Dry and crush treating method using jet burner and treating apparatus therefor

A dry and crush treating apparatus using a jet burner, includes: a jet burner drying an oil-containing or/and water-containing raw material; a dry treating tank; and a recovering unit recovering a dried fine particles made of the raw material. In the construction, the recovering unit is installed within the dry treating tank.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a dry and crush treating method using a 
jet burner and a treating apparatus therefor which can be used to 
re-convert into natural resources highly viscous organic and inorganic 
slurries, high water content industrial wastes such as a paper making 
sludge, organic high water content wastes such as foodstuff manufacture 
by-products, organic and inorganic mixtures such as shells, and 
oil-containing and water-containing materials (hereinafter referred to 
also as "raw material") such as oil sand, oil sludge, etc. by subjecting 
them to dry and crush treatment. 
2. Description of the Related Art 
With regard to a dry and crush treating apparatus using a jet burner, there 
have hitherto been made various proposals, in each of which however a 
gravity collector or cyclone for recovering solid matter is disposed 
separately and independently from a treating tank and each of which has a 
construction wherein relevant units are connected to each other by pipings 
(Refer for example to Japanese Patent Application Publication 53-4935). 
For this reason, the piping and recovering unit are thermally insulated in 
order to prevent the heat radiation. However, the heat radiation cannot 
completely be prevented, with the result that a temperature drop naturally 
occurs from the treating tank toward a succeeding recovering unit. In a 
case where the temperature on the recovering unit side has been lowered 
down to a temperature lower than the temperature at which the oil and 
water contained in the raw material are gasified, there was the problem 
that the vapor and oil vapor which had been once vaporized within the 
treating tank was re-dewed. One method to prevent the occurrence of the 
re-dew is to elevate the treating temperature up to a temperature higher 
than the temperature needed to dry and thereby make the recovering unit 
side temperature higher than the dew point. Also, in some cases, there was 
adopted a method wherein the piping itself and recovering unit itself were 
heated so that the recovering unit side temperature might become higher 
than the dew point. In the former method, since the treating temperature 
is increased, the amount of treatment is decreased, raising the problem 
that the treating cost is increased or, in the case of an organic 
material, carbonization and thermal decomposition, etc. occur. In the 
latter method, a heat source for heating a material to be treated is 
separately needed and therefore there is the problem that the treating 
cost is increased. 
Incidentally, as a conventional method, in order to dehydrate a hygroscopic 
material such as silicagel as completely as possible, solid matter 
particles are passed through an eddy of gas fluid and light-weight 
particles are passed through a second atmosphere as disclosed in Japanese 
Patent Application Publication No. 43-11174, whereby there is proposed a 
method of separating and recovering the particles. This method 
necessitates thermally insulating the recovered portion, raising the same 
problem as that encountered by the above-described conventional methods. 
In addition, it is needed to produce the first and second eddy currents, 
raising another problem that the method becomes complex. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention has been achieved with such points in mind. 
It therefore is an object of the present invention to provide a dry and 
crush treating method using a jet burner and a treating apparatus therefor 
where pipings can be drastically reduced, structure of the apparatus can 
be simplified, extra over heating is not necessitated, and treating 
ability is advantageously enhanced. 
It is another object of the present invention to provide a dry and crush 
treating apparatus wherein it is possible to cope with a request at a 
location where the request and needs are offered at and from the location, 
in case the apparatus is made into and mounted on an vehicle. 
To achieve the object, according to a first aspect of the present 
invention, there is provided a dry and crush treating apparatus wherein a 
recovering unit such as a cyclone is disposed within a treating tank. 
More specifically, the dry and crush treating apparatus using a jet burner, 
comprising: a jet burner drying an oil-containing or/and water-containing 
raw material; a dry treating tank; and a recovering unit recovering a 
dried fine particles made of the raw material, wherein the recovering unit 
is installed within the dry treating tank. 
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a 
method of causing dry treatment to be performed by means of a revolving 
flow around the recovering unit and continuing the occurrence of this 
revolving flow to thereby separate and recover solid fine particles from 
the resulting gas flow. 
More specifically, the dry and crush treating method using a jet burner, 
comprising the steps of: drying an oil-containing or/and water-containing 
raw material by a jet burner; causing a revolving flow of a fluid mixture 
comprised of the raw material by combustion gas from the jet burner around 
a recovering unit recovering dried fine particles made of the raw 
material, the recovering unit disposed in a dry treating tank; drying and 
crushing the raw material to make solid fine particle, thereby causing the 
solid fine particles to be floated and separated within the revolving gas 
flow; recovering the solid fine particles from the revolving gas flow as 
dried fine particles into the recovering unit in such a manner that the 
revolving gas flow continues to be revolved in the same direction; and 
discharging the gas of the revolving gas flow from a discharging pipe. 
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an 
apparatus construction wherein a dry treating tank having a recovering 
unit built therein or the like is disposed and loaded on a load-carrying 
platform of a vehicle to thereby provide an on-vehicle mounted type 
apparatus. 
More specifically, the dry and crush treating apparatus, comprising: a jet 
burner unit having a fuel pump unit; a dry treating tank drying and 
treating a raw material supplied thereto by a connection with the jet 
burner unit; a recovering unit recovering dried fine particles, the 
recovering unit disposed within the dry treating tank; a raw material 
hopper unit for supplying the raw material to the dry treating tank by way 
of a raw material supply conveyor; a control board for controlling the 
fuel pump unit of the jet burner and the raw material supply conveyor; and 
a generator serving as a power supply such as that for the control board, 
wherein the dry and crush treating apparatus is disposed and loaded on a 
load-carrying platform of a vehicle. 
In the present invention, the treating tank dry and crush part is disposed 
on the outside of the recovering unit such as a cyclone. Therefore, there 
is no drawback that heat radiation occurs from a separately placed 
recovering unit. And, since the treating temperature and the recovering 
unit side temperature are the same, it is possible to treat at a lowest 
treating temperature that is necessary for dry treatment, resulting in a 
decrease in the treating cost. In addition, since the treating tank and 
the recovering unit are made into an integrated construction, the 
apparatus as a whole can be simplified and the installation space can also 
be decreased. Further, by making the apparatus into an on-vehicle mounted 
type, it is possible to move out to a requested place as the necessity 
arises, whereby the apparatus has become serviceable. 
Furthermore, in the present invention, since the dry and crush treating 
apparatus has been made into a structure wherein the dried fine particles 
recovering unit is disposed within the dry treating tank, the apparatus as 
a whole is advantageously simplified, the treating ability is 
advantageously enhanced, and, if the apparatus is made into an on-vehicle 
mounted type, it is possible to cope with the request of a requesting 
destination as the necessity arises. In other words, it is possible to 
cope with a request at a location where the request and needs are offered 
at and from the location, in case the apparatus is made into and mounted 
on an vehicle. 
In other words, according to the present invention, pipings can be 
drastically reduced, structure of the apparatus can be simplified, extra 
over heating is not necessitated, and treating ability is advantageously 
enhanced.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
There will be detailed below the preferred embodiments of the present 
invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. Like members are 
designated by like reference characters. 
The embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 3 
and the construction and operation of the apparatus will now be explained 
with reference to these figures. 
A treatment raw material is thrown into a raw material hopper 9 and is sent 
toward a treating tank 3 by means of a raw material supply conveyor 10 
installed at a bottom portion of it. The raw material is heated by a raw 
material pre-heating pipe 7 installed on the outside of the raw material 
supply conveyor 10. Into the raw material pre-heating pipe 7 there are 
introduced solid matter from a recovering unit discharge outlet F, jet 
burner combustion gas after separation thereof, and water vapor and oil 
vapor having generated due to the drying operation, by way of a discharge 
pipe 6. As a result of this, heat exchange is made between the discharge 
gas and the raw material, with the result that the raw material is heated 
and the discharge gas is cooled, whereby the oil vapor and water vapor are 
condensed and liquefied. If a spiral plate is attached to the outside of 
the raw material pre-heating pipe 7, the area for heat exchange is also 
increased with the result that the heat can be more efficiently recovered. 
If the temperature at the outlet of the raw material pre-heating pipe 7 is 
set to be 100.degree. C. to 120.degree. C., succeeding treatments (which 
will be described later) are mitigated because the oil/water vapors are 
for the most part condensed and liquefied. The heated raw material is 
wound at and into a jet burner raw material collision zone A within a 
dispersing/heating/accelerating pipe 2 by the attraction force in the 
vicinity of a nozzle of the high-temperature (1000 to 1300.degree. C.) 
supersonic (1000 to 1300m/sec) jet stream generated by a jet burner 1 
connected to and disposed on the dispersing/heating/accelerating pipe 2. 
During this wound-in period of time, it is dispersed and accelerated in a 
dispersing/heating/accelerating zone B. During this dispersed and 
accelerated period of time, the collision between the raw material 
particles/pieces and the collision thereof with the inner wall of the 
dispersing/heating/accelerating pipe 2 are repeated. During this repeated 
period of time, the raw material is crushed and heated, whereby water and 
oil start to be vaporized. Here, the raw material is dispersed and the 
surface area thereof is thereby increased, whereby the contact heat 
exchange with the combustion gas is performed. This starts to cause the 
performance of a very highly efficient drying operation. The 
dispersing/heating/accelerating pipe 2 is connected tangentially to the 
outer-peripheral portion C of a dry and crush portion provided on the 
outer side of the treating tank 3 interior. Accordingly, the raw material 
is introduced into the dry and crush part 4 within the treating tank 3 
along with the jet burner combustion gas flow. 
