Patents Examined by Joye L. Woodard
  • Patent number: 8252242
    Abstract: Systems of capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide, comprising a carbon capture assembly including a mixing vessel, a reaction vessel, and a solvent regeneration assembly fluidly connected to the reaction vessel. The solvent regeneration assembly comprises at least one heat exchanger, a cryogenic drying vessel fluidly connected to the heat exchanger, and a hot distillation vessel fluidly connected to the cryogenic drying vessel. An alkali is mixed with a substantially non-aqueous solvent to form a suspension in the mixing vessel. The reaction vessel is fluidly connected to the mixing vessel such that the reaction vessel receives the suspension of alkali and solvent from the mixing vessel through a first input, receives flue gas containing carbon dioxide through a second input and receives water through a third input such that carbonic acid, carbonate, water and heat are formed in the reaction vessel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Expansion Energy, LLC
    Inventor: David Vandor
  • Patent number: 8236142
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for transporting and quenching coke, useful in quenching a batch of coke produced in one of a plurality of coke ovens forming a coke oven battery, is disclosed. A hot car defining a substantially planar receiving surface is positioned adjacent a coke oven of the coke oven battery, and a unitary cake of unquenched coke is placed onto the hot car receiving surface. The hot car and unquenched coke are transported to a transfer station having a dust collection system. A quenching car is positioned at the transfer station adjacent the hot car, under the dust collection system. The unitary cake of unquenched coke is dumped into the quenching car receptacle, thereby separating the unitary cake. At least a portion of the dust generated by separation is collected. The quench car is then transported to a quenching station, where the separated coke is quenched.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Westbrook Thermal Technology, LLC
    Inventor: Richard Westbrook
  • Patent number: 8221688
    Abstract: An exhaust gas purification device for an internal combustion engine is provided in an exhaust passage of the internal combustion engine. The exhaust gas purification device includes an HC trapping converter comprising a carrier; an HC adsorbing layer, supported on the carrier and adapted to adsorb unburned fuel; and a ternary catalyst layer, supported on a surface of the HC adsorbing layer and adapted to oxidize and remove the unburned fuel. The HC adsorbing layer includes particulate HC adsorbents each of which has a follow space and which are stacked. The ternary catalyst layer covers the HC absorbing layer such that a thickness of the ternary catalyst layer increases from an upstream side to a downstream side of the converter in the direction of exhaust gas flow.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Koichi Taniyama, Hiroshi Tanada, Mayuko Suwa
  • Patent number: 8202400
    Abstract: Apparatus for the manufacture of charcoal, comprising a unit having walls defining a primary combustion chamber, and a material inlet for allowing a feed of wood chips though said material inlet into said apparatus. A trough is located at a lower height than said material inlet such that material passing through said material inlet is able to fall into the trough. An air inlet is located below the material inlet such that, when wood chips are located within the trough piled up to said material inlet, air passing from said air inlet passes through said wood-chips and into the primary combustion chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2012
    Inventor: Andrew Mark Elliott
  • Patent number: 8187548
    Abstract: A catalyst layer formed on the walls of exhaust gas channels in a particulate filter contains a catalyst material containing at least two kinds of primary particles selected from the group consisting of primary particles of activated alumina, primary particles of a ZrNd-based mixed oxide and primary particles of a CeZr-based mixed oxide. The catalyst material is formed so that primary particles of one of the ZrNd-based mixed oxide and the CeZr-based mixed oxide are dispersedly carried on the surface of each of secondary particles. Each secondary particle is formed by cohesion of at least one kind of primary particles selected from the group consisting of primary particles of activated alumina and primary particles of the other of the ZrNd-based mixed oxide and the CeZr-based mixed oxide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yamada, Kenji Suzuki, Koichiro Harada, Kenji Okamoto, Akihida Takami
  • Patent number: 8157968
