US1949853A - Deconcentrator - Google Patents

Description

March 6, 1934. w ARMACOST 1,949,853

DECONCENTRATOR Filed D66. 15, 1932 I NV EN TOR.

.4 TTORNE Y.

Patented Mar. 6, 1934 t UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DECONCENTRATOR Wilbur H. Armacost, New York, N. Y., assignor to The Superheater Company, New York, N. Y.

Application December 15, 1932, Serial No. 647,331

6 Claims. (01. 122-459) The present invention relates to devices of the directly or via a superheater to the point of congeneral type disclosed in United States application sumption. for patent Ser. No. 600,864, filed by J. A. Powell The water in the deconcentrator drum is, as on March 24, 1932, having for their object the stated above, preferably feed water on its way to purification of steam coming from boilers. The the boiler and is of the ordinary chemical purity principal impurities in such steam are not in the of such feed water. It may, for example, be form of solids carried along directly by the steam taken from a hot well with the addition of the but are held in solution or in suspension in the necessary makeup water. It is fed into the deconmoisture entrained by the steam. The general centrator drum at a rate corresponding to that 10 principle on which such a device operates is to at which steam is led from the boiler drum into let the steam from the boiler bubble through the deconcentrator drum except for the variation water, in a separate drum, the concentration of occasioned by the additional heat requiredto heat impurities in which water is much less than the up the feed water and to make up for radiation concentration in the boiler. In practice feed losses.

water on its way from the hot-well to the boiler To carry the feed water from the deconcenis used. The steam in passing through this water trator drum to the boiler there is a connection will ordinarily carry moisture with it which may from the water space of the former to the latter approximate in amount that which was taken preferably with a provision to prevent the water from the boiler as the steam flowed from the boillevel in the deconcentrator drum from falling be- 29 er. The moisture which the steam may carry low a predetermined level.

along as it is liberated from the purer water in In such an arrangement it has heretofore been the drum is thus bst tut d o the a ve y essential, as mentioned above, that the deconcenhighly concentrated moisture which it brought trator drum be placed at an elevation above the with it from the boiler. The term deconcentraboiler drum, the distance depending upon the has been accepted as the a for is appadifference in pressure between the two drums. fetus and Will be d hereins fi a ce This pressure difference is occasioned by the reof course is that the impurities in the Steam a e sistance of the steam flow from the boiler to the edi amount y the rr ngement. steam space of the deconcentrator drum, such The arrangement ShOWninSeid pp ieat onp eresistance being partly due to friction losses in 30 supposes that the deconcentrator drum be located the pipe and discharge nozzles, and partly to the at a level higher than the water level of the boiler. h ad of water against which the steam is dis- The amount which it is raised above such level charged, The required height will for an average depends upon conditions under which the device ase be a matter of a few feet. is to function. If such an appliance is to be used in connection The Object of the present invelltien is o ake with a locomotive boiler or in connection with available a deconcentrator Of this type for e some other boiler where the necessary head room conditions under which th a a ement shown is not available, a serious difliculty at once arises, i t application cannot be used. which my invention is intended to overcome.

e relatively P Water in the deconcentrator This difficulty relates to the rate at which water drum is p a y d Water r t i r. T is fed to the deconcentrator drum and the rate at Steam s discharged into the y of the Water y which it is carried from the deconcentrator drum suitable nozzles. A part of the steam will be t the boiler, condensed a d its latent heat W raise h There are several factors which affect the water perature of the incoming feed water to the vaporlevel in the deconcentrator drum. There is first izing point. A further amount will be condensed the rate at which water is forced into it by the 100 to make up for radiation heat losses. The refeed water pump. Next there is the rate at which mainder of the steam will either bubble directly water is removed from the drum and led to the u h th wat r, th id t al st am l avin boiler. Then there is the fact that a certain the surface of the water in the deconcentrator fraction of the steam from the boiler on its ardrum or possibly some of it may condense and rival in the deconcentrator drum is condensed in 105 evaporate water to replace it. Which of these two heating the feed water to boiler temperature withhappens is immaterial. In any event, every parout evaporating any of the water. This conticle of the steam comes into intimate contact densate is added to the water in the deconcenwith water in the deconcentrator drum and is trator drum. Further the amount of moisture inthoroughly washed. This steamisnext led either troduced by the steam may not, and probably will not, balance exactly the amount carried away by the steam leaving the deconcentrator drum. Further, heat radiation losses from the deconcentrator drum will be made up by steam which condenses and for which no equivalent amount will leave the deconcentrator.

