Combustion apparatus

A combustion apparatus and a process used to obtain hot water without producing any pollution therefrom, including a hermetic casing, a furnace and cyclone device, all of which are disposed in the hermetic casing. The furnace being designed to combust a waste material and the exhaust gases including dust being introduced into the cyclone device to eliminate the dust. The hot water is obtained by surrounding the furnace and cyclone device with a space including water which contacts directly to the heated walls thereof.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a combustion apparatus and a process thereof and 
more particularly to a combustion apparatus and a process which is able to 
produce hot water continuously by burning waste materials therein while 
preventing air pollution from occuring during the operation. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
In the conventional furnace for waste materials, a kind of boiler is 
provided therewith in order to obtain hot water by making use of the heat 
which occurs within the furnace. However, this kind of conventional 
furnace has mainly been designed to combust waste materials, it does not 
provide an arrangement to prevent air pollution from occurring. Thus, dust 
is exhausted into the air during the operation and dust materials will 
accumulate within the furnace so as to interfere with the combustion of 
the waste materials. As a result of the above fact, the conventional 
boiler will not be able to supply sufficient hot water in a predetermined 
quantity. Also, there is another disadvantage in that the furnace and the 
boiler occupy a very large space since both of them are separately 
disposed from each other so as to be difficult to be placed in a narrow 
space. 
SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved 
combustion apparatus which can obtain hot water continuously by way of 
burning waste materials while preventing air pollution from occuring. 
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved 
combustion apparatus which comprises a hermetic casing, a cylindrical 
furnace disposed therein and a cyclone device, said cylindrical furnace 
and cyclone device being surrounded with water within said casing so as to 
continuously obtain hot water from said combustion apparatus while 
preventing air pollution from occurring after combustion of waste 
materials. 
It is further object of the present invention to provide an improved 
combustion apparatus comprising a hermetic casing including a furnace and 
a cyclone device operatively disposed therein with a space being provided 
therebetween, the furnace is in communication with said cyclone device 
through a passage, the hermetic casing includes an inlet port for 
supplying fluid to said space and an outlet port for discharging fluid 
from said space, the furnace includes a firing port and a fire hole for 
supplying materials and an ashes hole for removing ashes all of which 
extend out of said hermetic casing, an exhaust pipe is operatively 
positioned to extend through the top portion of said hermetic casing and a 
fire grate is disposed adjacent a bottom portion of said furnace, a blower 
is operatively connected with the exhaust pipe and the fire grate to 
supply air to the furnace, the cyclone device includes an ashes hole for 
removing ashes at the bottom portion thereof which extends out of said 
hermetic casing and thereby is able to obtain hot water from said 
combustion apparatus while preventing air pollution from occurring after 
combustion of waste materials. 
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an 
improved combustion process which comprises the steps of: 
(a) supplying waste material to a furnace; 
(b) firing said waste material; 
(c) supplying air into said furnace from both a top and a bottom direction 
in said furnace; 
(d) introducing heated air including dust particles into a cyclone device; 
(e) eliminating said dust particles from said heated air under a function 
of said cyclone device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a combustion apparatus 10 is designed to produce 
hot water according to the process of the present invention. The 
combustion apparatus 10 includes a hermetic casing 12 provided on a 
ellipsoid base 14, a cylindrical furnace 16 for waste materials disposed 
within the casing 12 and a cyclone device 18 for eliminating dust also 
disposed within the casing 12. 
As illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7, a space is provided between the hermetic 
casing 12, the furnace 16 and the cyclone device 18 in which water is 
positioned to surround the various elements. The casing 12 includes a 
drain pipe 20 at the bottom portion thereof adjacent to an inlet port 22 
which is used to introduce water into the system. An inlet port 24 is 
positioned in the side wall of the upper portion thereof through the 
furnace 16 for supplying waste oil when it is necessary to add a more 
combustible fuel to the furnace 16 to combust the waste material. The 
inlet port 24 is closed with a valve 26 during normal operation. Two 
outlet ports 28 and 30 for hot water are provided in the casing 12 and are 
positioned at opposite top portions from each other. 
