Flexivol, Inc.

Other

Intenco, Inc.

Fred P Apffel

Age Solbakken

Sam P Robinson

Bobby L Hayes

An apparatus for economically recovering char, oil and fuel gas from vehicle tires is disclosed, for either whole tires or physically fragmented tires. The tires may be washed to remove dirt and road film. The tires are dried and preheated with super-heat steam. The hot tires are pyrolyzed to partially devolatize a major portion of the hydrocarbons and produce a char that can be separated from the steel and fiber glass. The char may be subsequently pyrolyzed with microwaves that elevate the tire temperature and devolatize the remaining hydrocarbons from the char as gas. The hot gases are cooled and partially condensed. The uncondensed gas is used as fuel. The condensed oil is sent to storage. The solid residue from the tire pyrolysis is substantially char, fiberglass and steel. The char is mechanically separated from the glass and steel. Alternately, the char and the glass and steel are separated by dumping the hot mixture into a water quench tank. The mixture is cooled. The char floats to the water surface and is removed. The glass and steel sink to the bottom of the tank and are removed separately. The char may be sold or burned or milled to break down agglomerates and subsequently pelletized and bagged. The steel and glass are discarded as trash.

Recovery apparatus

A process is disclosed for the separation of hydrocarbon feed gas mixtures containing carbon dioxide. The process utilizes four distillation units and one absorption unit. The feed gas is fed to the first distillation system where the methane-and-lighter components are separated from the propane-and-heavier hydrocarbons. The top gas product from the first distillation unit is mixed with a portion of the absorbing medium methanol and refrigerated. This mixture is fed to the bottom of the absorber. The gas containing methane, ethane and carbon dioxide flows up the absorber countercurrent to the downcoming liquid methanol. The ethane and carbon dioxide are dissolved by the methanol and exit the bottom of the absorber as a liquid. The methane-and-lighter components are not dissolved by the methanol and leave the absorber as a gas. The bottoms from the first distillation system are fed to a second distillation column where the ethane and carbon dioxide are distilled as a top gas product. This gas mixture and the warmed bottoms from the absorber are fed to a third distillation unit. A small amount of methanol is mixed with the overhead vapor from this distillation unit. The methanol, a polar substance, causes the relativity of carbon dioxide to ethane to both invert. The ethane becomes the lighter component and is distilled from the top of the unit as a gas. The carbon dioxide and methanol bottoms product are fed to a fourth distillation unit where the carbon dioxide is distilled from the methanol.

Carbon dioxide absorption methanol process

A process for economically recovering char, oil and fuel gas from vehicle tires is disclosed, for either whole tires or physically fragmented tires. The tires may be washed to remove dirt and road film. The tires are dried and preheated with super-heat steam. The hot tires are pyrolyzed to partially devolatize a major portion of the hydrocarbons and produce a char that can be separated from the steel and fiberglass. The char may be subsequently pyrolyzed with microwaves that elevate the tire temperature and devolatize the remaining hydrocarbons from the char as gas. The hot gases are cooled and partially condensed. The uncondensed gas is used as fuel. The condensed oil is sent to storage. The solid residue from the tire pyrolysis is substantially char, fiberglass and steel. The char is mechanically separated from the glass and steel. Alternately, the char and the glass and steel are separated by dumping the hot mixture into a water quench tank. The mixture is cooled. The char floats to the water surface and is removed. The glass and steel sink to the bottom of the tank and are removed separately. The char may be sold or burned or milled to break down agglomerates and subsequently pelletized and bagged. The steel and glass are discarded as trash.

Recovery process

A process for separating a nitrogen rich hydrocarbon stream is disclosed. The process includes cooling the stream in a series of indirect heat exchanges to separate successively lighter components from heavier components of the stream. After the first cooling stage, the stream is separated into a heavy component stream and a light component stream. The heavy component is distilled to form a heavy product stream and a first methane rich gas stream. The lighter component stream is successively cooled and split into a second methane rich gas stream and a nitrogen rich, low heating value stream.

Nitrogen removal system

A process for economically recovering ethane, propane and heavier hydrocarbon components from methane and lighter constituents of natural gas streams is disclosed. The separation process of the natural gas stream is accomplished in two stages. The input gas stream (90) is first cooled by exchanger (58) using various streams of refrigerant. After cooling the stream (102) is partially condensed in a separator (104), with part of the methane and almost all of the ethane and heavier hydrocarbons within the stream being condensed. The condensed mixtures (112) are fed to a fractionation tower (116), where the methane and lighter gases are distilled from the other hydrocarbons. The cooling and condensation of the hydrocarbons in the feed stream and the heat source for the tower (116) are accomplished in indirect contact heat exchangers (26, 58, 68, 70, 210) with a multi-component hydrocarbon refrigerant in two streams (154, 220) and a slip stream (211) of the feed stream. The cooling of the feed stream is also accomplished by flashing of the process gases.

Process for recovering ethane, propane and heavier hydrocarbons from a

A process is disclosed for the separation of hydrocarbon feed gas mixture containing methane and carbon dioxide, as well as other components such as ethane propane-and-heavier hydrocarbon, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen, or other lighter inert gases, into various components. The steps of separation include distillation and absorption. These separations operate at temperatures and pressures such that the freezing or formation of solid carbon dioxide will not occur. The process utilizes four distillation units and one absorption unit.

