Patents Examined by Erik Mendoza-Wilkenfel
  • Patent number: 11585583
    Abstract: A refrigerator includes an ice tray, a motor, an ejector including a rotary shaft and a protrusion pin, and a heater for selectively supplying heat to the ice tray. A control method of the refrigerator includes a first step of sensing whether the ejector is rotated to reach a first setup position; a second step of driving the heater and stopping driving of an ice making compartment fan if the first step is satisfied; a third step of determining whether the ejector is rotated to reach a second setup position; and a fourth step of stopping driving of the heater if the third step is satisfied, and wherein the ejector continues to be rotated while the second to fourth steps are implemented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Donghoon Lee, Seungseob Yeom, Donghoon Lee, Wookyong Lee
  • Patent number: 11549747
    Abstract: A cryogenic air separation apparatus comprises: a heat exchanger, a first rectification column, a first condenser, a second rectification column, a third rectification column, a second condenser, a high-purity oxygen rectification column, a third condenser, a nitrogen compressor, and a compressed recycled gas line L52 for introducing product nitrogen gas compressed by the first nitrogen compressor into a warm end (heat source) of an ultra-high-purity oxygen vaporizer as a compressed recycled gas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2023
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Geordes Claude
    Inventors: Kenji Hirose, Shinji Tomita
  • Patent number: 11542016
    Abstract: A cryogenic cooling system for an aircraft includes a first air cycle machine, a second air cycle machine, and a means for collecting liquid air. The first air cycle machine is operable to output a cooling air stream based on a first air source. The second air cycle machine is operable to output a chilled air stream at a cryogenic temperature based on a second air source cooled by the cooling air stream of the first air cycle machine. An output of the second air cycle machine is provided to the means for collecting liquid air.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Frederick M. Schwarz, Michael Winter, Charles E. Lents, Nathan Snape, Alan H. Epstein
  • Patent number: 11543181
    Abstract: A system for separating olefinic hydrocarbon and hydrogen in an effluent fluid stream from a dehydrogenation reactor includes a heat exchanger that receives and partially condenses the effluent fluid stream so that a mixed phase effluent stream is formed. A primary separation device receives and separates the mixed phase effluent stream into a primary vapor stream and a primary liquid product stream. A heat exchanger receives and partially condenses the primary vapor stream so that a mixed phase primary stream is formed. A secondary separation device receives and separates the mixed phase primary stream into a secondary vapor stream and a secondary liquid product stream. A heat exchanger receives and warms the secondary vapor stream to provide refrigeration for partially condensing the effluent fluid stream and a heat exchanger receives and warms the secondary vapor stream to provide refrigeration for partially condensing the primary vapor stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: Chart Energy & Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: Douglas A. Ducote, Jr., Brent A. Heyrman, Timothy P. Gushanas, Richard Hopewell
  • Patent number: 11530860
    Abstract: A refrigerator and a control method of the same are disclosed, wherein the refrigerator comprises an ice tray for receiving water to generate ices; a motor capable of being rotated in a forward or reverse direction; an ejector including a rotary shaft rotating the ices made in the ice tray to discharge the ices from the ice tray, rotated by being axially connected to the motor, and a protrusion pin protruded in a radius direction of the rotary shaft to adjoin the ices; a heater for selectively supplying heat to the ice tray; a door switching sensor for sensing a storage compartment door's opening or closing, the storage compartment door being provided with the ejector; and a controller for turning the heater on or off in accordance with a rotation position of the ejector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Seungseob Yeom, Donghoon Lee, Donghoon Lee, Wookyong Lee
  • Patent number: 11530862
    Abstract: A storage plant for storing objects at the temperature of liquid nitrogen comprises a plurality of storage tanks arranged in a cooled chamber. A nitrogen withdrawal apparatus is provided to carry off evaporated nitrogen directly from the storage tanks before it can enter the chamber. The pressure in the storage tanks is kept below the pressure in the chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: LICONIC AG
    Inventor: Cosmas Malin
  • Patent number: 11499678
