Adjustable shear direct contact steam injection heater
AssigneeHydro-Thermal Corporation
InventorsBrian N. Drifka, Bruce A. Cincotta
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A direct contact steam injection heater allows shear to be adjusted without taking the process off-line to relieve pressure within the heater. A stud is mounted to an adjustable combining tube within the heater. The stud extends through an opening in the heater body into a sealed housing. An adjusting mechanism exerts force on the combining tube stud within the sealed housing to move the combining tube longitudinally within the body to adjust the shear within the heater. The position of the combining tube is indicated by an analog revolution counter. The adjusting mechanism can be driven manually or by a motor. The motorized embodiment of the invention can be used with feedback control to automatically optimize shear.
Claims24
A direct contact steam injection heater comprising:
- a body having a steam inlet, a product inlet, a product outlet and a stud opening;
- a steam nozzle located within the body downstream of the steam inlet;
- a longitudinal combining tube slidably mounted in the body between the steam nozzle and the product outlet, the combining tube having an upstream end that is spaced away from the steam nozzle a variable distance to form a passage from the product inlet into the combining tube;
- a sealed housing covering the stud opening in the body;
- a combining tube stud mounted to the combining tube and extending through the stud opening in the body into the sealed housing;
- and
- an adjusting mechanism that exerts force on the combining tube stud within the sealed housing to move the combining tube longitudinally within the body and adjust the variable distance between the steam nozzle and the upstream end of the combining tube.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.