FORM 2

THE PATENTS ACT  1970
(39 OF 1970)

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(Section 10  Rule 13)

TITLE

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING OVERBURDEN MATERIALS FOR UTILIZATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE FOR RIVER SAND

APPLICANT

Name: M/s. SAHAY METALS AND MINERALS PRIVATE LIMITED

Nationality: Indian Company

Address: SAHAY HOUSE  PLOT NO.10  1ST FLOOR  PANCHAVATI COLONY  TARBUND  SECUNDERABAD-500009  ANDHRA PRADESH  INDIA.

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

Technical Field of the Invention

[001] The present invention generally relates to the field of producing granular material. More particularly  the present invention relates to a method and system of processed overburden materials for utilization as stowing and construction material.

Background of the invention

[002] Generally  the individuals and private companies are increasingly demanding the sand for construction purposes and this has placed huge pressure on sand resources. For fulfilling the needs of private companies and individuals  large amount of the sand is excavated from the foreshore including rivers  streams  lakes  beaches and the like. The sand excavation adversely affects the rivers  sea  forests and environment. It causes erosion  effects the local wildlife  disturbance of underwater and coastal sand causes turbidity in the water  which is harmful for such organisms as corals that need sunlight. It also destroys fisheries  causing problems for people who rely on fishing for their livelihoods.

[003] Typically  excavation of off shore sand became a topic of interest because of the increasing demand and spiralling cost of river sand for construction purposes. Mainly  the beach excavation is an alternative method for the offshore sand excavation. The Offshore sand banks  coral reefs and sea-grass beds diffuse the energy of storm waves  if large quantities of sand are excavated from the off shore sand banks in a location where replacement of the sand would not occur and it causes a serious coastal damage in the event of a major storm. Besides disturbance of coastal marine eco system  it also upsets the availability of natural marine processes to replenish the sand. Erosion problems may worsen especially during severe storms and may also result in the alteration of our shore lines. Excavation of sand from streams or rivers upstream can reduce water quality for downstream users and poison aquatic life.

[004] Further  large quantities of sand excavation cause a great disturbance of coastal marine ecosystems and upset the ability of natural marine processes to replenish the sand. Excavation from rivers upstream will reduce water quality for downstream users and the aquatic life is poisoned. Seawater quality can be contaminated due to subsoil of the water bed being surfaced and this may also reduce light penetration necessary for marine organisms to feed. Finally  uncontrolled sand excavation from the riverbed leads to the destruction of the entire river system.

[005] Yet  removal of physical coastal barriers such as sand dune leads to flooding of beach side communities  and the destruction of beaches causes tourism to dissipate. Sand excavation is regulated by law in many places  but is still often done illegally.

[006] In the view of aforementioned discussion  there exists a need for alternative method for producing large quantities of sand by excavation of overburden materials from open cast mines with the depletion of sand deposits and increased requirement of sand  there is likely hood of acute shortage sand in future. Hence alternate to river sand is required.

Brief Summary of the Invention

[007] The following presents a simplified summary of the disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding to the reader. This summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure and it does not identify key/critical elements of the invention or delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts disclosed herein in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

[008] A more complete appreciation of the present invention and the scope thereof can be obtained from the accompanying drawings which are briefly summarized below and the following detailed description of the presently preferred embodiments.

[009] An exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses a method of stowing sand processed granular materials excavated from a coal mine. According to an exemplary embodiment  the method includes removing overburden materials from the open cast mines.

[0010] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the method includes blasting an overburden material available at the open cast mines. The blasted overburden material is loaded into dumpers through shovels and dumped outside the coal mine into a bunker.

[0011] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the method includes collecting the overburden material through a mess for crushing the overburden materials into very small size by utilizing a jaw crusher which employs a two stages of crushing is connected to a hopper through a conveyor belt. The uncrushed material transmitted from the jaw crusher leading to a scrubber through the conveyor belt is removed manually to push very small size crushed material.

[0012] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the method includes scrubbing and disintegrating a crushed over burden material with water to from a paste by utilizing a scrubber connected to the jaw crusher through a conveyor belt. Thus while disintegration the undissolved materials which may include but not limited to pebbles  coal or minerals present in paste are separated from the paste.

[0013] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the method includes transmitting the paste released from the scrubber to a fluidized bed classifier for separating sand  clay  pebbles and other minerals of coal present in paste. The fluidized bed classifier subjected to high pressure of water with a principle of density provides an output of clay with a percentage of water and sand with percentage of water.

