Claims:We Claim:
1. A pneumatic conveying equipment [100] for pneumatic conveyance of low-density input materials into a furnace for its efffective utilization comprising an air blowing section [102], a conveying tube [104] and an eccentric conical section [106] in fluid communication, said air blowing section [102] and said eccentric conical section [106] distantly disposed opposite to each other and operatively connected through the conveying tube [104];

said air blowing section [102] comprising an air inlet [108] at one end for feeding pressurised air in the conveying tube [104] and a baffle plate [110] at its other end to regulate the flow of the air;

said conveying tube [104] comprising a feed inlet [112] for filling said low-density input materials into said conveying tube [104]; and

said eccentric cone section [106] having a destination outlet [114] at one end and adapted to be in operative conveying connection with the place of delivery in the furnace for pneumatic pressure based un-restrcited flow of said low-density input materials into the furnace;

wherein the conveying equipment [100] for conveyance of low-density shredded waste into saidfurnace having cooperative inclination adjustable support for its inclined disposition preferably at ainclination of 45 °.

2. The pneumatic conveying equipment [100] as claimed in anyone of claims 1 comprising a plurality of fluidisation jets [116] at the bottom of the conveying tube [104] and the eccentric cone section [106] to maintain the bed of the conveying tube [104] and the eccentric cone section [106] fluidized.

3. The pneumatic conveying equipment [100] as claimed in claim 2, wherein said plurality of fluidisation jets [116] are connected to fluidization header [118] to supply air in the plurality of fluidisation jets [116].

4. The pneumatic conveying equipment [100] as claimed in anyone of claims 2 or 3, wherein each of the plurality of fluidisation jet [116] is connected to individual fluidization line isolation valve[120] to control the airflow for proper fluidisation of low-density shredded waste.

5. The pneumatic conveying equipment [100] as claimed in any one of the claims 1 to 4 comprising of a plurality of pressure regulators to regulate the air supply pressure, a plurality of pressure gauge to measure the pressure of the air, a plurality of safety relief valve to control or limit the air pressure, a plurality of air supply line isolation valve to supply an adequate volume of air.

6. The pneumatic conveying equipment [100] as claimed in any one of the claims 1 to 5, wherein said low-density input materials into a furnace include the low-density in the range of 50 to 300 kg/m3 shredded waste includes plastic, paper, rubber, wool, coal fines, lime fines preferably waste plastics <7 mm.

Dated this the 15th day of March, 2021
Anjan Sen
Of Anjan Sen & Associates
(Applicants’ Agent)
IN/PA-199

, Description:FORM 2
THE PATENT ACT 1970
(39 OF 1970)
&
The Patent Rules, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10 and Rule 13)

1 TITLE OF THE INVENTION :
A PNEUMATIC CONVEYING EQUIPMENT TO INJECT LOW-DENSITY SHREDDED WASTE INTO FURNACE.



2 APPLICANT (S)

Name : JSW STEEL LIMITED.

Nationality : An Indian Company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956.

Address : JSW CENTRE,
BANDRA KURLA COMPLEX,
BANDRA(EAST),
MUMBAI-400051,
MAHARASHTRA,INDIA.




3 PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION

COMPLETE

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to the use of waste or industrial waste, as a raw material for injecting in a furnace such as a blast furnace, electric arc furnace or scrap melting furnace. The present invention specifically relates to pneumatic conveying equipment for injecting low-density waste such as plastic, paper, rubber, wool, lime fines, coal fines into various furnaces including low-density shredded and powdered wastes without the requirement of large silos and dispensers.
.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Use of different wastes such as plastic, rubber, wool, lime fines, coal fines as raw material, fuel or foaming agent in industrial furnaces is well a known technique. It is a simple process to replace the expensive fuels with inexpensive waste to reduce the costs. However, in most of the cases it is added in bulk and rarely injected or pneumatically conveyed due to flow ability issues. Lime fines, coal fines or other denser and uniform material are still pneumatically conveyed in various processes. However, very light, puffy and non-uniform material like shredded wool and plastics are difficult to convey and use in process. This requires specially designed and customized conveying systems.