The casing 12 is constructed of metal plate such as iron or stainless steel 
having an arrangement to prevent water from leaking therefrom since 
liquid, namely water, circulates within the space formed in part by the 
casing 12. Some suitable adiabatic materials (not shown) shall be disposed 
onto the inside and/or outside wall surfaces of the casing 12 which acts 
as a lining or coating. 
The furnace 16 is in communication with the cyclone device 18 at the upper 
portion thereof through a passage 32 which extends in a tangent direction 
from the furnace 16 to the cyclone device 18 (as shown in FIG. 8). 
The furnace 16 includes a pipe member 34 disposed at the center of the top 
portion thereof on which an exhaust pipe 36 may be mounted. One end of the 
pipe member 34 extends out of the casing 12 while the other end extends 
into the casing 12. Another pipe member 38 is provided which is disposed 
at an eccentric location from the exhaust pipe 36 on the furnace 16 to 
reduce the pressure therein during an emergency and is closed by a 
conventional valve or other device (not shown) during normal operation. 
Projections 40 are positioned to extend within the furnace 16 at a location 
under the inlet port 24 so as to support plates 42 thereon. Each plate 42 
includes a half-rounded shape so that when the plates 42 are positioned 
adjacent to each other they form a hole 44 at the center thereof. A first 
combustion chamber 46 is defined between the plates 42 and the bottom wall 
of the furnace 16 which is in communication with a second combustion 
chamber 48 through the hole 44. The second combustion chamber 48 is 
defined between the plates 42 and the top wall of the furnace 16. A firing 
port 50, a fire hole 52 for waste materials and an ashes hole 54 are 
provided in a front wall of the furnace 16 as illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2 
and 7. The firing port 50, the fire hole 52 and the ashes hole 54 are 
closed by covers 56, 58 and 60, respectively, during normal operating 
conditions. A round shaped window 62 normally closed with a cover 64, is 
provided within the cover 56 to check the fire condition within the 
furnace 16. 
At the bottom portion in the furnace 16 there is disposed a fire grate 66 
which is hollow and in the shape of a half-divided ellipse including a 
plurality of small holes 68 having a diameter of approximately 4 mm on the 
upper plate surface thereof as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12. A pipe 70 is 
connected to a blower, as mentioned hereinbelow, and is secured to the 
fire grate 66 to introduce air into the furnace 16 through the holes 68. 
A chimney 72 is disposed at the center of the top portion of the cyclone 
device 18 and includes a first end which extends into the cyclone device 
18 and a second end which extends out through the hot water tank 74 which 
is provided on the top portion of the casing 12 as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 
6. At the top portion of the hot water tank 74 is provided an exhaust pipe 
76 to exhaust air and water vapor from the heated water positioned within 
the casing 12 during operation of the furnace. An ashes hole 78 is 
provided at the bottom portion of the cyclone device 18 so as to provide 
an entrance for removing ashes produced by the waste materials. A cover 80 
is attached to the casing 12 to normally close the ashes hole 78. 
As illustrated in FIG. 3, the casing 12 includes a blower 82 secured on the 
top portion thereof including an outlet 84 which is connected to an air 
chamber 86. The air chamber 86 receives air from the blower 82 to 
accumulate and exhaust it under a certain predetermined pressure. The air 
chamber 86 includes two outlets, a first outlet 88 is positioned on the 
upper portion of the air chamber 86 and a second outlet 90 is positioned 
on the side portion thereof. The first outlet 88 is connected through a 
flexible tube 92 to one end of the exhaust pipe 36. As illustrated in FIG. 
10, the exhaust pipe 36 includes a plurality of holes 94 and 96. The holes 
94 are provided radially on a portion of the pipe 36 which is between the 
bottom thereof and a portion corresponding to below the plates 42 whereas 
the holes 96 are only provided on a portion of the pipe 36 which faces 
towards the cyclone device 18 through the passage 32. The second outlet 90 
is connected through the pipe 98 to the pipe 70 of the fire grate 66. Both 
the first outlet 88 and the second outlet 90 are controlled to be opened 
and closed by means of conventional valve means 100 and 102, respectively. 
