System and method for obtaining hydrocarbons from organic and inorganic solid waste

A system to obtain hydrocarbons from organic and inorganic solid waste, characterized because it consists of:

• i) A hopper that allows the access of the organic and inorganic solid waste, that consists of an inverted cylindrical conic body, wherein a ring is fixed on its top part having on its edge a perimetral cut-in of 10°, so a solid cylindrical lid can hermetically rest;
• this lid as well contains a perimetral cut-in of 10° on its inferior end, so when it couples with the perimetral cut-in of the ring, a perfect hermetic seal can be achieved. This lid at the same time is provided with a hermetic sealing and sliding mechanism, to allow the access of the waste;
• such sealing mechanism consists of a handle that has on its top end a first piston on a vertical position to remove, settle and provide this lid with pressure. A horizontal rail is welded and extended diametrically from the opposite ends on top of the hopper's aperture, to allow sliding of the handle when the hopper is opened or closed. On the opposite side of the rails a second piston is places horizontally, to slide the handle over such rails. On top of this lid a rectangular plate is vertically placed, provided with an elliptical perforation to prevent the axle of the second piston from bending when the lid seats on the hopper. The hopper connects, by means of its inferior end, an organic and inorganic solid waste intake chamber, with the help of a conventional couple;
• ii) The organic and inorganic solid waste cylindrical intake chamber consists of:
• a hollow metallic cylinder, in a horizontal position, resistant to a vacuum pressure of −0.56 Kg/cm2, whose interior contains a waste mixing assembly, on a horizontal position, that consists of square shaft that has on all of its longitude on each of its sides, rectangular plates arranged perpendicularly, in a diagonal form. The mixing assembly, is fixed to the cylinder, by mean of the ends of the square shaft, for which, both ends of the square shaft, are joined to some discs in a vertical position, the discs have on their center a square connector having on their center a square cavity with large enough dimensions to fit tightly one of the ends of the square shaft. One of the connector discs connects, on the opposite side where the square cavity is, a second disc with the same dimensions as the first disc;
• wherein the second circular piece has on the face opposite to the face that connects the first disc, a central round shaft, in a horizontal position to enter into a conical axle box, wherein said axle box attaches to the hatch of the waste intake chamber. The central round shaft has an internal duct in a “U” shape, horizontally placed, so that refrigeration liquid can flow and said axle will not dilate by the increment of temperature. Said central round shaft is embraced by a cooling device;
• followed by a bearing to fix the round shaft;
• and a notched wheel to allow said square shaft to rotate through a chain coupled to a motor. The connecting disc on the other end of the square shaft join a circular piece on its face opposite to its square cavity;
• wherein said circular piece has on its center a horizontal round axle that enters an axle box to allow rotation and support the central round shaft, as this shaft is suspended and fixed by means of some metallic braces, which are metallic projections extending from the internal wall of cylinder toward the axle box, on the opposite end of said axle box there is an axial block that functions as a lid preventing dust and residue from entering the axle box and fixes the central round shaft. The open ends of the cylinder are sealed by a hatch, wherein the left hatch is fixed to the chamber by a conventional coupling in front of the cooling device. On the end where the right hatch is placed, a ring is welded on the edge of the cylinder beforehand, which, on its internal edge a 10° perimetral cut-in, on which is fixed, on the top edge of said cut-in, a calibrated pipe in the interior of which a solid cylindrical interconnection valve slides, which valve has at the same time a 10° cut-in on its left side so that when it couples with the ring's cut-in there is a hermetic seal, in the middle of valve there is a perimetral circular canal that houses a teflon ring to increase tightness of the hermetic seal on the calibrated cylinder;
• right hatch is fixed to the right end of the calibrated cylinder, whose outer diameter is greater than the cylindrical body, matching that of the second ring, to achieve a fitting between both pieces;
• a ring-shaped piece is added to the center of the right hatch, with an internal mechanism that prevents air from coming inside the cylindrical body;
• the axle of an actuator piston is introduced in the center of the ring-shaped piece to impulse and retract the interconnection valve inside of the calibrated cylinder. The cylindrical body of this chamber has on its top an air and volatile particles extraction tower, which are conducted throughout a pipe that directs them toward a multiple valve. Finally, the calibrated cylinder has an inferior perforation in order to couple a vertical tube to connect the intake chamber to a dehydration reactor.