Various pneumatic conveying equipment were proposed in the prior art. For example, China Pat. no. CN211643891U illustrates a pneumatic conveying system which includes air compressor, gas flow controller, first feed bin, second feed bin and gas-supply pipe, and air compressor's output. This patent relates to convey granular material in the direction of air flow in a closed pipeline by utilizing the energy of the air

Similarly, China Pat. no. CN104555438A illustrates a pneumatic conveying system which includes a Roots blower , an air flow pipe , a high-speed sealing belt conveyer , a pneumatic feeding valve , a manual gate valve , a coal ash hopper , a Venturi jetting device , a coal ash and air flow conveying pipe , a pneumatic line-changing valve , a hopper , a centrifugal induced draft fan , an impulse type back blowing bag type hopper dust collector , a vibratory pneumatic hammer , an activating hopper , a pneumatic discharging valveand an electrical control system. The invention relates to a pneumatic conveying system for coal ash. coal ash enters carrying air flow so that the coal ash can be conveyed continuously and stably. By the pneumatic conveying system, a large amount of coal ash can be conveyed pneumatically and continuously within a short conveying distance from a place to a plurality of places.

Likewise, USA Pat. no. US10207878B1 illustrates a pneumatic conveying system which includes a pressured hopper with intermittent volumetric feed control. This patent relates to pneumatic conveying system having multiple phases or control schemes to dispense materials from hopper to pressurise conveying line.

Just as above, China Pat. no. CN101704453A illustrates a pneumatic conveying system which includes a powder feed bin, a rotary powder feeder, a conveying pipeline, a flow-assistant wind pipe channel and a smooth acceleration sheet.

Although the pneumatic conveying equipment are well known in the art, however, none of the above-mentioned patents illustrate a technique for effectively using combined light waste such as plastic, paper, rubber, wool, lime fines, coal fines as a substitute for raw material, fuel or foaming agent into different furnaces based on application. Dense and heavy materials are usually conveyed pneumatically using a combination of silos and dispensers with high pressure line. Light weight (< 300 kg/m3) or low-density shredded or powdered material (< 10 mm) are difficult to convey through such systems and pipe lines. As a result, an appropriate quantity of low-density shredded waste is not sufficiently and continuously conveyed. Therefore, the low-density shredded material may not be effectively utilized. There are some other challenges also such as the formation of chunks in the pneumatic conveying equipment. The low-density wastes such as shredded plastics, paper, etc. tend to adhere and form chunks or generate disperse motion inside the pneumatic conveying equipment, resulting in slowing down or stopping of material discharge into the conveying line. These low-density wastes also create the back pressure to become low and erratic. The airflow passes through the low-density wastes without moving them, forming a rat hole in the pneumatic conveying equipment.

Hence to overcome the above disadvantages and problems a new pneumatic conveying equipment for low-density shredded and powdered wastes has been developed without the use of large silos and dispensers.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

The basic object of the present invention is to solve above mentioned problems of the prior art and to provide a pneumatic equipment for controlled and uniform blowing/injecting of low-density waste into a furnace.

A further object of the present invention is to provide equipment that can inject a large amount of low-density shredded waste into the furnace.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide waste injecting equipment that enables low-cost recycling of wastes.

Another object of the present invention is to provide equipment for blowing or injecting low-density shredded waste of different particle sizes into the furnace consistently without forming chunk or jamming.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide equipment for blowing or injecting low-density wastes into the furnace which does not deteriorate the furnace conditions even if the particle size of the wastes changes.