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3, an indicator tank 104 containing a 
floating member 106 therein is secured between the hot water tank 74 and 
air chamber 86 on the casing 12. The indicator tank 104 is in 
communication with the space within the hermetic casing 12 through a pipe 
108 so that the floating member 106 floats up and down corresponding to 
the water level within the space in the casing 12. The floating member 106 
is operatively connected for example, electrically, with a valve 110 which 
is mounted on the water supplying pipe 22. A signal created by the 
floating member 106 can be utilized to open or close the valve 110 to 
control the quantity of the water which should be supplied into the space 
within the casing 12. A hanging support member 112 is also provided on the 
top portion of the casing 12 to which the exhaust pipe 36 may be connected 
to adjust a position thereof relative to the interior of the furnace 16 to 
optimize the combustion. As illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7, sealing 
materials 114 are provided between the casing 12 and the furnace 16 and 
the cyclone device 18 to protect against water leakage due to expansion 
and contraction of the metal surfaces during operation. 
Before starting the operation of the furnace an amount of water is 
introduced into the space in the casing 12 through the inlet port 22 until 
a predetermined level is supplied thereto. A flamable waste material, i.e. 
a used tire or a piece thereof, is positioned in the furnace 16 through 
the fire hole 52. Firing is conducted by conventional means by making use 
of the firing port 50. It is preferred to pour some drops of waste oil 
into the furnace 16 through the inlet port 24 to assist firing when using 
waste material which is not very flamable. Air is supplied into the 
furnace 16 by the exhaust pipe 36 and the fire grate 66 after the 
operation of the blower 82. It is only necessary to supply air through the 
exhaust pipe 36 or the fire grate 66 when supplying air to waste materials 
of superior flamability. After the firing operation the firing port 50 is 
closed by the cover 56 so that the condition of the combustion materials 
may be examined by way of opening the cover 56 or the cover 64. The heated 
air created in the first combustion chamber 46 rises upwardly to the 
second combustion chamber 48 so that the air heats the plates 42 and the 
second combustion chamber 48 will be kept at a higher temperature than 
that of the first combustion chamber 46. The dust included in the heated 
air will be heated to a higher temperature within the second combustion 
chamber 48. Thereafter, the heated air in the second combustion chamber 48 
is introduced into the cyclone device 18 through the passage 32 with the 
assistance of the air which is exhausted out of the holes 96. The cyclone 
device 18 eliminates dust from the heated air to utilizing a well known 
technique so that only heated air rises up through the chimney 72 into the 
atmosphere whereas the dust will be accumulated on the bottom of the 
cyclone device 18. The dust on the bottom portion of the furnace 16 or 
cyclone device 18 may be taken out by way of opening the covers 60 or 80, 
respectively. 
During this operation the water within the space surrounding the furnace 16 
and the cyclone device 18 is gradually heated so as to rise upwardly under 
the principle of convection. The hot water tank 74 functions as a holding 
tank for the hot water until it is supplied out by way of the outlet ports 
28 or 30. Bubbles and vapors produced by heating the water are exhausted 
into the atmosphere through the exhaust pipe 76 since they rise upwardly 
to the upper portion of the hot water tank 74. 
According to the present invention the water in the hermetic casing 12 is 
operatively heated to become hot in a short time since the water can 
contact directly against the wall of the furnace 16, the cyclone device 18 
and the passage 32 all of which are heated to a high temperature. Further, 
effective combustion is easily preformed by way of controlling the air 
supply through the exhaust pipe 36, the fire grate 66 and the blower 82. 
Also, air pollution is effectively prevented from occurring because of the 
eliminating of dust by the cyclone device 18. 
This invention has been particularly shown and disclosed with reference to 
preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those in the art 
that foregoing and other changes in form and details may be made therein 
without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.