US 5,207,897 AGranted

Floating hydrocarbons separator pump with buoyant housing and two-chamber vertically moveable member

OwnerWilliam E. Baird, Peter J. Tolaninventors

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Abstract

An automatic pumping system for removal of floating contaminants and oil and gasoline seepage from water wells. A vertically reciprocating cone-shaped member, like an inverted funnel, is moved between positions above and below the water surface. As it submerges, the inverted funnel collects the floating product within its circumference and transfers it to a collection space surrounding the cone. In the upper position, this collection space is sealed so that air may be blown into it while the collected product is driven out through a pickup tube to a collection sump for ultimate disposal. A second embodiment incorporates a hydraulic pumping system which operates in synchronism with the contamination collection and disposal system to create a cone of depression which draws the floating product into the space covered by the circumference of the reciprocating cone.

Claims25

Dependent claims

A hydraulic separator system for recovering floating hydrocarbons from a water surface comprising:

a buoyant housing having an encompassing side wall with top and bottom closures, said side wall having at least one opening bridging the water surface for admitting surface water and floating product into said housing;
a linear actuator mounted to said housing and having a vertically oriented actuator rod extending into the housing;
means for coupling a vertically movable member situated within said housing to said actuator rod for vertical movement relative to said housing between an upper position above a surface and a lower position in which the member is partially submerged;
said member, having a cylindrical side wall and closed at the bottom by an inwardly tapering wall extending upwardly within the side wall to a position below an upper end of the cylindrical side wall, said inwardly tapered end wall dividing said member into a first chamber above said end wall and a second chamber below said end wall;
means defining at least one opening extending through said inwardly tapering end wall to communicate between said chambers;
a sealing surface extending along said top closure within said housing and having a configuration shaped to seal the upper end of the cylindrical side wall and the at least one opening in said end wall when the member is in the upper position, thereby closing said first chamber;
means for pressurizing said first chamber when said member is in the upper position;
and
means including a pickup tube extending into said first chamber through said top closure for removing liquid collected in said first chamber upon pressurization thereof.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.