Baker Hughes Corporation

Envirotech Corporation

David P Brown

Lynn W Cook

Jeffrey L Wight

A gas-holding sludge digester is disclosed having a sideskirt which telescopes in a liquid chamber which is separate from a main digester tank and wherein the ballast is structured to increase gas pressure of the gas contained within the cover as the sideskirt telescopes upward.

Sludge digesters with separate liquid chambers to buoy ballast members

A portable wheeled hand truck mounts a rotary actuator, powered by a hand or motor-operated pump also contained on the truck, for lifting and rotating a diffused aeration piping array from a liquid/slurry treatment tank into a working and servicing position adjacent to the tank, such as a walkway. The wheeled truck is hand maneuvered so that the powered end of the actuator is in alignment with a connection arm extending from a pivotable pipe which is part of the array. A multi-positionable handle is included on the hand truck which, in an essentially horizontal position, is temporarily fixed to a tank walkway surface to support the reaction forces incident to lifting and rotating the heavy mass of the piping array. When not so fixed, the handle may be moved to an essentially vertical position for storage and to an intermediate position to maneuver the truck into alignment with the piping array connector arm.

Servicing mechanism for rotational piping array

A pair of generally L-shaped identical rod members having a cantilevered bottom end extending transversely from a horizontal base portion are assembled so that the cantilevered end of a first rod member can abut the horizontal base portion of a second rod member while the cantilevered end of the second rod member simultaneous abuts the horizontal base portion of the first rod member. The abutments of the two rods can be made along part or effectively all of the reach or length of the rod members base portions so that the vertical portions of the rod members have two or more different spans therebetween so as to accommodate a range of pipe diameters to be supported. The abutment of the respective cantilevered ends and the horizontal base portions of the rod members are either welded together or clamped securely at various spans forming a closed generally rectangular loop bounded by the respective cantilevered ends and base portions of the two rod members. The closed loop of the rod member assembly is inserted around and clamped to an anchoring post or stud in a concrete or other bottom of an aeration or other tank. The piping is supported at a desired vertical height by a pair of clamp halves levelled and secured by nuts on threaded vertical legs of the respective rod members.

U-shaped pipe clamping system

A digestor includes a tank and an inverted dish-shaped cover, the lower end of which extends into sludge contained within the tank. The cover is ballasted by a number of ballast members which resemble tubs and which are integrally formed of concrete. Each ballast member is mounted with its cavity facing upwardly so that the ballast cavities automatically fill with sludge upon start-up of the digestor. When partially surfaced above the sludge, the predetermined total weight of sludge in the ballast members causes a substantial increase in the pressure exerted by the cover on the contained gas than would be exerted by the cover and unfilled ballast members.

Growing community of inventors

Salt Lake City, UT, United States of America

David P Brown