    Abstract: An oven observing equipment capable of observing the inside of an oven turned to a high temperature precisely includes: a housing 13 having an intake part for cooling air, and a discharging part for discharging the cooling air after being used for cooling; and an imaging device 20 contained in this housing 13 near the discharge part. This imaging device 20 is composed of integrated combination of an image sensor 16; plate-like thermoelectric cooling elements 18a to 18d arranged in a state that their heat-absorbing faces surround the periphery of a body of the image sensor; thermoconductive blocks 17a to 17d embedded in the gaps between the image sensor body and the thermoelectric cooling elements 18a to 18d; and cooling fins 19a to 19d formed on the heat-radiating faces of the thermoelectric cooling elements 18a to 18d are integrated with each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Kansai Coke and Chemicals Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Manabu Sato, Hironobu Inamasu, Kiyoshi Nakata, Keiji Yoshimoto
  • Patent number: 8137648
    Abstract: A diesel engine exhaust treatment system and method is provided which includes a platinum group metal trapping device (16) comprising cerium oxide or a perovskite material positioned between a diesel oxidation catalyst and an SCR catalyst. The platinum group metal trapping device traps trace amounts of platinum group metals which may be released from the diesel oxidation catalyst during engine operation and prevents them from accumulating on the SCR catalyst, preventing potential contamination of the SCR catalyst as well as ensuring that the performance of the SCR catalyst is uninhibited.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Hungwen Jen, Giovanni Cavataio, James W. Girard
  • Patent number: 8114359
    Abstract: An SNCR distribution grid for introducing a NOx reducing reactant into a flue gas flow. The grid is made of one or more elements which are formed by fluid-cooled tubes to which membrane pieces are attached, preferably by welding, to form conduits in between the tubes. The fluid-cooled tubes may be cooled by water and/or steam and the distribution grid is disposed in the flue gas flow. To admit the reactant into the flue gas, nozzles are provided in the membrane and the reactant is conveyed from a location external of the furnace or combustor enclosure, into the conduits so formed, and thence out into the Flue gas flow via the nozzles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Inventors: Mikhail Maryamchik, Gary L. Anderson, Jeffrey Hahn, Richard A. Ramsdell
  • Patent number: 8097554
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing soot from diesel engine exhaust streams at temperatures below 150° C. is provided. Although the use of particulate filters for removing carbonaceous soot from such exhaust streams is known, such systems are either active or operate under high temperatures, i.e. in excess of 300° C. The claimed apparatus includes a flow through support device composed of ceramic, such as cordierite or silicon carbide, or a primarily nonferrous metal or stainless steel and coated with an oxide formation comprising hematite and bixbyite in a ratio from 1:1 to 9:1. The claimed apparatus can also include a diesel particulate filter coated with a coating comprising tin, aluminum and zirconium oxides prepared by a co-precipitation process and thereafter coated with platinum or other precious metal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2012
    Assignee: AirFlow Catalyst Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Richard Roberts, Dennis Roland Fronheiser, Thomas A. Iacubucci
  • Patent number: 8088336
    Abstract: A reducing gas generator generates reducing gas including ammonia. The generator includes a solid reductant and a heat-generating portion. The solid reductant is formed in a columnar shape. A cross-sectional surface of the solid reductant has a constant shape and is perpendicular to a central axis of the solid reductant. The heat-generating portion includes a heat-generating surface opposed to a lower surface of the solid reductant in a vertical direction thereof and in contact with an entire region of the lower surface, and a heating element that heats the heat-generating surface when energized, so that the solid reductant is heated and decomposed to generate the reducing gas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2012
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventors: Kazunori Suzuki, Masatoshi Kuroyanagi, Yoshiaki Nishijima
  • Patent number: 8080208