All of these factors can readily be disregarded in the arrangements such as shown in the said application as the level in the deconcentrator drum will automatically remain constant from the nature of the arrangement; but to make possible installations where the deconcentrator drum cannot be placed the required distance above the boiler water level, provision must be made to supply water to, and to remove water from the drum at the proper rates. My invention provides. a system presenting a solution to this difiiculty.

In the drawing the single figure representsdiagrammatically an installation of the sortreferred to and embodying my invention. The boiler drum iszshownatulaand the'deconcentrator drum at 2, the latter being below the average water level 3 of: the boiler. The mixture ofsteam and water from. the boiler tubes 4 is discharged into the boilerdrum 1, where the steam is separated out, and fromwhich, together with its entrained moisture, it flows to the deconcentrator drum 2 by meansof. the pipe 5. It is discharged under the water level of the deconcentrator drum by the nozzle 6. The steam generated in the water of the deconcentratordrum or bubbling through such waterand collecting in the steam space of the drum 2.1eaves said drum by means of the pipe '7, being carried, preferably by way of a superheater, to the point of use. Water is fed into the deconcentrator drum by any preferred pumping means through the pipe 8. This pipe 8 discharges the water. into the-trough 9 in the drum. From this troughthe water flows through a series of weirs formed in its long free edge into the drum space proper, being forced by the baflle 10 to flow first downward toward the bottom of the drum. This water forced in through pipe 8 is, as in the original Powell application, the feed water for the boiler and is of relatively very low concentration. It leaves the drum 2 to flow to the boiler through pipe 11, falling first through a series of weirs in the upper edge of plate 12 into the space 13. This prevents the water level in the deconcentrator drumfrom falling below the level of these weirs.

As the drum 2 is at a-point such that the water cannot flow from it by gravity to drum 1, means must be employed to force it. For this purpose a steam turbine and pump are employed. The steam turbine is shown at 14. It is operated by the steam flowing through pipe 5 on its way from the drum 1 to the drum 2. The pump is shown at 15 and it delivers water from the pipe 11 to the pipe 16 and so to the boiler.

The pressure difference between the deconcentrator drum 2 and the boiler drum 1 is only a matter of a few pounds and the turbine 14 and pump 15 are designed so they are able to pump water at a rate in excess by weight of the maximum rate at which the steam passes through the turbine 14. The rate at which the water is actually pumped is regulated by the valve 17, whose position varies in response to the changes in the water level 3. This is efiected by means of a float control 18 which sets the valve 1'7 in response to such level changes, opening it more if the level drops and closing it more if the level rises. When the valve 17 is throttled down so that the water passes at a rate less by weight than the steam is passing through the turbine 14, the pump 15 will, due to the nature of such pumps, still perform satisfactorily.

The water level in the deconcentrator drum is kept up to the required point and not allowed to exceed it by means of the float controlled valve 19. The float for this is shown at 20 and regulates the valve 19 so that the level in the deconcentrator is kept up to but does not exceed the desired point.

In this manner all discrepancy in the rate at which water enters drum 2 and the rate at which it leaves that drum, due to the factors pointed out above is taken care of and a system is provided functioning as smoothly as the one in which the deconcentrator drum is arranged at the elevation heretofore required.

What I claim is:

1. In apparatus of the class described the combination of a boiler, a drum, connections whereby feed water on its way to the boiler passes through said drum, means to cause steam from the boiler on its way to the point of use to pass through the water in the drum, a pump to force the water from the drum into the boiler, and an engine driven by the steam on its way to the drum actuating said pump.

2. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, the drum being so located relatively to the boiler that under normal operating conditions water will not flow by gravity into the boiler from the drum.

3. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, the drum being so located relatively to the boiler that under normal operating conditions water will not flow by gravity into the boiler from the drum, the apparatus further comprising a valve between the pump and the boiler to regulate the rate at which water is fed from the drum to the boiler.

4. In apparatus of the class described, the combination of a boiler, a drum, means to force water into the drum, a turbine-driven pump,

means to cause steam from the boiler on its way to the point of use to drive the turbine and to pass through the water in the drum, means to deliver water from the drum to the pump and from the pump to the boiler, the design of the turbine and pump being such that the pump is always capable of delivering more water by weight from the drum to the boiler than there is steam flowing through the turbine, and a valve in the means to deliver water from thepump to the boiler operative responsively to the water level in the boiler limiting the amount of water delivered.

5. Apparatus in accordance with claim 4, the

means to deliver water from the drum to the pump being such that the water in the drum cannot be lowered by the pump below a predetermined point.

6. Apparatus in accordance with claim 4, the means to deliver water from the drum to the pump being such that the water in the drum cannot be lowered by the pump below a predetermined point, the apparatus further comprising means responsive to the level of the water in the drum to control the rate of water supply to I?- the drum.

WILBUR. H. ARMACOST.

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