Patents Examined by George R Blum
  • Patent number: 9878404
    Abstract: A condensation management system, a furnace having the condensation management system and a cold end header box employable in the condensation management system are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the condensation management system includes: (1) a first drain hose positioned to drain flue condensation from a flue pipe of the furnace, (2) a second drain hose positioned to drain the flue condensation from the flue pipe and (3) a condensation collector box configured to collect both the flue condensation and combustion condensation from a heat exchanger of the furnace, the condensation collector box including at least one drain for draining both the flue condensation and the combustion condensation therefrom.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2018
    Assignee: Lennox Industries Inc.
    Inventors: Jeff P. Gedcke, George L. Joyner, Jr., Glenn W. Kowald, Hans J. Paller
  • Patent number: 9857083
    Abstract: A domestic appliance including a built-in oven configured to be positioned in a cut-out defined in a kitchen. The built-in oven includes a housing having a cooking chamber defined therein, a lower frame positioned below the cooking chamber, and a height adjuster coupled the lower frame. The built-in oven has a first vertical height when the height adjuster is positioned in a first predetermined position and a second vertical height when the height adjuster is positioned in a second predetermined position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2018
    Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
    Inventors: Leonel Avila, Fabio Bianchi, Rodrigo Wojcik Nunes Pereira, Ramiro Ruthes Junior, Cleberson Jean Sousa
  • Patent number: 9839322
    Abstract: A grill configured to cook food placed above it. The grill comprising a base having an interior and containing a support for the food being cooked and gas jets for burning gas and generating heat to cook the food. The gas jets are directed downwards towards the interior of the base, thereby heating a bed of heat absorbent inert material. This material is heated by the gas jets and then radiates heat upwardly in the direction towards the support.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2017
    Assignee: Clay Oven Co. Ltd.
    Inventor: Shahai Gulian
  • Patent number: 9803862
    Abstract: A control system for a solid fuel combustion appliance, e.g., a wood burning stove, includes a temperature sensor for sensing an output temperature of the appliance. A controller receives the output temperature and controls a damper associated with air flow through the stove to maintain a predetermined temperature. The system also includes a detector that senses certain conditions of the solid fuel, e.g., wood, that is burned by the stove. When additional fuel is added to the appliance, the system temporarily encourages initial combustion of the new fuel, before returning to maintaining the predetermined temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: MAXITROL COMPANY
    Inventors: Mark Masen, Alex Manoulian, Jr.
  • Patent number: 9791148
    Abstract: A radiant tube heater with a burner assembly, a radiant tube assembly and a combustion air pre-heater, wherein the burner assembly comprises: a burner fuel nozzle; a plenum chamber and a pre-mixer chamber; the plenum chamber having a combustion air inlet; wherein in use: combustion air flows from said plenum chamber through an orifice to said pre-mixer where said air, is mixed with burner fuel entering said pre-mixer through said nozzle prior to being combusted at a burner head; said pre-mixer being at least partly located within said radiant tube assembly; and where in use at least part of the combustion air supplied to said plenum is preheated in said air pre-heater using residual sensible heat of the hot combustion gas products of the heater.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: Reznor LLC
    Inventors: Glyn Wilfred Turner, Lee Brian Herbert
  • Patent number: 9683747
    Abstract: A combination oven provides for a catalyst chamber for heating and treating a bypass portion of the air circulated within the cooking chamber at a high temperature using a catalyst to process cooking fumes without substantially elevating the desired cooking temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: Alto-Shaam, Inc.
