Year: 1885

page_text: We, MATTHEW PIERS WATT BOULTON, of Tew Park in the County of Oxford,
Gentleman, BENJAMIN EDWARD REINA NEWLANDS, of Clyde Wharf, Victoria Docks
in the County of Essex, Chemist, and EDWARD PERRETT of 8 Victoria Chambers
Westminster in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to a process for revivifying spent charcoal, that is to say
restoring charcoal which has been used in the purification of sugar, spirit or other
substances and has thereby become spent or comparatively inoperative, to a state
in which it is capable of being used afresh as a purifying agent.
For this purpose, we cause gas, steam or elastic fluid to circulate through two
vessels the one containing refractory materials previously heated by a fire, and the
other containing the charcoal to be operated on, disposed in such a manner as to
expose extended surface to the direct action of the heated fluid. For the first
mentioned vessel for heating the fluid we employ by preference a heater con-
structed and worked in the manner described in the Specifications No. 1788 of 1882
and No. 5793 of 1883.
The vessel in which the heated fluid acts on the charcoal is provided with a feed
hopper at the top and an outlet at the bottom, and with shelves at intervals which
may be stationary or may be capable of being turned or canted. The charcoal, fed
in at the top, is made to tumble from shelf to shelf, either by raking it off the
stationary shelves, or by the canting of the moveable shelves. During its descent
it is. heated by the circulating fluid, and the charcoal, thus revivified, is from time
to time raked out at the bottom.
The circulation of the fluid through the heater and the revivifying vessel may
be effected by a pump or fan; or, when steam is used, it may be generated in a
boiler, then heated by passing through the heater, and after performing its work in
the revivifying vessel, it may be used for heating or for producing motive power.
When the fluid is caused to circulate continuously through both vessels, we
prefer to divide the charcoal vessel approximately into two zones, an upper zone
through which the fluid first passes from the heater giving out heat to the charcoal,
D

page_text: and a lower zone through which, on its way back to the heater, it passes receiving
heat from the revivified charcoal, and partially cooling it before its discharge.
In starting the operation, the fluid in the vessel may be used as the circulating
fluid, and this may contain a certain portion of atmospheric air, but as the oxygen
in this speedily combines with the material in the vessel and no further atmospheric
air is allowed to enter, no inconvenience is caused by this.
During the process, a considerable quantity of steam is generated. This may be
used for heating purposes or for producing motive power, and in the latter case the
circulating fluid may be retained under pressure.
1
100K

page_text: We, MATTHEW PIERS WATT BOULTON, of Tew Park in the County of Oxford,
Gentleman, BENJAMIN EDWARD REINA NEWLANDS, of Clyde Wharf, Victoria Docks,
in the County of Essex and EDWARD PERRETT, of 8 Victoria Chambers, West-
minster, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
:
Our invention relates to a process for revivifying spent charcoal, that is to say,
restoring charcoal which has been used in the purification of sugar, spirit or other
substances and has thereby become spent or comparatively inoperative, to a state
in which it is capable of being used afresh as a purifying agent.
For this purpose, we cause gas, steam or elastic fluid to circulate through two
vessels, the one containing refractory materials previously heated by a fire, and the
other containing the charcoal to be operated on, disposed in such a manner as to
expose extended surface to the direct action of the heated fluid. For the first
mentioned vessel for heating the fluid we employ by preference a heater constructed
and worked in the manner described in the Specification No. 1788 of 1882 and
No. 5793 of 1883.
The vessel in which the heated fluid acts on the charcoal is provided with a feed
hopper at the top and an outlet at the bottom, and with shelves at intervals which
may be stationary or may be capable of being turned or canted.
The charcoal fed in at the top, is inade to tumble from shelf to shelf, either by
raking it off the stationary shelves, or by the canting of the movable shelves.
During its descent it is heated by the circulating fluid, and the charcoal, thus
revivified, is, from time to time, raked out at the bottom.
The circulation of the fluid through the heater and the revivifying vessel may
be effected by a pump or fan; or, when steam is used, it may be generated in a
boiler, then heated by passing through the heater; and after performing its work in
the revivifying vessel, it may be used for heating or for producing motive power.
When the fluid is caused to circulate continuously through both vessels, we
prefer to divide the charcoal vessel approximately into two zones, an upper zone
through which the fluid first passes from the heater giving out heat to the charcoal,
and a lower zone through which, on its way back to the heater, it passes receiving
heat from the revivified charcoal, and partially cooling it before its discharge.
In starting the operation, the fluid in the vessel may be used as the circulating
fluid, and this may contain a certain portion of atmospheric air, but as the oxygen
in this speedily combines with the material in the vessel and no further atmospheric
air is allowed to enter, no inconvenience is caused by this.
During the process, a considerable quantity of steam is generated. This may be
used for heating purposes or for producing motive power, and in the latter case
the circulating fluid may be retained under pressure.
Apparatus suitable for operating in the manner described may be variously
arranged. For example, it may be of the form shewn in vertical section in Fig. 1
of the accompanying drawings.

page_text: A is the heater which, as described in the Specification above referred to, has in
it loosely packed fire bricks a a that are heated by a fire kindled in the fire place b.
C is the door which closes the fire place, d is the chimney valve, e is the
communication, provided with a valve f, from the heater A to the burner or
vessel B in which the charcoal is operated on. This vessel is of rectangular form
and contains several tiers of shelves C C, each shelf consisting of numerous
sections h h each capable of being turned on pivots, by means of levers ii acted
on by a travelling chain k k which has on it at intervals rollers that engage and
release the levers in succession. The hopper at the top of the vessel has at
its bottom several revolving feed wheels m m which are also actuated by the
chain kk. At the bottom of the vessel, below the communication e are cooling
tubes n n.
At the upper part of the vessel below the feed wheels m there is a
passage o, leading to a fan p whence there is a passage containing a throttle
valve q to the top of the heater A. The operation is conducted as follows. The
chimney valve d being opened, and the throttle valve q closed, the fire door c is
removed, and a fire is made in the fire place b and maintained until the fire
bricks a a have attained the required heat. The fire door and chimney valve are
then closed, and the valves f and q are opened. The fan p and the chain k are
set in motion; air is thus drawn from the vessel B and circulated through the
heater A, where it is highly heated. The heated air flows by the passage e under
and over the successive shelves of the vessel as indicated by the arrows, thus
coming in direct contact with the charcoal with which the shelves are charged.
Spent charcoal to be operated on is fed from the hopper by the rotation of the
wheels m m and, by the tipping of the sections / h, drops from shelf to shelf thus
coming into contact with air of a higher temperature as it descends, until it is
finally discharged into the coolers. When the heat in the heater is exhausted the
connections between the heater and the burner are closed and the heater is then
reheated. If it is desired to have continuous action, two or more heaters may be
used, the burning vessel being put in communication with one of these while the
other is being heated. The vessel B may have fixed sloping shelves as shewn in
the transverse section Fig. 2 and in Fig. 3 which is partly in longitudinal section
and partly in elevation. The heater A and its connections are as already described
and are marked by the same letters. The vessel B has tiers of shelves c c made in
sections each with sloping sides. The spaces under the shelves communicate at
their ends with the chambers ss which are partitioned so that the hot air has to
pass from e to and fro in numerous zig-zags to o acting as it passes on the charcoal
carried on the shelves and descending from them successively to the coolers n.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is:-
The herein described process for revivifying spent charcoal by subjecting it as
it descends in a distributed condition through a vessel, to hot air, gas or steam
caused to circulate through the vessel in direct contact with the charcoal, the said
air, gas or steam being heated by its passage through a heater of the kind herein-
before referred to.