A process for economically recovering carbon black, oil and fuel gas from vehicle tires is disclosed, for either whole tires or physically fragmented tires. The tires are washed to remove dirt and road film. The clean tires are dried and preheated with super-heat steam. The hot tires are pyrolyzed to partially devolatize a major portion of the hydrocarbons and produce a char that can be separated from the steel and fiber glass. The char is subsequently pyrolyzed with microwaves that elevate the tire temperature and devolatize the remaining hydrocarbons from the char as gas. The hot gases are cooled and partially condensed. The uncondensed gas is used as fuel. The condensed oil is sent to storage. The solid residue from the tire pyrolysis is char, fiberglass and steel. The char is mechanically separated from the glass and steel. The char is milled to break down agglomerates and subsequently pelletized and bagged. The steel and glass are discarded as trash.

A process and apparatus for economically recovering ethane, propane and heavier hydrocarbon components from methane and lighter constituents of natural gas streams is disclosed. The separation process of the natural gas stream is accomplished in two stages. The input gas stream (90) is first cooled by exchanger (58) using various streams of refrigerant. After cooling the stream (102) is partially condensed in a separator (104), with part of the methane and almost all of the ethane and heavier hydrocarbons within the stream being condensed. The condensed mixtures (112) are fed to a fractionation tower (116), where the methane and lighter gases are distilled from the other hydrocarbons. The cooling and condensation of the hydrocarbons in the feed stream and the heat source for the tower (116) are accomplished in indirect contact heat exchangers (26, 58, 68, 70) with a refrigerant. The cooling of the feed stream is also accomplished by flashing of the process gases. The refrigerant utilizes a mixture of hydrocarbons with the refrigerant process comprising compression, condensation, expansion and evaporation.

A process for economically recovering propane and heavier hydrocarbon components from ethane, methane and lighter constituents of natural gas streams is disclosed. The separation process of the natural gas stream is accomplished in two stages. The input gas stream (101) is first cooled by exchanger (301) using various streams of refrigerant. After cooling the stream (102) is partially condensed in a series of separators (109, 111, 112), with part of the ethane, methane and almost all of the propane and heavier hydrocarbons within the stream being condensed. The condensed mixtures (124) are fed to a fractionation tower (113), where the ethane, methane and lighter gases are distilled from the other hydrocarbons. The cooling and condensation of the hydrocarbons in the feed stream and the heat source for the tower (113) are accomplished in indirect contact heat exchangers (301, 302, 303, 304) with a refrigerant and hot oil. The cooling of the feed stream is also accomplished by flashing of the process gases in the separators. The refrigerant utilizes a mixture of hydrocarbons with the refrigerant process comprising compression, condensation, expansion and evaporation.

Process for recovering propane and heavier hydrocarbons from a natural

A process for economically recovering ethane, propane and heavier hydrocarbon components from methane and lighter constituents of natural gas streams is disclosed. The separation process of the natural gas stream is accomplished in two stages. The input gas stream (90) is first cooled by exchanger (58) using various streams of refrigerant. After cooling the stream (102) is partially condensed in a separator (104), with part of the methane and almost all of the ethane and heavier hydrocarbons within the stream being condensed. The condensed mixtures (112) are fed to a fractionation tower (116), where the methane and lighter gases are distilled from the other hydrocarbons. The cooling and condensation of the hydrocarbons in the feed stream and the heat source for the tower (116) are accomplished in indirect contact heat exchangers (26, 58, 68, 70) with a multi-component hydrocarbon refrigerant. The cooling of the feed stream is also accomplished by flashing of the process gases.

The invention is a process for economically recovering carbon black, oil and fuel gas from used tires. Used tires are physically fragmented. The fragments are pyrolized at slightly subatmospheric pressure in a reactor while process char is being recycled to increase heat transfer and avoid coke on heat transfer surfaces. Entrained char is separated from the vapor phase products of the pyrolysis, and the vapor phase products of the pyrolysis are then fractionated into oil and fuel gas. A preferred embodiment condenses reactor vapors in two stages at two temperature levels to separate dust from an oil-dust mixture, without water in the first stage and light oil in the second stage. The fuel gas can be compressed and burnt to provide process heat. The entrained char dust and some heavy oil is returned to the reactor. Solid phase pyrolysis products are stripped of trash and milled to carbon black. Carbon black is mechanically separated from the effluent air stream of the mill and formed into pellets with added water and dried.

Process for recovering carbon black and hydrocarbons from used tires

The invention is a process for economically recovering carbon black, tar, oil and fuel gas from used tires. Used tires are physically sliced and fragmented. The fragments are pyrolized in an oxygen-limited, hydrocarbon vapor at subatmospheric pressure while being refluxed with process tar condensate. Vapor phase products of the pyrolysis are fractionated into tar, oil and fuel gas. The fuel gas can be compressed and burnt to provide process heat. Solid phase pyrolysis products are stripped of trash and milled to carbon black in an air swept roller mill. Carbon black is mechanically separated from the effluent air stream of the roller mill and formed into pellets that are dried in a series multi-stage fluid bed dryer.

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Fred P Apffel