    Inventors: J. K. Raghavan, Thomas Wayne Rand, Joshua Paul Wittig, Nickolas W. Wagner
  • Patent number: 9677762
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus relate to control of smoke suppressant flow rate to a flare that disposes of combustible gas, such as waste from refineries and chemical plants. One or more detectors produce signals that enable separate monitoring of both particulate emissions from the flare and combustion efficiency of the flare. Adjusting the flow rate of the smoke suppressant to the flare in response to such dual monitoring facilitates operation of the flare so as to manage environmental pollution caused by unburned volatile organic compounds and smoke emitted from the flare.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Assignee: Phillips 66 Company
    Inventor: Erin E. Tullos
  • Patent number: 9644864
    Abstract: A positioning system is attached to radiation collection device such as a solar oven. The positioning system is attached to an outside of a building structure, allowing the collection device to be positioned in a plurality of locations. At least one of the plurality of locations is away from the building structure to allow the radiation collection device to collect solar radiation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Inventor: Thomas Mark Hoffmann
  • Patent number: 9638412
    Abstract: The invention relates to a device and to an improved method for chemical looping combustion of at least one liquid hydrocarbon feed, comprising: mixing the liquid feed with an atomization gas so as to feed it into a metal oxide particle transport zone (2), upstream from combustion zone (3), through atomization means (6) allowing to form finely dispersed liquid droplets in the atomization gas; vaporization of the liquid feed in form of droplets into contact with at least part of metal oxide particles in transport zone (2), the operating conditions in transport zone (2) being so selected that the superficial gas velocity after vaporization of the liquid feed is higher than the transport velocity of the metal oxide particles; sending all of the effluents from transport zone (2) to a combustion zone (3) allowing reduction of the metal oxide particles, said combustion zone (3) comprising at least one dense-phase fluidized bed. The invention can be advantageously applied to CO2 capture and energy production.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2017
    Assignees: IFP ENERGIES NOUVELLES, TOTAL SA
    Inventors: Thierry Gauthier, Ali Hoteit, Ann Forret
  • Patent number: 9638428
    Abstract: A cooking oven structure of conventional construction having a top vent provided thru an upper portion of the oven wall forming a cooking cavity, a bottom vent formed thru a lower portion of the wall, a chimney mounted on an exterior portion of the wall and exiting adjacent a top portion of the oven structure and communicating with the top and bottom cavity vents, and a damper mounted in the chimney and having a right angle configuration and pivotal about its apex to (a) a first position blocking gas flow both thru the top cavity vent and the chimney, (b) a second position blocking gas flow only thru the top cavity vent, and (c) a third position blocking gas flow only thru the chimney.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2017
    Assignee: Field Controls, LLC
    Inventor: Robert S. Hines, Jr.
  • Patent number: 9618200
    Abstract: The invention relates to a heat recuperator (R) for a radiating tube burner having a burner pipe and an exhaust pipe (1), the recuperator being placed at the outlet of the exhaust pipe (1) and including a heat exchanger (E) that comprises: an outgoing section (5) for directing the air to be preheated to a ferrule (6), placed on the end of the recuperator, from the fume intake side, and a return section (7) opening towards a pipe (8) for supplying air from the burner, the assembly being provided such that part of the fumes are led through, and mix with, the combustion air; the heat exchanger (E) occupies only part of the cross-section of the exhaust pipe (1), the other part (1a) of the cross-section remaining free for the fumes; the combustion air is heated by the fumes in the outgoing section (5) and in the return section (7), being radially shifted outside the outgoing section (5) and immersed in the fumes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignee: FIVES STEIN
    Inventors: Alphonse Pitocco, Patrice Sedmak, Stephane Magne
  • Patent number: 9599330
    Abstract: As described, the present invention provides a drip wax collector device configured to collect drip wax from a burning candle. The device may comprise a shell and removable liner, wherein the shell may obscure visibility of the collected drip wax. The drip wax collector may comprise stabilizing features on one or both the shell and the removable liner, wherein the stabilizing features may secure the position of the candle and the drip wax collector within the cavity of a candlestick holder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Inventor: Bette Rutan
  • Patent number: 9574778
    Abstract: An oven is provided that includes an internal surface that faces a cooking area of the oven. An oven door is present that has a convex surface. The oven door is movable from a closed position in which the oven door blocks access to the cooking area from outside of the oven to an open position in which the oven door does not block access to the cooking area from outside of the oven. The oven may also include a receiving compartment that receives at least a portion of the oven door when the oven door is in the open position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Inventors: Derek Glenn Woods, Nicholaus Basil Cunningham-Benjamin
  • Patent number: 9562205
    Abstract: A combustion process wherein a fuel, a comburent and component A) are fed to a combustor, component A), comprising low-melting salts and/or oxides having a melting temperature ?1,450 K, the ratio by moles A?/(A??A?)?0.01, being: A? the sum by moles between the amount of metals, under the form of low-melting salts and/or low-melting oxides present in the component A) and the amount of metals under the form of the low-melting salts and/or low-melting oxides or their low-melting mixtures, contained in the fuel, A? is the sum of the amount of all the metals contained in the fuel and of those contained in component A), in which the combustor is isothermal type and flameless.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: ITEA S.P.A.
