Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A debris cleaning apparatus leaning for toxic waste sites is mounted on a trailer. The apparatus includes a chamber and a crane that lowers a basket drum, filled with contaminated debris, into the chamber. The drum is cylindrical and has journal shafts at either end which drop into bearings in the chamber. The drum can be coupled to a drive motor to rotate the drum during a washing operation in which the chamber is filled with heated detergent solution and agitated. The drum surface is perforated. The agitation is increased by pumping the detergent into eductors inside the chamber, each eductor including a nozzle and a venturi concentric with the nozzle; the jet entrains large amounts of detergent to create a high-volume turbulent flow inside the chamber. The chamber is then drained into a holding tank and the debris is sprayed with detergent from orifices drilled through the drum walls. The orifices are fed by headers and a manifold welded to the outside of the drum and supplied with detergent through a hollow pipe shaft. The pipe includes a clutch which turns the basket drum. After spraying with detergent the debris is sprayed with rinse water. A conditioning system removes pollutants from the detergent during the cleaning operation, using an oil/water separator, a carbon filter, an ion exchange resin column, and a particulate filter. A boiler automatically keeps the detergent warm. The cleaning cycle may be automated.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim