IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND OTHERWISE TREATING ORGANIC AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Bernhard Heinrich Remmers, John
Williamson and Wallace Fairweather at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents on the 9th September 1882.
BERNHARD HEINRICH REMMERS, JOHN WILLIAMSON and WALLACE FAIRWEATHER,
all of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND OTHERWISE TREATING ORGANIC AND OTHER
SUBSTANCES,"
This Invention relates to improvements in apparatus for drying or desiccating
and otherwise treating such matters as spent hops, fish offal, and other organic
refuse, for the obtainment of valuable products therefrom and for drying malt,
grain, fruit, and other organic or inorganic substances.
The improved apparatus, according to one modification, comprises a series of
endless carrying webs or bands fitted over each other within a drying house or
chamber, and mounted either on chains or wire-ropes at each side, passing over
driving wheels, or carried direct by driving and supporting rollers. These travelling
webs or bands are made of lattice boards, or of perforated zinc or brass, or of wire-
cloth of copper, brass, or galvanised iron, or of textile fabrics, or of other similar
material. The bands extend the full breadth, and nearly the entire length of the
drying chamber, a space being by preference left between the wall and each
successive band at alternate ends of the chamber, while the alternate bands of the
vertical series are traversed or driven in opposite directions, so that the substance
to be dried, which is fed on the upper band through a hopper, may be carried in
layers from end to end of the chamber by each band in succession.
The last band of the series may either be made to carry the dried material out of
the chamber, or as is preferred, it may deliver it to a screw fitted in a recess at the
lower end or flow of the chamber by-which the material is discharged to receptacles
outside.
space
Between the rollers carrying the endless bands and transversely within the
enclosed by these bands, there are fitted shallow horizontal flues or flue pipes
preferably constructed of sheet metal, and connected at alternate sides of the
chamber, to form a continuous zig-zag flue, through which heated air or the
products of combustion from a heating furnace are passed and led to the chimney.
The furnace employed is by preference of the kind known as Perret's multiple-stage
T

page_text: furnace, by which a regular temperature may be maintained, and the furnace is
built on the floor of the drying chamber below the series of endless carrying bands,
the continuous flue above described being directly connected to it.
Hot air which may have been heated by passing through flues or chambers in
this furnace, or by means of a separate furnace, is led into the drying chamber and
discharged by preference below or on a level with the lowest of the series of
travelling bands; and a fan or other exhauster, is fitted in communication with the
upper end of the drying chamber to create a draught and cause the hot air to
traverse along from end to end of the chamber over the layers of material carried
by the bands, or the heated air may be forced over the bands by a blowing fan.
The material carried by the bands is thus dried, and if desired also partially
carbonised by the combined action of radiant heat from the flues within the bands,
and the hot air passing over the surface of the material and carrying with it the
fumes or vapour evolved.
In applying the improved apparatus for the drying of fish or fish offal, for the
production of "fish guano" or manure, the material is previously boiled for the
separation and recovery therefrom of the oils and gelatinous products, and the
residue is partly freed from water or moisture by passing over a perforated band
or sieve and through one or more pairs of pressing rolls, or through hydraulic
presses, from which it is delivered into the hopper leading into the drying chamber.
In treating such material also within the drying house, the fumes or vapour evolved
will contain a considerable proportion of ammonia, which may be recovered as
sulphate by leading the outlet into a tank containing sulphuric acid. Or the fumes
may be discharged into the heating furnace, where the water vapour contained in
them will be decomposed and produce ammonia by the combination of the nascent
hydrogen with the nitrogen of the furnace gases, the ammonia thus formed being
recovered from the waste products of combustion after traversing the flue, by any
ordinary well known process.
In drying spent hops or other material containing a large per centage of liquid,
the liquid may be expressed by means of rollers as described, or by means of
hydraulic or other presses before the material is led into the drying chamber. The
spent hops thus dried may form bedding for horses or other animals, and be used to
absorb urine and other matters. The bedding after use may be again passed
through the drying apparatus, and the fumes or vapours evolved recovered as
before described.
Other kinds of horse litter, such as peat moss, sawdust, and the like, may be
dried and treated for the recovery of valuable products within the improved
apparatus before and after use as bedding.
In drying malt or grain which may be apt to spread and pass over the sides of
the carrying bands, flexible sides or flanges are formed on or fitted to the bands, or
the bands are carried by ropes or cords which serve as retaining lips or flanges on
each side. Stirring and guiding blades are also fitted over the bands to stir up and
partially regulate the depth of the layers of material to be carried by them, and
brushes may be fitted to clean the bands. When drying such substances as malt,
it is preferred to pass heated air through the flues between the endless bands, and
a regular temperature may be maintained by diluting the hot air with a greater or
smaller quantity of cold air. Means may also be provided for automatically
regulating the temperature within the drying chamber when desired by admitting
cold air with the heated air, and by acting on dampers in the furnace flue
To avoid carbonising of the substances being dried when passing over the lower
bands where the heat from the continuous zig-zag flue will be greatest, the lower
bands may be driven at a higher speed than those above, and the speed may be
regulated by cone pulleys or otherwise.
The flue may also be led through between a number of the lower bands without
passing through the upper ones of the series.
In a modified arrangement of the improved apparatus, the flues passing
transversely between the endless carrying bands are perforated at their upper or

page_text: under side, or formed with small openings capable of being regulated so that the
heated air, or hot products of combustion passing through the flue may in part
escape or be forced through these openings or perforations into the drying chamber
directly under or over the carrying bands, and by passing through the bands may
more readily effect the drying of the material on them.
This arrangement may be adopted generally when hot air is passed through the
heating flue, but when the products of combustion from the furnace traverse the
flue, the perforated arrangement can only be used in drying such substances as are
not injuriously affected by the smoke or hot gases of the furnace used.
When the material to be dried is also to be bleached, deodorised, or similarly
treated, fumes of sulphur, chlorine or other suitable reagent, as may be required
for the particular circumstances, are passed through the perforated flue along with
the heated air or hot products of combustion of the beating furnace.