Closed loop cleaning system
OwnerShirley A. Hebertinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Railroad tank cars that have contained petroleum products are cleaned of asphalt residues by a closed cleaning system. An initial spray of terpene-based solvent is followed by a water rinse. The solvent extracts hydrocarbons from the asphalt residue. The solvent and hydrocarbon are separated by filtration, stratification, and distillation, allowing reuse of clean solvent and sale of marketable oil products. The rinse water is cleaned by filtration and evaporation of solvent residues, allowing reuse of the water. The asphalt solids such as residual inorganics are removed by filtration as a dry product suited for disposal in a landfill.
Claims17
A closed loop cleaning process for removing hydrocarbon residue from a vessel in need of cleaning, comprising:
- first, treating a vessel in need of cleaning of hydrocarbon residue by liquefying at least a portion of the hydrocarbon residue with a terpene-based solvent, producing a mixture of spent solvent and hydrocarbon residue;
- second, removing the mixture of spent solvent and hydrocarbon residue from the vessel;
- third, rinsing the vessel with aqueous media, producing a spent aqueous media combined with a contaminant;
- fourth, removing the spent aqueous media and contaminant from the vessel;
- fifth, subsequent to said second step, returning to future service the spent solvent and hydrocarbon residue by the further steps of:
- sixth, separating the spent solvent of the mixture from the hydrocarbon residue by evaporating the spent solvent;
- seventh, condensing the evaporated solvent from said sixth step, producing a clean solvent suited for future service in treating a vessel in need of cleaning;
- and
- eighth, directing at least a portion of the hydrocarbon residue from said sixth step into a commercial product stream;
- ninth, subsequent to said fourth step, returning to future service the spent aqueous media by processing the spent-aqueous media with a means for cleaning the contaminant from the spent aqueous media, producing a clean aqueous media.
A closed loop cleaning system for removing hydrocarbon residue from a vessel in need of cleaning, comprising:
- a clean solvent reservoir means for containing a supply of terpene-based solvent suited to dissolve and liquify at least a portion of the hydrocarbon residue;
- a solvent application means for delivering terpene-based solvent from said reservoir onto hydrocarbon residue in the vessel in need of cleaning, liquefying at least a portion of the hydrocarbon residue into a mixture of solvent and hydrocarbon residue;
- a spent solvent reservoir means for receiving the mixture of spent solvent and hydrocarbon residue from the vessel;
- means for removing said mixture of solvent and hydrocarbon residue from the vessel and to said spent solvent reservoir means;
- a clean aqueous media reservoir means for containing a supply of clean aqueous media suited to rinse the vessel subsequent to application of the solvent;
- a means for applying said clean aqueous media to the vessel to produce spent aqueous media and a contaminant;
- a spent aqueous media reservoir means for receiving the spent aqueous media from the vessel;
- means for removing said spent aqueous media from the vessel and to said spent aqueous media reservoir means;
- means for evaporating and recondensing spent solvent from said mixture of spent solvent and hydrocarbon residue to produce a separate recycled clean solvent and a separate recovered hydrocarbon residue;
- means for returning said recycled clean solvent to said clean solvent reservoir means;
- means for removing said contaminant from the spent aqueous media to produce at least a recycled clean aqueous media;
- means for returning said recycled clean aqueous media to said clean aqueous reservoir means;
- and
- commercial delivering means for delivering said recovered hydrocarbon residue into stream of commerce.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.