In the dry and crush part 4, while being repeatedly revolved at a high 
speed along with the combustion gas, the water and oil portions go on 
being heated and vaporized and are thereby separated from the solid 
matter. As a result, they go on revolving and rising as a flow of gas 
mixed with the combustion gas. On the other hand, whereas the solid matter 
having been changed into dried fine particles revolves and rises along the 
flow the gaseous mixture, coarse solid matter pieces are changed into fine 
particles due to mutual collision between the solid matter pieces, 
grinding thereof, collision thereof with the outer-peripheral surface, 
collision thereof with new solid matter pieces within the dry and crush 
part 4. The coarse solid matter pieces thus revolve and rise as in the 
case of the dried fine particles. Since the dry and crush part 4 is made 
into a tapered, i.e. inverted funnel-like, structure whose diameter 
(outside diameter) decreases toward the top, even when coarse particles 
have been erroneously jetted into it, they undergo a high magnitude of 
centrifugal force due to their great mass and they drop along an outer 
wall surface 4a to return to the dry and crush part 4 in which they are 
changed into fine particles. 
And, in a separation zone D, the diameter on the outer side thereof 
decreases toward the upper part. Therefore, the centrifugal force 
F=mv.sup.2 /r. Assuming now that the revolution speed v be fixed, the 
outside radius r decreases toward the upper part and therefore the 
centrifugal force F becomes high in magnitude. Accordingly, in the 
separation zone D, the particles undergo the greater centrifugal force 
toward the upper part, whereby the conversion thereof to fine particles 
and the separation of the oil and water portions are promoted. As a 
result, the resulting fine particles and vapors rise by being mixed into 
the flow of the gaseous mixture. The gaseous mixture flows and solid 
matter fine particles which have revolved and risen are introduced while 
being revolved into the apex portion of a recovering unit 5 by advancing 
along a tangential plate 4b at the inlet E of the recovering unit. Due to 
the centrifugal force resulting from the revolution, the solid matter fine 
particles go down a funnel-shaped inner wall 5a of the recovering unit 5 
because of their heavy weight while, on the other hand, the gaseous 
mixture flow is biased toward the center side because of its light weight 
and goes downward while being revolved and eventually turns to go up and 
is discharged from a discharge port F of the recovering unit. The solid 
matter fine particles go downward and are discharged from a lower 
recovered solid matter discharge port G. And the gaseous mixture flow is 
discharged finally into the atmosphere through a discharge gas discharging 
portion 8. The recovered solid matter is recovered from a rotary valve 12 
by being passed through a solid matter recovering conveyor 11. In a case 
where it is needed to lower the temperature of the recovered material, it 
is sufficient to add a cooling mechanism 11 having a cooling water inlet H 
and a cooling water outlet I on the outside of the solid matter recovering 
conveyor 11 as illustrated in FIG. 1. 
As the jet burner 1 used in the present invention, it is more preferable to 
use an air-cooled type jet burner than to use a water-cooled jet burner 
from the viewpoint of the thermal efficiency. Also, in a case where 
considering the installation of an on-vehicle mounted type jet burner 
treatment facility (which will be described later), it is very preferable 
to make up the apparatus according to this embodiment, i.e., an apparatus 
construction wherein the recovering unit is built in the treating tank 
because the construction is simplified and in addition because through the 
use of the air-cooled jet burner it is not only possible to enhance the 
thermal efficiency but it is also possible to omit the provision of a 
cooling water tank, cooling water pump and further a cooling water piping. 
It is to be noted that if in FIG. 1 the discharge pipe 6 and raw material 
pre-heating pipe 7 are disposed in such a way that the outlet side of the 
gaseous mixture is made lower than the inlet side thereof or the outlet 
diameter is made larger than the inlet diameter, even when the water 
portion in the gas is dewed, the resulting water flows as a drain from a 
drain discharge port J and is likely to be discharged to the outside, with 
the result that convenience is given. 
Also, in FIG. 1, with regard to the treatment in a succeeding stage of the 
discharge gas from the discharge gas discharging portion 8, if the 
discharge gas is watery, the treatment may be made in one stage. However, 
if the discharge gas is oily, the treatment will in some cases be made in 
multiple stages, for example, two or three stages. 
