The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 13, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 16, 1997
Applicant:
Inventor:
James A Patterson, Sarasota, FL (US);
Assignee:
Other;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
C02F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
210634 ; 210693 ; 210799 ; 210747 ; 210172 ; 2102424 ; 2105321 ; 210540 ; 210D / ;
Abstract
Pretreated tubular members, preferably in the form of hollow fiber segments, and a method for suppressing the formation of a colloid of fuel oil in sea water or visa versa in a ballast/fuel oil tank of a ship. The fuel oil-pretreated members are hydrophobic having a resultant density such that, when disposed into the fuel oil/ballast tank which is initially substantially colloid free, the pretreated tubular members sink in the fuel oil and become suspended at the interface of, or boundary between, fuel oil and ballast sea water to form a physical barrier which substantially maintains separation between fuel oil and sea water during subsequent ship movement at sea.