[0014] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the method includes separating the sand and water released from the fluidized bed classifier by transmitting to a first cyclone and collecting the separated sand through pipes and loading the sand for stocking.

[0015] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the method includes transmitting the clay with percentage of water released from the fluidized bed classifier to a second cyclone for separating fines  clay and water.

[0016] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the method includes transmitting the clay with percentage of water released from the second cyclone to a thickener for separating the clay and water. The separated clay in the form of paste moves into the settling tank for natural settling. The water separated from the first cyclone  second cyclone and the thickener are transmitted to a sump for reusing it in the same plant.

[0017] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses  a system for stowing sand processed granular materials excavated from a coal mine including a jaw crusher which employs two stages for crushing is connected between a hopper and a scrubber to allow an overburden material collected from open cast mines for crushing the overburden material into very small size.

[0018] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the system for stowing sand processed granular materials excavated from a coal mine includes a scrubber connected to the jaw crusher receives the very small size crushed material released from jaw crusher through the conveyor belt to scrub the material with water to form a paste and also to disintegrate the material.

[0019] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the system for stowing sand processed granular materials excavated from a coal mine includes a fluidized bed classifier in communication with the scrubber collects the material released from the scrubber to separate sand  clay  pebbles and other minerals of coal present in paste. The fluidized bed classifier also provides an output of clay with a percentage of water and sand with a percentage of water to excavate sand from overburden materials collected at the open cast mines.

[0020] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the system for stowing sand processed granular materials excavated from a coal mine includes a first cyclone connected to the fluidized bed classifier for separating the sand and water released from the fluidized bed classifier.

[0021] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the system for stowing sand processed granular materials excavated from a coal mine includes a second cyclone connected to the fluidized bed classifier for separating fines  clay and water by receiving the clay with a percentage of water released from the fluidized bed classifier.

[0022] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the system for stowing sand processed granular materials excavated from a coal mine includes a thickener connected to the second cyclone allows the clay along with a percentage of water released from the second cyclone to separate the clay and water. Thus the separated clay further moves into a settling tank for natural settling.

Brief Description of Drawings

[0023] The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this present disclosure  and the manner of attaining them  will become more apparent and the present disclosure will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the present disclosure taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings  wherein:

[0024] FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting about an overview of devices utilized for producing granular material.

[0025] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram depicting a method employed for excavation of granular materials available in coal mines.

[0026] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram depicting a method employed for blasting the over burden material from coal mines.

[0027] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting a method employed for crushing the overburden materials to from a granular material.

Detail Description of the Invention

[0028] It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The present disclosure is capable of other embodiments and of being practised or of being carried out in various ways. Also  it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

[0029] The use of “including”  “comprising” or “having” and variations thereof herein is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. The terms “a” and “an” herein do not denote a limitation of quantity  but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced item. Further  the use of terms “first”  “second”  and “third”  and the like  herein do not denote any order  quantity  or importance  but rather are used to distinguish one element from another.

[0030] Referring to FIG. 1 is a bock diagram 100 depicting about an overview of devices utilized for producing granular material. According to a non limiting exemplary embodiment of the present invention the system includes a jaw crusher 102  a conveyor belt 104  a scrubber 106  a fluidized bed classifier 108  a clay with a percentage of water 110  a granular material with percentage of water 112  a first cyclone 114  a second cyclone 116  collecting granular material 116  a thickener 118  a settling tank 120 and a sump 122.

[0031] In accordance with a non limiting exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the system initially collects the over burden materials which may include but not limited to a soil  rock layer and the like from coal mines by blasting and loading the material into dumpers. The loaded material is further processed to an overburden plant  where the loaded material is dumped into a bunker also called as hopper. The dumped overburden material is passed through a mess to a jaw crusher 102 which employs two stages of crushing. The first stage of jaw crusher 102 crushes the material into small pieces and transmits to the second stage of jaw crusher 102 through a conveyor belt 104 for crushing the material into very very small size. The material released from the second stage of jaw crusher 102 includes both the crushed and uncrushed particles which are transmitted to a scrubber 106 through the conveyor belt 104. The uncrushed material passing through the conveyor belt 104 is removed manually before the material enters the scrubber 106.

