Patent ID: 7135107

Claim:
An apparatus for removing solids from a slurry stream of fluids and agglomerated solids, the apparatus comprising: a tank having a peripheral wall and a bottom, an inlet for supplying the slurry stream to said tank, and an outlet fluidly coupled to said bottom and substantially co-axial with and below said inlet, said outlet for receiving agglomerated slurry solids directly from said inlet; guiding means substantially co-axial with but positioned above said outlet and between said inlet and said outlet, for guiding agglomerated solids in the slurry stream from said inlet directly to said outlet, said guiding means comprises a baffle assembly including a plurality of concentric baffles that partition said tank into a plurality of fluidly coupled chambers, to form and maintain a substantially conical mass of agglomerated solids substantially co-axial with and over said outlet; and fluid removal means for removing the fluids from said tank from a location remote from said outlet.