Another object of the present invention is to provide equipment for blowing or injecting waste into the furnace and enable an increased replacement rate of raw material, fuel or foaming agent based on application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The basic aspect of the present inventionis directed to a pneumatic conveying equipment for pneumatic conveyance of low-density input materials into a furnace for its efffective utilization comprising:
an air blowing section, a conveying tube and an eccentric conical section in fluid communication, said air blowing section and said eccentric conical section distantly disposedopposite to each other and operatively connected through the conveying tube;
said air blowing section comprising an air inlet at one end for feeding pressurised air in the conveying tube and a baffle plate at its other end to regulate the flow of the air;
said conveying tube comprising a feed inlet for filling said low-density input materials into said conveying tube; and
said eccentric cone section having a destination outlet at one end and adapted to be in operative conveying connection with the place of delivery in the furnace for pneumatic pressure based un-restrcited flow of said low-density input materials into the furnace.

A further aspect of the present invention is directed to said pneumatic conveying equipment for pneumatic conveyance of low-density shredded waste into said furnace having cooperative inclination adjustable support for inclined disposition of the equipment preferably at a inclination of 45 °.

A further aspect of the present invention is directed to provide the pneumatic conveying equipment comprising a plurality of fluidisation jets at the bottom of the conveying tube and the eccentric cone section to maintain the internal volume of the conveying tube and the eccentric cone section fluidized.

A further aspect of the present invention is directed to provideto said pneumatic conveying equipment wherein said plurality of fluidisation jets are connected to fluidization header to supply air in the plurality of fluidisation jets.

A further aspect of the present invention is directed to providesaid pneumatic conveying equipment wherein each of the plurality of fluidisation jet connected to individual fluidization line isolation valve to control the airflow for proper fluidisation of low-density shredded waste.

A further aspect of the present invention is directed to providesaid pneumatic conveying equipment comprising of a plurality of pressure regulators to regulate the air supply pressure, a plurality of pressure gauge to measure the pressure of the air, a plurality of safety relief valve to control or limit the air pressure, a plurality of air supply line isolation valve to supply an adequate volume of air.

A further aspect of the present invention is directed to provide said pneumatic conveying equipment wherein said low-density input materials into a furnace include conveying low-density in the range of 50 to 300 kg/m3 shredded waste including plastic, paper, rubber, wool, coal fines, lime fines, preferably waste plastics <7 mm.

The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention are described hereunder in greater details with reference to following accompanying non limiting illustrative drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates the schematic line diagram of the pneumatic conveying equipment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates the baffle plate according to the present invention.

Skilled artisans appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION WITH REFERENCE TO ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The accompanying figure together with the detailed description below forms part of the specification and serves to further illustrate various embodiments and to explain various principles and advantages all in accordance with the present invention.

The present invention is now discussed in more detail referring to the drawings that accompany the present application. In the accompanying drawings, like and/or corresponding elements are referred to by like reference numbers.

Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or the like parts.

Before describing in detail embodiments that are in accordance with the invention, it should be observed that the embodiments reside primarily tocontrollable and uniform pneumatic conveying of low-density shredded waste and powdered materials into furnace by utilizing the energy of air or inert gas. The present invention relates to a pneumatic conveying equipment with the coexistence of dilute and dense phases, which is applied to the field of powder conveying. The pneumatic conveying equipment achieves the conveying form with the coexistence of the dilute and the dense phases under the condition that the wind pressure of an air supply is low, has the advantages of low energy consumption, high conveying ratio, good conveying stability and the like, and is suitable for a system for low-head powder conveying.

Accompanying FIG. 1 illustrates the pneumatic conveying equipment 100. The pneumatic conveying equipment 100 for pneumatic conveyance of low-density shredded waste into a furnace by means of conveying gas characterized by an air blowing section 102, a conveying tube 104 and an eccentric conical section 106 in fluid communication. The air blowing section 102 and the eccentric conical section 106 are distantly located opposite to each other and are connected through the conveying tube 104.

