Steam separating apparatus

A vapor-liquid mixture separator comprising

• a. a base having a central inlet in the bottom of said separator;
• b. a circular housing attached to and extending upwardly from said base;
• c. spinner means located within said circular housing and over said central inlet adapted to cause a vapor-liquid mixture flowing up through said central inlet to spin outwardly and upwardly whereby vapor and liquid are separated and the liquid from said vapor-liquid mixture is thrown to the outside and the vapor is concentrated in the center of said circular housing;
• d. a plurality of extraction skimmer sections supported above said circular housing, each extraction skimmer section comprising a conical section having a large lower diameter and a smaller upper diameter and with the large lower diameter of each conical section extending partially down over the smaller upper diameter of the conical section below forming a restricted flow portion therebetween whereby separated liquid along the outside is thrown outwardly and downwardly through said restricted flow portion between adjacent skimmer sections;
• and whereby said separated vapor flows up through the central portions of said extraction skimmers and out the top, the improvement comprising:
• i. said larger lower diameter of each of said extraction skimmers including an outwardly protruding rim portion forming an enlarged annular chamber between said rim portion and said conical section below, said enlarged annular chamber being open at the bottom whereby said flow enters said enlarged annular chamber from said restricted flow portion and flows out the bottom;
• ii. an outwardly extending ring attached to each extraction skimmers positioned to extend outwardly into said enlarged annular chamber to form a tortuous converging-diverging flow path for said flow;
• and
• iii. an inwardly extending extraction lip extending inwardly from the top portion of each extraction skimmer into the flow path of liquid flowing upwardly inside said extraction skimmer to intercept and extract said liquid into said restricted flow portion, said inwardly extending extraction lip on each extraction skimmer being larger and extending further inwardly than the one below.