±5° C. by fine tuning, thereby improving the whole temperature control system of the furnace. The whole fin structure 21 can be seen as a heat conductor, which keeps the whole thermal cracking furnace 2 under uniform temperature, and the heat conduction for the whole pyrolysis process will be uniform as well. In brief, the main purpose of the fin structure 21 is to make sure the temperature of the thermal cracking furnace 2 can reach to the final set value.
Because of the material characteristic of the outer furnace 10, which has an ability of heat preservation, the inner temperature of the whole thermal cracking furnace 2 can be kept in a specific working temperature. One of the features according to the present invention is that the quick and even temperature rising of the thermal cracking furnace 2 can be achieved by installing the spiral shape fin structure 21, and the conventional technique that uses a heating convex pillar which protrudes from the bottom of the thermal cracking furnace is no longer needed, and thus preventing the waste of room spaces. Moreover, the thermal cracking furnace 2 with the fin structure 21 can also be installed a stirring mechanism inside the thermal cracking furnace 2 if needed.
Please refer to
In the present embodiment, the whole fin structure 21 has the same slope. However, in other embodiments, the fin structure 21 can also be designed to have at least two segments with different slopes. A width of the wall of the thermal cracking furnace 2 is about 0.3 cm to 4 cm, and the ratio of the width of the wall of the thermal cracking furnace 2 to a width of the fin structure 21 is 1:2 to 1:128, preferably is 1:32. A spiral flowing channel can be formed between the spiral shape fin structure 21 and the interior wall of the outer furnace 10. The heated air can be heated by the heating hole 350 in a lower place, and then steadily flows upward along the spiral flowing channel, and finally being exhausted from the exhaust vent 360 located on an upper place. Even more, a heating coil can be installed on the fin structure 21, and use fin structure 21 to increase the heat conduction area, thereby making even heat conduction to keep the temperature of the thermal cracking furnace 2 in a uniform condition, and thus increasing the pyrolysis reaction area.
The conventional heat pipe is arranged inside the thermal cracking furnace 2, and the heat is conducted from the inner to the outside. Even though more or taller heat pipes will improve the heat conduction effect, the volume of the thermal cracking furnace 2 will be influenced as well. Thus, the common heat pipe is usually situated on the middle near the lower part of the thermal cracker furnace 2, which results in significant temperature differences between the upper part and the lower part of the thermal cracking furnace 2, and thus forcing the pyrolysis area to be only in the lower part of the thermal cracking furnace. And, since the conventional heat pipe is installed inside the thermal cracking furnace 2, the heat pipe will become a hindrance for adding a stirring mechanism inside the thermal cracking furnace 2. Therefore, after replacing the conventional heat pipe with the fin structure 21, the thermal cracking furnace 2 can be heated more evenly, and can selectively add a stirring function to improve the whole pyrolysis efficiency. The fin structure 21 is a thermal electrical couple temperature detector. When two terminals of two different kinds of metals are connected to form a closed loop, electricity will be generated once there is a temperature difference between the two terminals. By using the amplifier to amplify the electricity signal, the detected temperature can be observed from the monitor
Please refer to
As shown in
In the present embodiment, the front side wall 13 and the back side wall 14 which are located on the opposite side of the outer furnace 1 are provided with a first cooling opening 17 and a second cooling opening 18, and the first cooling opening 17 and the second cooling opening 18 directly penetrate the outer furnace 1 and further connect to the hollow chamber 10. In the present embodiment, the first cooling opening 17 and the second cooling opening 18 are approximately located on the same height, which is along the direction of the central axis 121.
When the garbage pyrolysis process is completed, the first cooling opening 17 and the second cooling opening 18 can be opened by removing the first adiabatic cover 30 and the second adiabatic cover 31 from the corresponding openings. By doing so, the outer air can flow into one of the cooling openings 17 or 18 and flows out from the other cooling openings 17 or 18. Such configuration can minimize the turbulence and increase the air flowing speed to quickly cool down the thermal cracking furnace 2. On the other hand, during the period that the air flows in and out of the outer furnace 1, the air is forced to flow through the thermal cracking furnace 2 with the spiral shape fin structure 21, thereby making the cooling rate of the thermal cracking furnace 2 faster than the conventional design.
In other embodiments, the first cooling opening 17 and the second cooling opening 18 can be designed to have different heights along the direction of a central axis 121 of the outer furnace 1. The position of the first cooling opening 17 is higher than the second cooling opening 18 along the axial direction. The advantage of this arrangement lies in that, cool air flows into the second cooling opening 18 and is heated in a closed space, and then the heated air flows upward to the outside from the first cooling opening 17. To cooperate with the fin structure 21 of the thermal cracking furnace 1, a very fast cooling speed can be achieved.
The present invention would be more valuable if being used in mobile pyrolysis system. By using the limited space in a container car, a whole pyrolysis system including the equipment for pyrolysis process, condensation, feeding, oil storage, waste air processing, electricity generation, and carbon black recycle can be achieved. Since the storage space of the container car is very limited, a larger insulating and cooling cracking device which can process large amount of garbage cannot be accommodated in the vehicle, and thus a high efficiency thermal cracker device with a fin structure is necessary. The thermal cracker device according to the present invention uses low temperature pyrolysis technique to prevent high temperature which might damage the steel structure of the container car. The mobile pyrolysis system can directly move to the raw material area to process the garbage, and turn the pyrolysis product into electricity. Moreover, when the container car moves to next places, the thermal cracker device can also utilize the flowing air generated by the moving vehicle to cool down the thermal cracking furnace 2, thereby saving precious time.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the foregoing preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details thereof. Various equivalent variations and modifications can still occur to those skilled in this art in view of the teachings of the present invention. Thus, all such variations and equivalent modifications are also embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit of the filing date priority of a U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/655,478 filed on Jun. 4, 2012, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 835747 | Brown | Nov 1906 | A |
| 1418745 | Sworski | Jun 1922 | A |
| 5224432 | Milsap, III | Jul 1993 | A |
| 7371308 | Hackl | May 2008 | B1 |
| 7789999 | Lee | Sep 2010 | B2 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20130319843 A1 | Dec 2013 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61655478 | Jun 2012 | US |