Also, in FIG. 1, the solid matter (dried particles) recovering unit 5 is of 
a cyclone type that consists of a heat-resisting iron plate and is 
constructed of a member that is of an inverted taper, i.e. shaped like a 
funnel. It functions as a partitioning wall that partitions the interior 
of the treating tank 3 and that is made of a tapered, i.e. inverted funnel 
shaped heat-resisting iron plate. And the lower parts of the recovering 
unit 5 and separation zone D may have their angular portions R so rounded 
that the raw material in the gaseous mixture tangentially sent in cannot 
be adhered thereonto. 
Further,in FIG. 1, the dispersing/heating/accelerating pipe 2 may be of a 
triplex type illustrated in, for example, FIG. 3. In a case where a 
sufficient length for dispersion/heating/acceleration cannot be given by a 
single-layer pipe in view of the installation space, or in a case where it 
is needed in view of the nature of the raw material (e.g. liquid raw 
material) to have a larger length of dispersion/heating/acceleration pipe, 
the pipe is made into a triplex pipe structure to thereby enhance the 
function thereof. 
The apparatus that has been explained above is of a type wherein the dry 
treating tank 1 contains the solid matter recovering unit 5 and therefore 
the treatment can be done at a lowest treating temperature necessary for 
dry and crush treatment. In addition, the treating tank 1 has its interior 
also formed into a straight and tapered cylindrical shape, with the result 
that the treating tank 1 is easy to manufacture and simple in structure. 
Next, FIG. 4 is a plan view illustrating an example wherein a dry and crush 
treating apparatus is loaded on a load-carrying platform located 
rearwardly from a drivers cab 14 of a truck 13 to thereby make the 
apparatus into an on-vehicle mounted type. 
Referring to FIG. 4, a treating tank 3 having a recovering unit 5 built 
therein is disposed at a substantially central part of the load-carrying 
platform. An air-cooling type jet burner 1 is connected thereto by means 
of a connection pipe 2. The jet burner 1 is connected through pipes or the 
like not illustrated to a fuel pump unit 17 and to a compressor 19 for 
compressing an air and is thereby constructed as a jet burner unit. A raw 
material in a raw material hopper 9 is supplied through a raw material 
pre-heating pipe 7 to the connection pipe 2 by way of a raw material 
supply conveyor 10 and these constituent elements are constructed as a raw 
material hopper unit. The discharge gas which has pre-heated the raw 
material is passed through a discharge gas discharging pipe 8 and 
discharged from a blower 16. At a rearward part of the platform there is 
disposed a control board 15 and at a forward part thereof there are 
disposed a generator 18 and compressor 19, whereby the control board 15 
and generator 18 perform a control function for controlling a fuel pump 
unit 17, blower 16 and compressor 19 and a power supply function therefor, 
respectively. 
In the case of an on-vehicle mounted type dry and crush treating apparatus, 
the height and area, i.e. space is limited. Therefore, the apparatus is 
made into a compact structure as illustrated in FIG. 4. In addition, by 
concurrent use of an air-cooled burner, it is possible to omit the 
provision of a supply equipment for supplying a cooling water and also to 
reduce the power consumption. Further, there is no heat radiation which 
would occur when a solid matter recovering unit has been separately placed 
and therefore it is possible to enhance the heat efficiency. As a result 
of this, the truck moves out as the necessity arises and can comply with a 
request for dry and crush treatment. It is to be noted that the on-vehicle 
mounted type apparatus becomes relatively large in size, a trailer may be 
used in place of the load-carrying platform. 
An experimental example is shown below. 
A test was conducted using a tanker sludge (a sediment on the bottom of a 
crude oil tanker) as a test piece for confirming the advantage of the 
present invention. The components of the tanker sludge are 20% of water 
portion, 10% of oil portion and 70% of solid matter portion. In the 
apparatus for executing the conventional method, wherein the recovering 
unit is separated from the treating tank, in order to prevent the re-dew 
of the covered solid matter and thereby make the percentage of oil content 
in the solid matter 1% or less, the treating temperature within the 
treating apparatus must be elevated up to 350.degree. C. and the amount of 
raw material treated per unit of time was 132 Kg. However, in the 
apparatus of the present invention wherein the recovering unit is disposed 
within the treating tank, the percentage of oil content in the recovered 
solid matter portion can be made 1% or less at a treating temperature of 
275.degree. C. and the amount of raw material treated per unit of time 
(hour) was 156 Kg, with the result that there was exhibited a 18% increase 
in the amount of treatment. Similarly, in an apparatus wherein an 
air-cooled jet burner is concurrently used in the present invention, the 
amount of raw material treated per unit of time (hour) was 190 Kg at the 
same treating temperature of 275.degree. C., with the result that a 44% 
increase in the amount of treatment was exhibited compared to the use of 
the recovering unit separated type water cooled Jet burner. 
While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described 
using specific terms, such description is for illustrative purposes, and 
it is to be understood that changes and variations may be made without 
departing from the spirit or scope of the following claims.