VI
New Patents
4711721 WASTE WATER SLUDGE THICKENER WITH ODOR CONTROL Bernard Jamonet, Alain Rigouard, Jean-Pierr Bouchez, Jean Duc, Bourg de Peage, France assigned to L'Air Liquide Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude In a sludge thickener, supernatant fluid is drawn off via peripheral ducts and oxygenated at a suitable location. The supernatant fluid is thereafter reintroduced into the thickener via diffusers distributed transversely of the thickener and intermediate the peripheral ducts. The generation of nauseating smells is thereby prevented, and an advantageous increase of the concentration of the sludges is attained.
Fuel for an internal combustion engine is treated by flowing the fuel into intimate contact with a crystalline metal alloy that includes copper, zinc, nickel, lead, tin, iron, antimony sulfur, and manganese all in a specific range of percentage composition. The fuel can be any hydrocarbon including diesel, regular gasoline, low lead gasoline, aviation fuel, propane and butane. The crystalline metal is essentially non-sacrificial and will last hundreds of thousands of miles under ordinary conditions of usage. The crystalline metal alloy is contained within a housing through which fuel flows, whereby the fuel is placed in intimate contact with the surface area of the crystalline metal alloy, causing significant reduced pollution and increased mileage.
4715358 AUTOMATIC CONTROL OF INCIDENT SOLAR FLUX
4712006 STEAM QUALITY MEASUREMENT APPARATUS AND M E T H O D Bernard Zemel, Philip Closmann assigned to Shell Oil Company An apparatus and method are disclosed for determining the steam quality of a steam-water mixture prior to passage of the mixture from a steam injection well into steam-floodable formations located adjacent the well. The apparatus which may be lowered down into a steam injection well comprises a radiation emitting source located a selected distance away from a radiation detecting source. The steam-water mixture passes between the emitter and the detector. In operation an increase in the water content of the mixture causes attenuation of the radiation received by the detector. The decrease in the radiation received by the detector decreases the output signal of the detector. Corresponding signal changes as the steam quality of the mixture varies may be studied to determine the existing downhole steam quality at a particular location in the well.
Helmut Koster, 6000 Frankfurt am Main, Federal Republic Of Germany Apparatus for automatic control of incident solar radiation consisting of transparent wall elements (2,3) and of opaque elements (7, 8). The control is effected by reflection depending on the angle of incidence of the solar radiation. Single walled and multiple walled apparatuses are possible. In a simple two walled apparatus the opaque elements (7,8) are joined to two parallel wall elements (2,3) at an angle alpha, at least the wall element (2) directed towards the sun being translucent. The opaque elements (7,8) may be flat mirrors or mirrors of a particular shape. The specially shaped mirror sections (94,95) form radiation concentration and emission funnels, wherein absorber pipes may be provided in the radiation emission funnels. The two walled apparatus having flat reflective elements (7,8) between the wall elements (2,3) may be manufactured in a production line. Starting from the roll-off station ( 150, ! 51,164) the reflective elements (7,8) and the wall elements (2,3) can be welded together and then cut into individual pieces.
4715966
4715325 POLLUTION CONTROL THROUGH FUEL TREATMENT Claud Walker
SEPTIC TANK SLUDGE LEVEL INDICATOR Gary K Bowman assigned to Ingenuity Unlimited Inc
New Patents
A septic tank sludge level indicator including a float assembly that can be inserted downwardly into a septic tank through a permanently installed introducer tube or access pipe that has an upper end substantially flush with ground surface and provided with a removable cap for insertion and removal of the float. The float is constructed so that it will not be buoyant in a liquid material or floating scum on the upper surface of liquid material normally found in a septic tank but will be supported when the float comes into contact with collected sludge in the bottom portion of the septic tank with the upper end of the float assembly including indicia indicating the depth of sludge in the septic tank thereby providing an indication as to whether the sludge should be pumped from the tank.
4717036 LIQUID TANK SPILLAGE CONTROL SYSTEM Richard E Dundas, Gerald H Visser assigned to Plymouth Tank of West Michigan Inc A spill control device for underground liquid storage tanks having an upwardly extending fill pipe. The control device comprises a steel, epoxy coated, liquid collecting spill tank having a riser tube that extends upward through the tank bottom. A circular seal ring fits about the upper end of the riser tube and about the outer wall of a fill pipe received through the riser tube. A clamp compresses the seal about both the riser tube and fill pipe. A liquid impermeable cover is provided which covers the access opening in the top of the spill tank. A first basin surrounds the cover for channeling precipitation, and other liquids impinging the cover, away from the spill tank. A valve is disposed on the fill pipe for selectively directing liquids discharged into the spill tank into the storage tank. A second basin surrounds the spill tank for recovering liquids discharged from the spill tank during a filling operation.
4717558 PHOSPHORUS RECOVERY FROM PHOSPHORUS-CONTAINING POND SLUDGE Steven M Beck, Edward H Cook assigned to Occidental Chemical Corporation A process is described for recovering phosphorus from pond sludge found in ponds
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located near phosphorus plants. An aqueous solution of the sludge, which has a phosphorus concentration in the range of 5% to 70~o by weight, is heated at a temperature in the range of 165 degrees F. to 212 degrees F., preferably for about 1/2 hour to about 6 hours, washed with water at an elevated temperature, and then reheated. A phosphorus layer having an enhanced concentration of recoverable elemental phosphorus is formed as a result of this process.
4718028 EXTREMELY HIGH SPEED, REAL-TIME BACKGROUND FILTER FOR RADIATION DETECTORS Edward Gussin, Richard Burney, J Brian Murphy, Carl Pfeiffer, Richard Hedden assigned to Hughes Aircraft Company A five stage background filter circuit 10 is disclosed which is capable of responding to background radiation changes at speeds which are from one to two orders of magnitude faster than conventional prior filters. The invention utilizes a cross scan multiplexing technique in combination with filter circuitry depicted in schematic overview in FIG. 1. Circuit 10 includes a differential amplifier 12, a sample and hold device 14, a responsivity corrector 16, a recursive filter 18, and a background subtractor 20. Output signals 11 from a focal plane array of detectors (shown in FIG. 3) are passed through impedance matching input resistors 12a,b to an amplifier. A sample and hold circuit 14a cyclically selects and stores a signal received from first stage 12. The detector outputs are then normalized by responsivity corrector stage 16 which employs a digital-to-analog converter 16a and random access memory 16c. A threshold band comparison and time-out logic circuit 21 within background subtractor stage 20 controls the operation of recursive filter stage 18 in order to suppress signals due to sensed radiation bursts and to eliminate the unwanted, dynamically varying background radiation portion of the signal present at node 17b. A processed output signal present at node 20i is then passed to a target detection processor (not shown).
4718205 DWELLING Lawrence H Taylor
CONSTRUCTION