    Abstract: An exhaust gas purification device that includes a catalytic particulate filter having at least an exhaust gas channel, the exhaust gas channel may include a first channel and a second channel being laterally coupled each other and fluidly communicating therebetween, wherein the exhaust gas is inlet through inlet opening of the first channel and outlet through lower portion of the first channel and/or outlet opening of the second channel, and wherein a first coating layer is formed on an interior surface of the first channel in a longitudinal direction thereof substantially from the inlet opening in a first predetermined length, the first coating layer being coated with a catalyst, and a second coating layer is formed on an interior surface of the second channel in a longitudinal direction thereof substantially from the outlet opening in a second predetermined length, the second coating layer being coated with the catalyst and a third coating is formed on an outside surface of a plug closing the outlet end of
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2011
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventor: Chang Dae Kim
  • Patent number: 8071036
    Abstract: A mercury reduction system includes an NH4Cl supplying unit that sprays an NH4Cl solution into a flue of the boiler, a reduction denitration apparatus that includes a denitration catalyst for reducing NOx in the flue gas with NH3 and oxidizing Hg in the presence of HCl, and a wet desulfurization apparatus for reducing Hg oxidized in the reduction denitration apparatus with limestone-gypsum slurry. The NH4Cl supplying unit includes an NH4Cl solution feed pipe that supplies the NH4Cl solution into the flue in a liquid state, a blow pipe that is inserted into the flue so as to surround the NH4Cl solution feed pipe and through which air is injected into the flue, and a two-fluid nozzle that is fitted to an end of the NH4Cl solution feed pipe and through which the NH4Cl solution is injected. Through the two-fluid nozzle, the NH4Cl solution is injected and sprayed in fine liquid droplets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2011
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Ukai, Moritoshi Murakami, Susumu Okino, Tatsuto Nagayasu, Seiji Kagawa
  • Patent number: 8066949
    Abstract: Fouling in the scrubber section of a fluid coker unit is reduced by providing perforated baffles to improve the uniformity of the gas flow profile in the scrubber by reducing the gas velocity of the cyclone outlet gases in the scrubber section of the unit. These baffles are located with the objective of reducing the rotational component of the gas flow in the scrubber created by the alignment of the gas outlets of the cyclones. The baffles are preferably located in the shed section of the scrubber and comprise upstanding perforated plates located at the periphery of the scrubber section to disrupt high velocity gas jets in the region of the interior wall of the scrubber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2011
    Assignee: ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Company
    Inventors: Craig A. McKnight, Larry P. Hackman, Brian A. Knapper, Daniel Bulbuc, George B. Jones, Jonathan Tyler, Darwin E. Kiel
  • Patent number: 8029649
    Abstract: According to the invention, the loose coal is displaced from the peaks to the valleys of the waves on the narrow, long coal cake and is beaten down on the coal cake. The inventive device comprises at least one scraper (12) and at least one vertically movable impact plate (13) that are disposed one behind another and are fitted with a connection (7) to a holder. Furthermore, means are provided for generating a relative movement between the scraper (12) and the impact plate (13) and between the scraper (12) and a stamping form. The scraper (12) and the impact plate (13) are interconnected by means of a device frame (14) so as to form a structural unit (6) that is connected to the holder. Preferably, the structural unit (6) can be moved along the stamping form and is equipped with a drive unit. For this purpose, the holder encompasses a guide that extends along the stamping form as well as a carriage or a car which can be slid or moved on said guide and to which the unit (6) is connected with the aid of a boom.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignee: Flsmidth A/S
    Inventors: Norbert Fiedler, Wilfried Schwan
  • Patent number: 8017084
    Abstract: An ammonia injection grid for a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system that provides uniform distribution of ammonia to the SCR catalyst in NOx reduction systems for heat recovery steam generation systems, packaged boilers, simple cycle catalyst systems and fired heaters for superior operational efficiency. The ammonia injection grid includes an injection tube having at least one nozzle for injecting ammonia into a flow of flue gas. The ammonia injection grid also includes a corrugated turbulence enhancer associated with the injection tube to generate turbulent wake to enhance turbulent mixing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2011
    Assignee: Callidus Technologies, L.L.C.