The air blowing section 102 is characterized by an air inlet 108 at one end ofthe air blowing section 102 at which the pressurised air is fed in the conveying tube 104 and a baffle plate 110 at other end of the air blowing section 102 to regulate the flow of the air as shown in FIG. 2. The air blowing section 102 also includes a pressure regulator 122 to regulate the air supply pressure in the conveying tube 104, a pressure gauge 124 to measure the pressure of the air, a safety relief valve 126 to control or limit the air pressure. The air is uniformly distributed across the cross-section of pneumatic conveying equipment 100. The baffle plate 110 has uniformly distributed holes in it. The air is uniformly distributed in pneumatic conveying equipment 100 by passing through baffle plate 110.

The conveying tube 104 is characterized by a feed inlet 112 at the top of the conveying tube 104 at which the low-density waste is fed into a conveying tube 104. The conveying tube 104 also includes air supply line isolation valve 128 to supply an adequate volume of air in the conveying tube 104.

The eccentric cone section 106 is characterised by a destination outlet 114 at one end of the eccentric cone section 106andis in conveying connection with the place of delivery in the furnace. The eccentric cone section 106 also includes a air supply line isolation valve 130 to control the airflow of the low density material, a safety relief valve (not shown)to control or limit the air pressure anda pressure gauge(not shown)to measure the pressure of the air.The destination outlet 114 can be connected to long pipes and material can be conveyed into liquids, heated chambers and furnaces.

The pneumatic conveying equipment 100 is characterized by a plurality of fluidisation jets 116 at the bottom of the conveying tube 104 and the eccentric cone section 106 to make the bed of the conveying tube 104 and the eccentric cone section 106 fluidized and to avoid any dead zone accumulations. The plurality of fluidisation jets 116 help to swirl and fluidize the low-density shredded waste in the pneumatic conveying equipment 100, reducing or eliminating bridging across the eccentric cone section 106 and providing consistent flow into the pneumatic conveying equipment 100 without jamming. The plurality of fluidisation jets 116 is connected to fluidization header 118 to supply air in the plurality of fluidisation jets 116. Each of the plurality of fluidisation jet 116 is connected to individual fluidization line isolation valve 120 to control the airflow for proper fluidisation of low-density shredded waste.

The low-density shredded waste includes plastic, paper, rubber, wool, coal fines, lime fines. The low-densityinput materials into a furnace include conveying low-density in the range of 50 to 300 kg/m3 shredded waste includingplastic, paper, rubber, wool, coal fines, lime fines, preferably waste plastics <7 mm.

The pneumatic conveying equipment 100 is placed at a inclination of 45 ° for an un-restricted flow.

This unique design has no moving or rotating parts which makes it low in maintenance. In this system, the low-density shredded wastes are fully suspended in the conveying air and transported at controlled low pressure and high velocity. This simple and movable pneumatic conveying equipment can be placed on any flat platform and can be applied to continuous and stable conveying of shredded plastic, rubber, wood, lime fines, coal fines and any other similar materials.

One of the applications of present invention is to pneumatically inject light weight shredded plastic into electric arc furnace. The shredded waste plastic (<7mm) is successfully injected into electric arc furnace with replacing 10% coke fines by developed pneumatic conveying system.

In this document, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or composition that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article or composition. An element proceeded by "comprises...a" does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or composition that comprises the element.

In the present specification, when a part “includes” a certain component, it means that the component may further include other components, not to exclude other components, unless specifically stated otherwise.

Although not defined differently, all terms including technical terms and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as those generally understood by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Commonly used dictionary-defined terms are additionally interpreted as having meanings consistent with related technical documents and currently disclosed content and are not interpreted as ideal or very formal meanings unless defined.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail so that those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains can easily practice. However, the present invention can be implemented in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein.

The advantages and features of the present invention and methods for achieving them will be clarified with reference to the embodiments described below in detail together with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below but may be implemented in various different forms, and only the embodiments allow the disclosure of the present invention to be complete, and are conventional in the art to which the present invention pertains. It is provided to fully inform the knowledgeable person of the scope of the invention, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims. The same reference numerals refer to the same components throughout the specification.

Thus, in some embodiments, well-known techniques are not specifically described to avoid obscuring the present invention. Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used in the present specification may be used as meanings commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains.