Organic waste recycling apparatus
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toyodynam
InventorKazuo Teramachi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A composter including a fermentation compartment located on top of a compost drying compartment. A shutter is located between the compartments to control the transfer of composted material into the drying compartment. In an alternative composter the drying compartment tank is horizontally adjacent the fermentation compartment. A stirring screw is located in the fermenting compartment. During the fermenting process, the stirring screw is rotated back and forth so as to continually mix the material being composted. Once the composting process is completed, the stirring screw is rotated in one direction to transfer the composted material through openings in a separation wall and into the drying compartment.
Claims18
A composter comprising:
- a composter housing having an inner wall, said composter housing further having an upper section that defines a fermentation compartment and a lower section that defines a drying compartment;
- a partition panel extending inwardly from said composter housing inner wall so as to define said composter housing into said upper and lower sections, said partition panel being formed with a through passage between said sections that is spaced inwardly from said composter housing inner wall, said partition panel including an upwardly extending lip that extends around said through passage;
- a shutter seated in said partition panel through passage for selectively opening and closing said through passage;
- a first set of stirring blades disposed in said fermentation compartment;
- a second set of stirring blades disposed in said drying compartment;
- a first set of heating elements disposed in said drying compartment for heating said drying compartment to a first temperature;
- and
- a second set of heating elements disposed at said fermentation compartment for heating said fermentation compartment to a second temperature, said second selected temperature being less than said first temperature to which said drying compartment is heated.
A composter comprising:
- a composter housing having an interior space, said composter housing including a vertically extending dividing wall for dividing said composter housing interior space into a fermentation compartment and a drying compartment, said dividing wall being formed with an opening to facilitate the transfer of compost from said fermentation compartment to said drying compartment;
- a horizontally aligned stirring screw disposed in said fermentation compartment and extending the length thereof, said stirring screw being shaped to horizontally move material being composted so that when said screw rotates in a first direction, said material is displaced toward said dividing wall and when said screw rotates in a second direction opposite said first direction, said material is displaced away from said dividing wall;
- and
- a motor attached to said stirring screw for rotating said screw in said first and second directions, said motor being configured to have a first mode of operation during which said motor alternatively rotates said stirring screw in said first and second directions and a second mode of operation in which said motor continually rotates said stirring screw in said first direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.