[0032] According to a non limiting exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the scrubber 106 connected to the second stage of jaw crusher 102 receives the material released from the second stage of jaw crusher 102 through the conveyor belt 104 and scrubs the material with the water to form a paste. The scrubber 106 is also used to disintegrate the material  while disintegrating the undissolved material which may include but not limited to pebbles  clay or any other minerals of coal present in paste and the like are separated from the paste. The separated paste is further transmitted to a fluidized bed classifier 108 which is subjected to a high pressure water with the principle of density separates the granular materials  clay  pebbles and other minerals of coal and provides an output of clay with a percentage of water 110 and granular material with a percentage of water 112. The granular material with a percentage of water 112 is transmitted to a first cyclone 114  where the granular material with percentage of water 112 is settled down at the under flow of first cyclone 114 and clay with percentage of water 110 is settled at the over flow of first cyclone 114. Thus the first cyclone 114 having the under flow of granular material with percentage of water 112 separates the water and granular material. The separated water is transmitted to the sump 122 for reusing it in the same plant and the separated granular material is collected 116 through pipes and loaded for stocking.

[0033] In accordance with a non limiting exemplary embodiment of the present invention  the clay with percentage of water 110 released from the fluidized bed classifier 108 is transmitted to a second cyclone 116 where the clay with percentage of water 110 is settled at the under flow of second cyclone 116 for separating the fines  clay and water and the water separated from second cyclone 116 is transmitted to the sump 122. The separated clay along with the percentage of water released from the second cyclone 116 is further transmitted to a thickener 118 to separate clay and water. The separated clay is transmitted to a settling tank 120 for natural settling and the water to a sump 122 for reusing the water in the same plant. The clay collected at settling tank 120 and the granular material collected for stocking is further lifted and piled up through the shovels and loaded into a dumper for transferring the granular material to a sand stowing plant. The granular materials may include but not limited to sand  finely divided rock and mineral particles  soil  dirt and the like.

[0034] Referring to FIG. 2 is a flow diagram 200 depicting a method employed for excavation of granular materials available in coal mines. According to a non limiting exemplary embodiment of the present invention the method starts at step 202 by excavating overburden materials from open cast mines which may include but not limited to a soil  rock layer and the like. At step 204 the collected overburden material having the quality of granular material is transmitted for processing at overburden plant and dumped into bunker also called as hopper. The material dumped into the hopper is processed through the mess to a first stage of jaw crusher to crush the overburden material into small pieces and transmitted to a second stage of jaw crusher through a conveyor belt for further crushing the material into very very small size.

[0035] In accordance with a non limiting exemplary embodiment of the present invention  at step 206 the crushed overburden material released from jaw crusher of second stage is further transmitted to a scrubber through the conveyor belt by the mixture of water to scrub the material to from a paste and also to disintegrate the material. Thus while the process of disintegration the undissolved material which may include but not limited to pebbles  coal or any other minerals of coal present in paste and the like are separated from the paste formed at the scrubber. Next at step 208 the paste separated at the scrubber is transmitted to a fluidized bed classifier to separate granular material  clay  pebbles and other minerals of coal from the material. The fluidized bed classifier also provides an output of clay with water and granular material with water. Further at step 210 the granular material with water released from the fluidized bed classifier at step 208 is transmitted to a first cyclone for separating granular material and water and separated water is being transmitted to a water sump for reusing it in the same plant. Next at step 212 the clay with water released from the fluidized bed classifier at step 208 is transmitted to a second cyclone for separating fines  clay and water. Further at step 214 the clay and water are separated by using the thickener and separated water is sent to a water sump for reusing it in the same plant. The clay separated at the thickener is transmitted to a settling tank for natural settling. Thus the clay collected at settling tank and the sand collected for stocking are transmitted to a sand stowing plant by lifting and piling up through shovels and loaded into dumpers at step 214 and further transmits the dumped material to a sand stowing plant from where the granular material excavated from open cast mines can be used in place of natural granular material excavated from many rivers  offshore and the like.

[0036] Referring to FIG. 3 is a flow diagram 300 depicting a method employed for blasting the over burden material from coal mines. According to a non limiting exemplary embodiment of the present invention the method starts at step 302 by blasting the over burden material which may include but not limited to a soil  rock layer and the like excavated from the coal mines. Next at step 304 the overburden material excavated from coal mines is loaded into dumpers through shovels. The loaded dumpers are transmitted to overburden processing plants and released into a bunker also called as hopper to form a granular material at step 306.