• iii) The dehydration reactor, that eliminates any trace of moisture that the organic or inorganic waste includes at the moment of entering the system, is similar to the manufacture of the intake chamber, but differs in that the dehydration reactor contains an upper rectangular aperture of one third the diameter of such cylinder, that traverses its own longitude, to obtain a connection with an expansion chamber, consisting of a pair of longitudinal metallic rectangular walls, that are vertically welded, but with an inclination of 15° in the outward direction commencing at the edge of the longitudinal aperture, resembling a conical appearance;
• of a pair of truncated semi conical transversal metallic walls, arranged in a 90° vertical position with respect to the cylinder, and it is used to cover the apertures at the ends of the mentioned chamber;
• and a half-tube shaped piece serves as a upper lid to the expansion chamber, this expansion chamber serves to allow the elevation of water vapors generated by the organic and inorganic solid waste;
• thus in this case the extraction tower is located above the expansion chamber. Another characteristic of this dehydration reactor is that it is placed inside a heat “casing”, but not entirely, to provide a temperature of 180° inside the dehydration chamber, by means of heat generated by a first gas burner;
• a duct is vertically located on the top end of the heat “casing”, and this duct is required to expel the gases obtained. The casing is provided with an external insulator layer that impedes heat diffusion and concentrates it inside such casing. In the same way as the intake chamber, the dehydration reactor is provided with an interconnection pipe to join it to a first thermal dissociation reactor.
• iv) A vapor that has not yet reached the ideal temperature of 420° C. is formed on the first thermal dissociation chamber, this first reactor whose configuration is the same as that of the dehydration reactor, but differs in that the expansion chamber is on a smaller scale, given that the “crude” vapors that are going to be obtained require less space since they are not that expansive. Another detail about this first reactor is that the heat “casing” has a perforation in the right inferior side, to connect a gas burner that provides a temperature of 280° to the interior of the first reactor. This first reactor is connected to the second thermal disassociation reactor by means of an interconnection pipe;
• v) The final phase of the thermal disassociation of the organic and inorganic solid waste takes place on the second thermal dissociation reactor. Such second reactor has the same structure as that of the first reactor, with the exception that in this case, its cylindrical body has a bigger longitude at its left end, longitude of expansion chamber does not differs, with the intention of leaving a space where a cylindrical expansion tower is placed, consisting of an cylindrical body, placed vertically, opened on its lower end to obtain a connection to the cylindrical body of the second thermal disassociation reactor, and in the other hand its upper end is closed;
• inside the expansion tower are located from bottom to top:
• a pipe, wherein the “crude” vapors are conducted, a filter constituted of a mesh that covers the perforation of the cylinder, and some metallic rings distributed over the mesh, in conjunction they filter thermolytic vapors entering the tower;
• a pipe where the thermolytic vapors enter, a thin plate with a truncated conical shape, placed in an inverted way, to slow down the thermolytic vapor's ascend, with the help of a cone suspended by some braces on top of expansion tower;
• a sealed tank, wherein a pipe is coupled to the inferior end, where the water vapor and volatile particles are conducted, and a thin conical shaped plate, inversely oriented to slow down the ascend of vapors inside the sealed reservoir, wherein a pipe is placed in the upper end, to extract water vapor, thermolytic vapor and air, to be cooled in the first heat exchanger. Above the sealed cylinder, there is a thermolytic vapor extraction pipe that conducts the vapor to a heavy hydrocarbons separator. The expansion tower, sealed cylinder and expansion chamber, are placed inside a heat “casing”. Another aspect about this second reactor, is that such heat “casing” has a perforation on its left bottom side that connects a second gas burner, so it can provide a temperature of 420° C. to the interior of the second reactor and inside the expansion chamber, and in the top part is placed an escape duct that permits flow of the combustion gases of the burner into the atmosphere, there is an insulation layer on the exterior of the “casing” that permits the concentration of heat and avoids its loss. The mixing assembly of the second reactor rotates in one way transporting material toward the left end of the second reactor, and in its right end it couples with the mixing assembly of the extraction chamber of the solid fraction of the thermal dissociation, that also couples with the cylinder of the second reactor and the extraction chamber by means of a conventional couple;
• vi) The extraction chamber of the solid fraction of the thermal dissociation, removes these particles from the heat generated inside the second thermal dissociation reactor;
• this chamber is similar to the manufacture of the intake chamber, and also is heat free, in the same manner it is provided with an interconnection pipe that connects it to the cooling and extraction chamber;
• vii) Cooling and extraction chamber, is where the solid fraction of the thermal dissociation is cooled in order to be extracted and manipulated, it resembles the intake chamber, with the detail that it houses on its exterior a cooling device, that cools down the chamber's interior to a temperature of less than 90° C., the cylinder is provided in its left end with a sealing system equal to that of the hopper, with the only difference that it is vertically oriented, to allow the hermetic sealing and the extraction of the solid fraction once it cools down, on top of the cylinder there is an extraction tower in which the air entering the chamber is extracted as a result of its aperture;
• viii) A cooling and condensing system constituted of a heavy hydrocarbons separator and a primary and secondary heat exchangers. This heavy hydrocarbons separator has a cylindrical shape and it is here where the thermolytic vapors coming from the expansion tower enter, which is coupled to it by means of a couple, the vapors are conducted to the interior of such separator by means of a pipe, inside the heavy hydrocarbons separator there is a pipe with lateral perforations placed in the interior in a vertical way to condensate the thermolytic vapor and obtain heavy hydrocarbons, these hydrocarbons are extracted later on by a service lid that is located in the bottom part of the separator. Inside there is a conic trap, it is a thin plate welded to the intake pipe to prevent its elevation, so they can be dragged by the perforated extraction pipes that extract lighter thermolytic vapor and cooled by means of a first or second heat exchanger. The heat exchangers decrease the thermolytic vapor temperature to 68° C. and direct it toward the light hydrocarbons separators, these heat exchangers are cylindrical shaped tanks and in its interior are found serpentine shaped pipes wherein the thermolytic vapor circulates. Mentioned serpentines are inside containers where a liquid refrigerant circulates to dissipate heat from the serpentine, these heat exchangers came in pairs and are coupled to the same heavy hydrocarbons separator with the reason that in a given state of the reaction, the production of thermolytic vapor is twice the volume than that of the majority of the thermal dissociation process and this accomplishes an optimal thermolytic vapor extraction, thus an over pressure inside of the expansion chamber is avoided.
• ix) Two light hydrocarbon separators of the same constitution, which have a cylindrical shape vertically oriented sealed on their ends, whose interior houses vertically a perforated pipe with a reduced diameter wherein the thermolytic vapor with a temperature of 68° C. enters and is expelled from the reduced pipe toward a bigger internal space of the sealed cylinder, achieving in this way a faster condensation due to the pressure difference between the reduced pipe and the sealed cylinder. These separators came in pairs to facilitate the extraction of thermolytic vapor coming from expansion tower. A trap is placed inside the light separators to prevent the extraction of condensable vapors. On top of the sealed cylinder there is a perforated pipe that extracts the most volatile vapor and transports it to some vacuum pumps;
• finally, there is a hatchway on the bottom of the cylinder to extract the light hydrocarbons;
• x) The multiple valve consists of a solid cylindrical body, that houses in its interior a network of ducts, so the connection accessories, temperature readers and actuators can be distributed;
• from this solid body emerges at least seven ducts that can be used as incoming or outgoing ways, and in each of the duct ends there is a couple to connect to the ducts coming from extraction towers and expansion tower. On top of the multiple valves we can find three oxygen sensors that detect the presence of such gas on the vapor that arrives to this multiple valve, to be sent, with the help of the actuator valves, toward the vapor and volatile particles heating cylinder. The multiple valve is also provided with temperature readers that help measuring vapor temperature and thus determining what kind of vapors they are, in case of it being “crude” vapor, with the help of the actuators valves it is redirected to the lower part of the expansion tower, in case that the vapors are thermolytic they are redirected with the help of the actuator valves to the middle part of the expansion tower;
• xi) Two vacuums pumps, to provide a vacuum pressure of −0.56 Kg/cm2 required in the interior of the system;
• besides they suction vapors from the hydrocarbon obtaining system and send the gases to the purifying reservoirs;
• xii) A cylindrical reservoir to capture the chlorine particles, that has multiple entrances on its bottom, so the produced gases can enter and mix momentarily with a solution of water and sodium chloride, found inside of this reservoir, also a pipe to extract and direct the clean gas to a second reservoir is provided;
• xiii) A third heat exchanger, of similar constitution as that of the first and second heat exchangers;
• xiv) A vertical cylindrical separator of liquids, consisting of the same components as those of the light hydrocarbons separators;
• xv) A third vacuum pump:
• xvi) A reservoir to capture sulfur particles, with entrances on its bottom part to allow the access of generated gases so they can mix temporarily with a solution if calcium hydroxide an water, contained in the reservoir;
• also provides a pipe to extract and direct the clean gas toward a moisture filter;
• and finally
• xvii) An accumulation reservoir is added to store the obtained gas.