US4396504A — Mobile waste oil cleaning apparatus

Claim 1

Independent Claim 394 words

A compact, mobile waste oil cleaning apparatus comprising: a tractor trailer chassis including an elongated horizontal platform, an oil burner fired heater of cylindrical form fixed to said platform and having its axis vertical thereto, said heater comprising concentric inner and outer vertical metal sidewalls defining a central fire chamber internally of the inner wall and an annular oil flow chamber between said walls, helical strip means between said metal sidewalls and along the inside of said inner sidewall, respectively, defining helical heat exchange paths within said chambers along opposite surfaces of said inner sidewall from the bottom to the top thereof, a burner including a fire box opening up tangentially to said inner chamber at the bottom thereof for facilitating helical flow of the burner products of combustion along the inner surface of said inner sidewall, means for supplying a fuel and air mixture to said burner fire box for combustion therein such that the products of combustion flow along said inner helical path within said central chamber for exhaust through the top of said central chamber. means for pumping waste oil through said other helical path within said annular chamber, a vibrating screen type solids separator mounted on said platform to one side of said heater at a vertically raised position, means for feeding oil heated by said heater to said solids separator a multi-compartment oil/water separator tank mounted adjacent to said solids separator, means for feeding said heated waste oil free of solids from said solids separator to said oil/water separator, a plurality of vertical transverse walls within said oil/water separator tank dividing said separator tank into sealed side by side compartments, said transverse walls including weir openings of increasing depth at their upper ends in a direction away from the end of said oil/water separator tank adjacent said solids separator; whereby, water separates by gravity from said heated oil and accumulates sequentially within the bottom of the oil/water separator tank compartments, and separated, heated oil flows over the weir openings of said vertical oil/water separator tank transverse walls sequentially towards the most downstream compartment remote from the solids separator, and means for selectively removing accumulated water from the bottoms of all of said tank compartments and oil skimmmer means within said most downstream separator tank compartment at the level above the separated water to remove water free heated oil therefrom.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 394 words

A compact, mobile waste oil cleaning apparatus comprising: a tractor trailer chassis including an elongated horizontal platform, an oil burner fired heater of cylindrical form fixed to said platform and having its axis vertical thereto, said heater comprising concentric inner and outer vertical metal sidewalls defining a central fire chamber internally of the inner wall and an annular oil flow chamber between said walls, helical strip means between said metal sidewalls and along the inside of said inner sidewall, respectively, defining helical heat exchange paths within said chambers along opposite surfaces of said inner sidewall from the bottom to the top thereof, a burner including a fire box opening up tangentially to said inner chamber at the bottom thereof for facilitating helical flow of the burner products of combustion along the inner surface of said inner sidewall, means for supplying a fuel and air mixture to said burner fire box for combustion therein such that the products of combustion flow along said inner helical path within said central chamber for exhaust through the top of said central chamber. means for pumping waste oil through said other helical path within said annular chamber, a vibrating screen type solids separator mounted on said platform to one side of said heater at a vertically raised position, means for feeding oil heated by said heater to said solids separator a multi-compartment oil/water separator tank mounted adjacent to said solids separator, means for feeding said heated waste oil free of solids from said solids separator to said oil/water separator, a plurality of vertical transverse walls within said oil/water separator tank dividing said separator tank into sealed side by side compartments, said transverse walls including weir openings of increasing depth at their upper ends in a direction away from the end of said oil/water separator tank adjacent said solids separator; whereby, water separates by gravity from said heated oil and accumulates sequentially within the bottom of the oil/water separator tank compartments, and separated, heated oil flows over the weir openings of said vertical oil/water separator tank transverse walls sequentially towards the most downstream compartment remote from the solids separator, and means for selectively removing accumulated water from the bottoms of all of said tank compartments and oil skimmmer means within said most downstream separator tank compartment at the level above the separated water to remove water free heated oil therefrom.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 93 words

A compact waste oil cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said oil burner fired heater,, said elongated oil/water separator tank, and said solids separator are mounted side by side and in that order along said platform from one end to the other, and wherein said oil burner fired heater includes a reheat pipe in loop form projecting from the heater central chamber into at least the most downstream compartment of the oil/water separator tank to facilitate start-up and to maintain the desired temperature of oil after separation of solids and water.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 153 words

The compact waste oil cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said elongated horizontal platform comprises a tractor trailer chassis, a solids storage tank is mounted to the end of the platform bearing the solids separator, beneath the solids separator functioning as an operator platform, the elongated oil/water separator tank is of modified parallelpiped form having a flat top wall extending horizontally over the major length of the tractor trailer chassis, a catwalk extends the length of the oil/water separator tank across the top wall of the oil/water separator tank to one side thereof, openings are provided within the top wall of the oil/water separator tank to the side of the catwalk and aligned with specific compartments within said separator tank for access thereto, and lids are hinged to said top wall at respective openings, said lids being sized to said openings to cover the openings, and being accessible from the catwalk.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 260 words