[0037] Referring to FIG. 4 is a flow diagram 400 depicting a method employed for crushing the overburden materials to from a granular material. According to a non limiting exemplary embodiment of the present invention the method starts at step 402 with a first stage of jaw crusher for crushing the overburden material collected from a mess into small pieces.

[0038] In accordance with a non limiting exemplary embodiment of the present invention  at step 404 the crushed overburden material is further transmitted to a second stage of jaw crusher through a conveyor belt. Next at step 406 the crushed material transmitted to a second stage of jaw crusher is further crushed into very very small size and transmitted to a next stage through the conveyor belt for further processing to form a granular material. Thus at step 408 the uncrushed material transmitted along with the crushed material is removed manually while transmitting the material to the next stage through the conveyor belt.

[0039] While specific embodiments of the invention have been shown and described in detail to illustrate the inventive principles  it will be understood that the invention may be embodied otherwise without departing from such principles.

Claims:
What we claimed is:

1. A method of stowing sand processed granular materials excavated from a coal mine  the method comprising:

scrubbing and disintegrating a crushed over burden material with water to from a paste by utilizing a scrubber connected to the jaw crusher through a conveyor belt  whereby disintegration separates the undissolved material from the paste;

transmitting the paste released from the scrubber to a fluidized bed classifier for separating a granular material and clay and pebbles and minerals of coal present in paste  whereby the fluidized bed classifier subjected to high density of water provides an output of clay with water and a granular material with water;

separating the granular material and water released from the fluidized bed classifier by transmitting to a first cyclone  whereby the separated granular material gets collected by a pipe and loaded for stocking;

transmitting the clay with water released from the fluidized bed classifier to a second cyclone for separating fines  clay and water;

transmitting the clay with water released from the second cyclone to a thickener for separating the clay and water  whereby the separated clay in the form of paste moves into the settling tank for natural settling; and

transmitting the granular material loaded for stocking and clay collected at the settling tank to a sand stowing plant by lifting and piling up the granular material through the shovels to load a dumper.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprises a step of blasting an overburden material available at the open cast mines.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprises a step of loading the blasted overburden material into dumpers through shovels and dumped outside the open cast mine into a bunker.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprises a step of crushing the overburden material collected through a mess into pieces and transmitted to a jaw crusher through a conveyor belt to crush the material into very small size.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprises a step of manually removing the uncrushed material transmitted from the jaw crusher leading to a scrubber through the conveyor belt to push very small size crushed material.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprises a step of utilizing high pressure water with the principle of density to separate granular material  clay  pebbles and other materials of coal from fluidized bed classifier.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprises a step of reusing the water separated from the first cyclone  second cyclone and the thickener and transmitted to a sump.

8. A system for stowing sand processed granular materials excavated from coal mines comprising:

a scrubber connected to the jaw crusher of second stage receives the very small size crushed material released from jaw crusher of second stage through the conveyor belt to scrub the material with water to form a paste and also to disintegrate the material;

a fluidized bed classifier in communication with the scrubber collects the material released from scrubber to separate granular material  clay  pebbles and other materials of coal;

a first cyclone connected to the fluidized bed classifier separates the granular material and water released from the fluidized bed classifier;

a second cyclone connected to the fluidized bed classifier separates fines  clay and water released from the fluidized bed classifier; and

a thickener connected to the second cyclone allows the clay along with water released from the second cyclone to separate the clay and water  whereby the separated clay moves to a settling tank for natural settling.

9. The system of claim 9  wherein a jaw crusher of plurality of stages connected between a hopper and a scrubber crushes the overburden material collected from coal mines into very small size.

10. The system of claim 9  wherein a water tank placed in an overburden processing plant collects the water separated at the first cyclone  second cyclone and thickener for reusing the water in the same plant.

Abstract of the Invention

A method of stowing sand processed granular materials excavated from a coal mine is disclosed. The method includes scrubbing and disintegrating a crushed over burden material with water to from a paste by utilizing a scrubber connected to the jaw crusher  transmitting the paste released from the scrubber to a fluidized bed classifier for separating sand  clay  pebbles and minerals of coal  separating the sand and water released from the fluidized bed classifier by transmitting to first cyclone  transmitting the clay with water released from the fluidized bed classifier to second cyclone for separating fines  clay and water and transmitting the clay with water released from the second cyclone to thickener for separating the clay and water. Thus the collected sand and clay are transmitted to a sand stowing plant by lifting and piling up sand through shovels to load a dumper for utilizing stowing and construction purpose.