    Abstract: A portable, modular fueling system for the storage, dispensing and offloading of fuel from a rail vehicle to one or more other fuel storage vessels is disclosed. The system module is self-contained on an ISO standardized intermodal platform. The module is capable of being in fluid communication with a plurality of modular storage vessels, either rail-bound or wayside, such as for delivering fuel to a fuel tender or a locomotive. Electrical power, equipment storage, lighting, and compressed air may be located on the intermodal rail car or in a support module, such as either ground-based or rail-mobile. Alternatively, the platform can be mounted to a trailer chassis, or affixed to a land-based foundation matching the standardized intermodal container footprint. Control of the fuel system is provided by automatic means with manual override.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: BNSF Railway Company
    Inventors: Darrell Krueger, Joshua Soles
  • Patent number: 11473730
    Abstract: Disclosed is a BOG reliquefaction system. The BOG reliquefaction system includes: a compressor compressing BOG; a heat exchanger cooling the BOG compressed by the compressor through heat exchange using BOG discharged from a storage tank as a refrigerant; a bypass line through which the BOG is supplied to the compressor after bypassing the heat exchanger; a second valve disposed on a second supply line through which the BOG used as the refrigerant in the heat exchanger is supplied to the compressor, the second valve regulating a flow rate of fluid and opening/closing of the second supply line; and a pressure reducer disposed downstream of the heat exchanger and reducing a pressure of fluid cooled by the heat exchanger, wherein the compressor includes at least one oil-lubrication type cylinder and the bypass line is joined to the second supply line downstream of the second valve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: DAEWOO SHIPBUILDING & MARINE ENGINEERING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Joon Chae Lee, Dong Kyu Choi, Won Jae Choi, Hyun Jun Shin
  • Patent number: 11460246
    Abstract: Xenon and/or krypton is separated from a liquid oxygen stream comprising oxygen and xenon and/or krypton in a process comprising providing at least a portion of the liquid oxygen stream as a reflux liquid to the top of a rare gas recovery column operated at a pressure of between 5 to 25 bara, vaporizing a reboiler liquid in the reboiling zone in the bottom of the rare gas recovery column to produce a mixture of a rising vapor and a xenon and/or krypton-enriched liquid stream; and contacting the rising vapor with the reflux liquid in at least one distillation zone of the column to effect stripping xenon and/or krypton from the rising vapor to the reflux liquid. The process provides a recovery of xenon of greater than 90% and a krypton recovery of 15% to 90%.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: Xukun Luo, Alan D. Berger, Donn Michael Herron
  • Patent number: 11460244
    Abstract: A system and a method for producing liquefied natural gas are provided. The system includes a refrigeration loop system for providing a cold stream of refrigerant, a supersonic chiller for receiving and chilling a first gaseous natural gas stream to produce a liquefied natural gas liquid and separating the liquefied natural gas liquid from the first gaseous natural gas stream to obtain a second gaseous natural gas stream, and a cold box for receiving the cold stream of refrigerant and the second gaseous natural gas stream and cooling the second gaseous natural gas stream to obtain a liquefied natural gas by heat exchanging between the second gaseous natural gas stream and the cold stream of refrigerant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: BAKER HUGHES OILFIELD OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Lishun Hu, Jie Zhang, Harish Radhakrishna Acharya, Junli Xue, Jing Lv
  • Patent number: 11441839
    Abstract: According to an embodiment of the invention, nitrogen gas of an air separation unit is used to cool the gas formed in a reservoir of liquid from an MEOH unit that is supplied with oxygen by said air separation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Alexis Asse, Tobias Oelmann
  • Patent number: 11441840
    Abstract: Plant for the production of argon by cryogenic distillation, comprising an argon separation column, means for sending a gas containing argon and oxygen to the argon separation column, means for extracting a fluid enriched in argon at the top of the argon separation column, means for extracting a liquid enriched in oxygen at the bottom of the argon separation column and at least two storage tanks, positioned one above the other, each storage tank being connected to two different intermediate levels of the argon separation column by two pipes, the two storage tanks being contiguous.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Alain Briglia, Frederic Staine, Mathieu Leaute, Ingrid Berthaume, Benedicte Dos Santos
  • Patent number: 11435139
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for separating air by cryogenic distillation in a column system, comprising a first column operating at a first pressure and a second column operating at a second pressure, in which an argon-enriched flow is sent from an intermediate point of the first column to the tank of the second column and an argon-rich flow is drawn off at the top of the second column, wherein a nitrogen-enriched flow of the first column is compressed in a compressor, the compressed flow is sent to a head condenser of the second column after an expansion step and the vaporized flow is expanded in the condenser in a turbine where it at least partially liquefies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventor: Benoit Davidian