The compact waste oil cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said oil/water separator tank comprises laterally spaced vertical sidewalls, a horizontal top wall spanning across the tops of the vertical sidewall and being joined at opposite sides thereto, said sidewalls at their bottoms including inwardly inclined portions, a bottom wall narrower than the top wall and being joined along its lateral side edges to the ends of said inwardly inclined sidewall portions and end walls at opposite ends of said separator tank being joined at the upper edges to the horizontal top wall and along their side edges to said sidewall, said end walls including inwardly inclined lower portions being joined along their side edges to the inwardly inclined portions of said sidewalls and at their bottoms to the ends of said bottom wall such that said compartments have inclined wall portions at their bottoms facilitating drainage of water from the bottoms of said oil/water separator tank compartments and wherein said means for selectively removing accumulated water from the bottoms of said tank compartments comprise water outlet pipes projecting into respective oil/water separator tank compartments through said bottom wall, and being commonly joined at their opposite ends to a water manifold pipe extending longitudinally of said oil/water separator tank, and a flat vortex prevention plate mounted horizontally above the bottom wall of said wall separator tank within each compartment overlying the outlet hole formed by each water outlet pipe to ensure indirect water flow out of the bottom of the oil/water separator tank compartment at the hole locations.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 111 words

The compact waste oil cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein, a manually operable shut-off valve is carried by each water removal pipe intermediate of said separator tank and said common manifold water manifold pipe, said valves comprise pivotable valve actuator for opening and closing said valves, a control stand is mounted on said chassis on said operator platform and carries a plurality of pivotable levers corresponding to the actuators of said valves, and cable and pulley means operatively couple said levers with said valve actuators such that, an operator may selectively open and close said valves to drain the water selectively from said compartments through said water manifold pipe.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 96 words

A compact waste oil cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein, rods are vertically mounted to the sides of the compartment separator walls within said oil/water separator tank for free vertical movement, said rods bear spherical floats at their lower ends immersible within water and flags at their upper ends, said flags being projectable outwardly from the top wall of the oil/water separator tank whereby, upon accumulation of a predetermined volume of water within said compartments, the operator is appraised of the extent of water separated from the oil and accumulating within a given compartments.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 255 words

The compact waste oil cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said oil burner fired heater comprises a metal tank including a circular bottom wall closing off the bottom of said cylindrical outer side wall, said inner cylindrical side wall, is raised from said bottom wall, is closed off by a false bottom wall and forms with said circular bottom wall, a cylindrical oil chamber, a waste oil supply pipe leading to said cylindrical oil chamber and opening to the center of that chamber, a vertical spiral strip is carried within said cylindrical oil chamber to form a spiral oil flow passage from the center towards the periphery of said chamber, said horizontal chamber being open at its periphery to the annular chamber formed intermediate of the outer and inner cylindrical side walls, said helical strip means comprises a helical strip wound vertically within said annular chamber and defining a closed helical flow path for the oil within the annular chamber, the top of said heater inner vertical cylindrical side wall terminating at some height below that of the outer cylindrical side wall, conical top walls mounted to said inner and outer vertical cylindrical side walls and being spaced from each other to form an inclined conical chamber therebetween forming inclined oil flow path toward the axis of the central chamber at the upper end thereof, and a vertical stack projecting through said conical chamber from said central chamber to the exterior and functioning as a flue for escape of the products of combustion.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 102 words

The compact waste oil cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein said burner comprises a horizontal axis cylindrical burner projecting through the inner and outer vertical cylindrical sidewalls adjacent the bottom wall of said heater and opening tangentially into said inner chamber, said fire box is cylindrical and wherein a refractory material covers the interior surface of the fire box, the heater bottom wall and a portion of the inside surface of the inner cylindrical sidewall to facilitate retention of heat and heat exchange between products of combustion and the oil within the annular chamber without damage to said waste oil.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 345 words

A compact waste oil cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for pumping oil through said heater comprises an oil inlet pipe for supplying waste oil to said apparatus, and opening to the bottom of said heater, a pump within said oil inlet pipe for positively pumping of oil into said heater, and wherein a heated waste oil supply pipe extends across the oil/water separator tank, and connects at one end to the annular chamber bearing said oil at the top of the heater, and is open at its opposite end above said solids separator for gravity discharge of the heated waste oil onto said solids separator, a return loop pipe is connected at one end to said heated oil supply pipe adjacent the end opening above the solids separator and has its opposite end opening interiorly to said annular chamber of said heater bearing said oil, an oil pond return pipe is connected at one end to said return loop pipe and being disposed, intermediate of said solids separator and said oil/water separator tank and extending at least to one side of said chassis, and wherein a first cut-off valve is provided within said heated waste oil supply pipe downstream of the connection of the return loop pipe, a second cut-off valve is provided within said return loop pipe downstream of the connection between said pond return pipe and said return loop pipe and wherein, a third cut-off valve is carried by said pond return pipe adjacent its connection to the return loop pipe such that selectively, waste oil may be heated by said heater and delivered via said heated waste oil supply pipe to said solids separator, heated and fed in a return loop through said heated waste oil supply pipe and said return loop pipe, or heated by said heater and returned to said pond through said waste oil supply pipe and said pond return pipe by selective operation of said cut-off valves depending upon the viscosity of the pond waste oil available to the waste oil cleaning apparatus.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	1986-08-01	1987-01-31	1987-08-02	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	1990-08-01	1991-01-31	1991-08-02	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	1994-08-01	1995-01-31	1995-08-02	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Mobile waste oil cleaning apparatus

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