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US 6,333,019 B1Granted
Method for operating a chemical and/or physical process by means of a hierarchical fluid injection system
OwnerMarc-Olivier Coppensinventor
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OwnerMarc-Olivier Coppensinventor
Estimating the term…
The invention relates to injection of fluids (gas, liquid, suspension or other mixtures) in a controlled typically uniform way within a vessel containing another fluid or fluidized medium. Said injection device consists of pipes or channels that are connected in a hierarchical fashion so that the fluid entering a first channel is divided into channels of the same or different diameter and length, each or some of which are further divided into channels of the same or different diameter and length, and so on. The injection system can also consist of combinations of such tree-like or fractal-like elements, embedded in the plane or in space. The embodiment depends upon the nature of the fluids and the application. The invention can be used for gas/solid fluidized bed and a gas/liquid and other processes. A typical application is the reduction and uniformization or otherwise control of bubble sizes to optimize the operation of fluidized bed, slurry and gas/liquid reactors.
Method for operating a multi-phase process that is chemical, physical, or both, in a vessel containing at least two different phases selected from the group consisting of a liquid phase, a gas phase and a solid phase, inside which vessel a fluid is distributed through a hierarchical network of channels comprising parent and child generations of channel formations, wherein substantially each channel in a parent generation is divided into N channels of a child generation, wherein each channel of said child generation may in turn be a parent for channels in a successive child generation, which network terminates in channel exits, such that said fluid is discharged from the channel exits substantially uniformly throughout the vessel volume.
Method for operating a process that is chemical, physical, or both, in a vessel containing at least two different phases selected from the group consisting of a liquid phase, a gas phase and a solid phase, throughout which vessel a fluid is distributed through a hierarchical network of channels comprising parent and child generations of channel formations, wherein substantially each channel in a parent generation is divided into N channels of the child generation, wherein each channel of said child generation may in turn be a parent for channels in a successive child generation, which network terminates in channel exits, such that said fluid is discharged from the channel exits substantially uniformly throughout the vessel volume, wherein said network is a self-affine network of channels, wherein each of the channels in the parent generation has a diameter dj and a length lj, and each of the channels in the child generation has a diameter dj+1 and a length l+1, wherein at least one of the ratios dj/dj+1 and lj/lj+1 is substantially constant for channels of successive generations running in parallel direction, wherein the ratio of lengths of channels in successive generations of said network is related to N by the formula, N=(lj/lj+1)D, wherein D is between 2 and 3.
Method for scaling up a multi-phase process that is chemical, physical, or both, and that is carried out in a vessel containing at least two different phases selected from the group consisting of a liquid phase, a gas phase and a solid phase, comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.