  • Patent number: 11428466
    Abstract: Disclosed in the present invention are a cold box steel structure and method for prefabricating and transporting the cold box steel structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Remy Kurtz, Lasad Jaouani, Vincent Gueret
  • Patent number: 11421934
    Abstract: A method for controlling a refrigerator includes determining whether an ice bin accommodated in an ice making compartment that receives cold air from the first storage compartment is full of stored ice, determining, by a controller, whether an algorithm that prevents the ice stored in the ice bin from melting needs to be performed upon determining that the ice bin is full, and performing the algorithm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Youngseung Song, Namgi Lee, Namsoo Cho
  • Patent number: 11415256
    Abstract: An apparatus for the separation or liquefaction of a gas at cryogenic temperatures which comprises an isolated chamber comprises at least one front distillation column operating at cryogenic temperatures and also a pipe for transferring fluid coming from or going to the column, the pipe having a diameter D comprising a bend for changing the direction of flow of the fluid, with profiled deflector vanes placed inside the bend, with their concavity towards the centre of the bend forming a plurality of ducts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Yann-Pierrick Lemaire, Patrick Le Bot
  • Patent number: 11408406
    Abstract: A GM cryocooler includes a first cold head including a first displacer that is reciprocable in an axial direction, a first drive piston that drives the first displacer in the axial direction, and a first drive chamber that houses the first drive piston; a second cold head including a second displacer that is reciprocable in the axial direction, and a second cylinder that houses the second displacer; a first intake valve that is connected to both the first drive chamber and the second cylinder so as to supply working gas in parallel to the first drive chamber and the second cylinder; and a first exhaust valve that is connected to both the first drive chamber and the second cylinder so as to collect the working gas in parallel from the first drive chamber and the second cylinder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Mingyao Xu, Qian Bao, Takaaki Morie
  • Patent number: 11371754
    Abstract: A GM cryocooler includes a valve portion which defines a valve group including a first intake valve, a first exhaust valve, and a pressure equalizing valve. A valve rotor of the valve portion includes a rotor plane which is in surface contact with a stator plane of a valve stator. The valve rotor includes a high pressure flow path which is open to the rotor plane to form a portion of the first intake valve, a low pressure flow path which is open to the rotor plane to form a portion of the first exhaust valve, and a pressure equalization flow path which is open to the rotor plane to form a portion of the pressure equalizing valve, and the high pressure flow path, the low pressure flow path, and the pressure equalization flow path are circumferentially arranged around a valve rotation axis on the rotor plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Mingyao Xu, Qian Bao, Takaaki Morie
  • Patent number: 11359858
    Abstract: A method for liquefying ammonia can include the steps of: providing a pressurized carbon dioxide stream from a power generating facility; expanding the pressurized carbon dioxide stream to a lower pressure that is sufficient to produce a dual phase carbon dioxide fluid; introducing the dual phase carbon dioxide fluid to a gas-liquid separator; withdrawing a liquid stream from the gas-liquid separator; and liquefying an ammonia gas stream in an ammonia liquefier by indirect contact with the liquid stream from the gas-liquid separator, thereby forming a liquid ammonia stream and a gaseous carbon dioxide stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: L'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'Etude Et L'Exploitation Des Procedes Georges Claude
    Inventors: Abigail Bonifacio, Vincent Follaca, Pierre-Philippe Guerif, Alain Guillard
  • Patent number: 11358878
    Abstract: A system for separating a soluble solution includes a first freezer configured to receive a liquid feed stream and a refrigerant stream, and discharge a concentrated solution stream, wherein the first freezer is configured to exchange heat between the liquid feed stream and the refrigerant stream through direct contact within the first freezer and freeze a portion of the liquid feed stream, a first separator external to the first freezer and configured to separate ice particles from the concentrated solution stream and recirculate the concentrated solution stream to the first freezer, and a first ice washer coupled to the first separator and configured to receive the ice particles separated from the concentrated solution stream by the first separator and wash the separated ice particles to free the ice particles from contaminants.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Inventor: William H. Mitchell, Jr.