    Inventors: Jeffrey Philip Wirt, Richard Martin
  • Patent number: 8003060
    Abstract: The present invention provides disposable, semi-reusable, or single use reaction vessels with integrated optical elements for use with diffraction based assay systems. The vessel for assaying liquids for analytes includes a housing having at least one chamber or well for receiving a liquid therein and an optical element integrally formed with the housing for directing an incident light beam towards the well or chamber and directing a light beam away from the reaction chamber after the light beam has interacted with analytes present in the liquid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2011
    Assignee: Axela Inc.
    Inventors: Raymond Francis Cracauer, Rocky Ganske, Adam Brian Liederman
  • Patent number: 7998424
    Abstract: An exhaust system for a lean-burn internal combustion engine comprises a catalyst for oxidising carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons comprising a flow-through substrate monolith comprising a first platinum group metal (PGM) zone containing at least one PGM supported on a surface area-increasing washcoat component, a second PGM zone containing at least one PGM supported on a surface area-increasing washcoat component, a third PGM zone containing at least one PGM supported on a surface area-increasing washcoat component wherein both the PGM loading in the first PGM zone and the PGM loading in the third PGM zone is greater than the PGM loading in the second PGM zone and wherein the first PGM zone comprises a washcoat loading that is less than a washcoat loading of the third PGM zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2011
    Assignee: Johnson Matthey Public Limited Company
    Inventors: David Bergeal, Paul Richard Phillips, Martyn Vincent Twigg
  • Patent number: 7998316
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for quenching metallurgical coke made in a coking oven. The method includes pushing a unitary slab of incandescent coke onto a substantially planar receiving surface of an enclosed quenching car so that substantially all of the coke from the coking oven is pushed as a unitary slab onto the receiving surface of the quenching car. The slab of incandescent coke is quenched in an enclosed environment within the quenching car with a plurality of water quench nozzles while submerging at least a portion of the slab of incandescent coke by raising a water level in the quenching car. Subsequent to quenching the coke, the planar receiving surface is tilted to an angle sufficient to slide the quenched coke off of the planar receiving surface and onto a product collection conveyer and sufficient to drain water from the quenched coke.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2011
    Assignee: Suncoke Technology and Development Corp.
    Inventor: Michael P. Barkdoll
  • Patent number: 7993596
    Abstract: A gas temperature control apparatus for a DeNOx boiler in an engine cogeneration plant is installed to maintain a reaction temperature of denitrification catalyst used to remove nitrogen oxide generated from an internal combustion engine in the engine cogeneration plant. The apparatus includes a connection passageway between a high-temperature gas part of a combustion tank of the boiler and an intermediate-temperature gas part formed after a first heat exchange, and a flow control valve mounted in the passageway to thereby control a volume of bypass combustion gas. The apparatus can easily raise temperature of combustion gas even though temperature of the inside water of the boiler does not reach a normal operation state since the flow control valve mounted in the connection passageway between the high-temperature gas part and the intermediate-temperature gas part. thereby greatly reducing a time period to reach an activation temperature of the denitrification catalyst.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignee: Korea Institute of Energy Research
    Inventors: Hyouck-Ju Kim, Hwa-Choon Park, Dae-Hun Chung, Jae-Joon Choi
  • Patent number: 7993597
    Abstract: A catalyst for purifying an exhaust gas can include a carrier having a honeycomb structure, an outer pipe for covering a part of the carrier, and a brazing foil for joining the outer peripheral surface of the carrier and the inner peripheral surface of the outer pipe on the downstream side of the catalyst. The catalyst can be fixed to a support flange such that an axial direction of the catalyst coincides with the direction in which an exhaust gas flows through an exhaust pipe. An upstream end of the brazing foil can be aligned with the upstream end of a catalyst fixing part of the support flange. An upstream end of the catalyst fixing part can be positioned upstream of the axial middle of the carrier. The brazing foil can be provided in a portion from the upstream end of the catalyst fixing part to the downstream side of the carrier. The catalyst can be supported at its generally middle part by the support flange.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignee: Yamaha Hatsudoki Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Naoki Kinomoto, Susumu Yamazaki