Chicago Bridge & Iron Company

Chicago Bridge & Iron Technical Services Company

Matloob Husain

Ban-Yen Lai

Richard L Schmitt

Gerald E Engdahl

William S Schoerner

James A Nail

Yuksel A Selcukoglu

James B Maher

James H Richardson

Carl C Hanke, Jr

A method and apparatus for cooling a warm feed stream of aqueous liquid to close to but above the freezing point of the aqueous liquid and delivering it to a mixing tank; withdrawing an aqueous ice slurry from an ice slurry receiver-crystallizer and delivering it to the mixing tank to further cool the contents and produce temperature control of the mixing tank contents; withdrawing an aqueous slurry from the mixing tank and delivering it to a slurry thickener tank for precipitate separation thereof; removing the precipitate from the slurry thickener tank and disposing of it; withdrawing aqueous liquid from the thickener tank and delivering it to the ice slurry receiver-crystallizer; and withdrawing an aqueous ice slurry from the ice slurry receiver-crystallizer, feeding it through a freeze exchanger to produce additional aqueous ice slurry and withdrawing the aqueous ice slurry from the freeze exchanger and feeding it to the ice slurry receiver-crystallizer. A single feed tank can be used in place of the mixing tank and the thickener tank.

Apparatus and method of freeze concentrating aqueous waste and process

A method and apparatus for cooling an aqueous liquid at ground level, by a refrigeration system which rejects heat, to produce an aqueous ice slurry of ice crystals in the aqueous liquid; and (A) feeding some of the aqueous ice slurry from ground level to a heat exchanger in a mine chamber substantially below ground level to cool air or water in the mine chamber by heat exchange with the slurry thereby producing warm aqueous liquid from the slurry; withdrawing the warm aqueous liquid from the mine chamber, returning it to ground level and then cooling the aqueous liquid by the refrigeration system to again convert it to an aqueous ice slurry; and recycling the slurry to the mine chamber; and (B) feeding some of the aqueous ice slurry produced at ground level to an ice washer and washing the ice; melting the washed ice to produce potable water at ground level; and feeding the potable water to hydraulic powered machinery in the mine chamber and using the hydrostatic energy of the water to power the machinery.

Integrated mine cooling and water conditioning system

A method for concentrating aqueous mixtures and particularly mixtures which contain volatile desirable components such as flavor constituents is disclosed. An aqueous feed mixture is cooled sufficiently to produce ice crystals therein. The ice crystals are removed from the chilled mixture to produce a liquid phase from which some of the water has been removed and which is therefore concentrated. The concentrated liquid phase is split into two portions, one of which is collected as a first product, the other being first treated to separate the volatile components, which are recycled to the freezing step in which the ice crystals are formed. The residual liquid after the volatile component separation is then concentrated thermally in a conventional fashion to produce a second concentrated product which can be mixed with the first product to produce a product having a desired solids concentration and containing at least a substantial proportion of the original volatile components present in the feed.

Concentration method

Apparatus and method comprising a base cooling system using a refrigeration cycle, a peak-shaving system using a secondary cooling liquid, and a regeneration system for the peak-shaving system secondary cooling liquid. A split or partitioned heat exchanger alternately condenses only the refrigerant in the base cooling system or it condenses that refrigerant and a refrigerant used to cool hot secondary cooling liquid. The apparatus can be used in power generating plants with the split heat exchanger located in a cooling tower.

Cooling system, for power generating plant, using split or partitioned

Spent steam from a steam driven electric generating power plant is condensed by heat rejection to a refrigerant in a closed loop. The closed refrigerant loop contains an expander and a compressor, and a heat exchanger in a cooling tower. The compressor and expander are integrated so that (1) in an upper cooling cycle at the upper end of the ambient or air temperature range, only the compressor is operated within its operating range, (2) in a lower cooling cycle at the lower end of the ambient or air temperature range, only the expander is operated and (3) in a middle cooling cycle at the middle range of the ambient or air temperatures, when the turn-down of either the compressor or the expander is a limiting factor, both of them are operated. The characteristics of the compressor and the expander are advisably matched such that when both are operated the duties on both are balanced above their respective turn-down limits thus minimizing the energy loss and enhancing the power producing capability of the system. The integrated compressor/expander operation, during the middle range of the ambient or air temperatures in which the system is designed to operate, will also provide smoother operation, as the discontinuity going to and from the compressor to the expander mode of operation is eliminated.

Power producing dry cooling apparatus and method

A hot fluid stream is cooled by contacting it, in indirect heat exchange, with a base cooling fluid so long as the base cooling fluid accepts heat rejected from the hot fluid stream and adequately cools the same. When the cooling capacity of the base cooling fluid is inadequate supplemental cooling is provided contemporaneously and indirectly by contacting the hot fluid stream with a secondary cooling liquid which is cold thereby heating the secondary cooling liquid. The heated secondary cooling liquid is delivered to a hot reservoir for storage. The hot secondary cooling liquid is later removed from the hot reservoir, cooled and delivered to a cold reservoir for storage. The cold secondary cooling liquid is removed when needed from the cold reservoir and again delivered into indirect heat exchange with the hot fluid stream when the base cooling fluid provides inadequate cooling for the hot fluid stream. The base cooling fluid can be a refrigerant such as ammonia and the secondary cooling liquid can be water. The hot fluid stream can be steam condensed in a condenser of an electric power generating plant.

Apparatus and methods of cooling a hot fluid stream

In a combination of apparatus for storing liquefied natural gas which includes an insulated separation tank in which solidified carbon dioxide is settled out of liquefied natural gas and a liquefied natural gas-solidified carbon dioxide slurry accumulates, an insulated liquefied natural gas storage tank, and a conduit for delivering liquefied natural gas from the separation tank to the storage tank, the improvement comprising a conduit for withdrawing natural gas boil-off from the storage tank and feeding it to a compressor, a conduit for feeding compressed natural gas boil-off from the compressor to a heat exchanger for indirect heat exchange with a liquefied natural gas-solidified carbon dioxide slurry in the separation tank to cool the compressed natural gas to reliquefied natural gas, and a conduit to feed the reliquefied natural gas from the heat exchanger to the storage tank.

Growing community of inventors

Wheaton, IL, United States of America

Matloob Husain