West Virginia Patent of the Month – October 2021
Coking is a refinery operation that upgrades materials from either atmospheric or vacuum distillation into higher value products. Petroleum coke (petcoke) is a coal-like material produced as a by-product during this process. Hardened petcoke builds up in the refinery drum. This build up is typically removed by boring a hole into the coke and blasting it with high pressure water. This water and petcoke slurry then flows into a dewatering unit to filter the water out. Cogar Manufacturing, Inc. has put their experience in innovative manufacturing to develop a dewatering unit that works effectively with petcoke slurries.
Cogar’s dewatering unit operates even faster than those seen in the industry, removing water from the slurry at a rapid pace. The system is designed as a railcar with a conveyor inside. There are screens located along the bottom and sides, and a grizzly – a different type of screen – along the top and above the conveyor. The slurry is poured over the grizzly which begins the fracturing process and separates the solid material. The conveyor uses a set of drag bars and crushers to further fracture the solid pieces. As the solid pieces are fractured, trapped water and other fluids drain through the screens. The dewatered solid material is lifted out of the unit by the conveyor. Since it is designed as a railcar, their design is also transportable, able to move along a rail track for use in crawler applications. The combination of multiple fracturing tools speeds up the process and more quickly separates solid and water.
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