Method and apparatus for removing mercury and organic contaminants from soils, sludges and sediments and other inert materials
OwnerHerbert Siddleinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for thermally separating mercury and organic contaminants from inert substrate materials (such as soil, sludges, sediments, drilling muds and cuttings), comprising an essentially air-tight processing chamber having a substrate inlet and a substrate outlet, said chamber having two or more troughs for processing of the substrate, a means for indirectly heating the chamber, a means for moving substrate through the two or more throughs of the chamber from the substrate inlet to the substrate outlet, and a vapour condensate handling system for removing and condensing vapours from the chamber for processing to remove and recover contaminants.
Claims6
An apparatus for separating contaminants from inert substrate materials, comprising:
- an essentially air-tight processing chamber suspended within a firebox, wherein said chamber has a substrate inlet and a substrate outlet, and said chamber having two or more troughs for processing of the substrate;
- a means for indirectly heating the chamber;
- a means for moving substrate through the two or more troughs of the chamber from the substrate inlet to the substrate outlet;
- and
- a vapour condensate handling system for removing vapour from the chamber for processing to remove and recover contaminants.
A method for separating mercury and organic contaminants from contaminated inert substrate materials comprising the steps of:
- feeding inert solid, sludge, sediment material comprising contaminated organic compounds into a suspended treatment chamber heated externally with a heating means to such a temperature that the mercury or organic compounds are volatilized;
- moving said material through the chamber in a manner which exposes a maximum surface area of the material to the surface area of the chamber to assist in the rapid heating, volatization, and processing of the material;
- removing the solids free of contaminants from the chamber;
- removing the vapour phase constituents from the chamber and conducting to a means for collection, condensation and recovery of contaminants.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.