    Inventors: Massimo Malavasi, Grazia Di Salvia, Edoardo Rossetti
  • Patent number: 9541296
    Abstract: A soot-exhausting device is provided with a left and a right upright plate. A front end of the left upright plate is bended and extended to form a first upright plate and a left deflection plate. The upper part of the free end of the left deflection plate is bended rightwardly to form a left top plate. A front end of the right upright plate is bended and extended to form a second upright plate and a right deflection plate. The upper part of the free end of the right deflection plate is bended leftwardly to form a right top plate. The bottom of the air-extraction hood is provided with a left and a right air blow groove that are respectively in elongate shape and parallel to top side of the left and the right top plate and located at the rear end of each top side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: NATIONAL TAIWAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventor: Rong Fung Huang
  • Patent number: 9523499
    Abstract: The disclosure provides an oxygen carrier for a chemical looping cycle, such as the chemical looping combustion of solid carbonaceous fuels, such as coal, coke, coal and biomass char, and the like. The oxygen carrier is comprised of at least 24 weight % (wt %) CuO, at least 10 wt % Fe2O3, and an inert support, and is typically a calcine. The oxygen carrier exhibits a CuO crystalline structure and an absence of iron oxide crystalline structures under XRD crystallography, and provides an improved and sustained combustion reactivity in the temperature range of 600° C.-1000° C. particularly for solid fuels such as carbon and coal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: U.S. Department of Energy
    Inventors: Ranjani V. Siriwardane, Hanjing Tian
  • Patent number: 9494316
    Abstract: A heating device (100) for combustion of liquid fuels comprises at least one catalytic element (140) for catalytically burning a mixture of fuel and air, a fuel supply means (133) being disposed on an upstream side of said first catalytic element (140) and an air supply means (132) being disposed on an upstream side of said at least one catalytic element (140). A fuel-evaporating device (130) has a substantially axisymmetric shape and an upstream end and a downstream end. The fuel-evaporating device is heated, during operation, by the at least one catalytic element (140), and is supplied with fuel and air from the fuel supply means (133) and the air supply means (132). The heating device also comprises an outer housing (110), for containing said catalytic element (140) and said fuel-evaporating device (130). The fuel-evaporating device (130) is provided with at least one inner inlet pipe (132; 132b) in the generally upstream end thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: ZEmission AB
    Inventor: Anders Vestin
  • Patent number: 9441858
    Abstract: Solar heating systems and methods are described. In one aspect, a system is described that includes multiple mirror row holders, with each row holder configured to hold a row of mirrors at angles to track sunrays and reflect the rays onto a focal point. Each row holder has a single pinion device of multiple pinion devices associated with the multiple row holders. The system also has a sun tracking latitudinal slider (STLS) rack configured to interface with each pinion device on a respective mirror row holder. This interface tilts the mirrors in each row holder an amount to adjust mirror angles to reflect latitudinal sun motion to concentrate rays of the sun onto the focal point. The system also includes an azimuth adjustment mechanism to control mirror angles with respect to the sun to reflect sun motion during daylight.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: King Saud University
    Inventors: Mazen Ba-abbad, Hany Al-Ansary, Essam Al-Ammar
  • Patent number: 9422057
    Abstract: A galley (10) for an aircraft comprises a plurality of electrical kitchen appliances (24) that differ functionally from one another. Of these, at least a partial number of at least two electrical appliances comprise in each case an operator control unit (26), which is manufactured structurally separate from a main functional part of the relevant appliance and has an arrangement of operator control elements for operator control of the appliance. The operator control units are in this case designed to be of an identical construction to one another from appliance to appliance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2016
    Assignee: AIRBUS OPERATIONS GMBH
    Inventors: Stefan Koschberg, Ralph Schnabel
  • Patent number: 9377215
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a solar cooking apparatus, comprising: a first solar reflector; a second solar reflector; a solar collection element; and a solar collection element holder, wherein the first solar reflector and the second solar reflector are concave, and opposably arranged and aligned with a solar collection element axis, each reflector having a range of motion on a plane perpendicular to the solar collection element axis, and focusing radiation at the solar collection element, which rapidly heats when the first and/or second solar reflectors are in an opened position, the first and second solar reflectors protectably encase the solar collector when in a closed position. The solar cooking apparatus is adjustable and, in some embodiments, portable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2016
    Assignee: APPLIED SUNSHINE, LLC
    Inventor: Patrick Sherwin