WO2018083517A1

WO2018083517A1 - Aerosol dismantling method

Info

Publication number: WO2018083517A1
Application number: PCT/IB2016/056592
Authority: WO
Inventors: Rogério DE CASTRO
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2016-11-02
Filing date: 2016-11-02
Publication date: 2018-05-11
Anticipated expiration: 2019-05-02

Abstract

Method for Energy Recovering Aerosol Cans Dismantling providing automatic feeding (1) and positioning (2) of the cans with automatic separation of the external materials and extraction and separation (3) of the inner material by means of the automatic cutting and detaching mechanical head providing separation of the main can body (35) from the flange (32), valve (31) and dip tube(34) or bag, automatic segregation of the extracted inner contents being fluid or solid sequentially and automatically consumed to generate electrical, thermal, mechanical or other exploitable form of energy, by means of external or internal combustion motors driving electrical generation units. The method also provides the option to store and or prepare the collected and segregated inner and outer materials for final destination or original reuse.

Description

Aerosol Dismantling Method

Method for Energy Recovering Aerosol Can Dismantling providing automatic feeding and positioning of the cans with automatic separation of the external materials as covers and triggers and extraction and separation of the inner material by means of the automatic cutting and detaching mechanical head providing automatic segregation of these extracted inner contents being fluid or solid sequentially and automatically consumed to generate electrical, thermal, mechanical or other exploitable form of energy. The method also provides the option to store and or prepare the collected and segregated material for final destination or original reuse.

The invention is related to the industrial energy usage improvement and general waste recovery valorization for reuse or recycling, as well the innovative method of use the potential energy of the cans contents for power generation, permitting a more viable process by the means of a dedicated specialized cutting head with specific mechanical positioning system.

Previous and existing methods for destination or destroying aerosol cans basically relies on shredding or crushing industrial procedures with post separation of gases, liquids, plastic and metallic material, requiring large amount of energy; or low efficiency piercing machines utilizing either low pressure hollow needles as per WO/1990/010507 (NUGUES FRANÇOIS) 20 September, 1990 (20.09.90), EP0416077 (NUGUES FRANÇOIS) 13 March, 1991 (13.03.91), US5341853 (NUGUES FRANÇOIS) 30 August, 1994 (30.08.94), page1, Abstract, using the internal original pressure to exhaust the inner material to a lower pressure chamber, or methods of one by one manually piercing the cans allowing the inner products to a drum under the piercing level mechanism, or methods using high pressure hollow needles piercing two aligned holes on the positioned cans, pushing the inner material with compressed air to a gravitational separation method. The ancient methods either treat the surrounding air and the resultant VOC, when existent, not allowing contact with the exterior environment, and or passing thru gas washing mechanism, and or passing thru activated coal filters, and or using another filtration method, storing the liquids and or the gases for treatment and possible reuse as intended originally, or for proper destination with intention to provide the pierced metallic cans still assembled to be recycled or reused, and or by simply dumping or burying all the material without any previous preparation or treatment.

Method for Energy Recovering Aerosol Can Dismantling providing automatic feeding and positioning of the cans, automatic separation of the external materials in plastic, metal, valve and flange components by means of the automatic cutting and detaching mechanical head and complete extraction of inner products providing automatic segregation of these extracted inner contents separated in liquids, gases and other material being fluid or solids sequentially and automatically consumed to generate electrical, thermal, mechanical or other exploitable form of energy. The method also provides the option to store and or prepare the collected and segregated material for final destination or original reuse.

An estimated quantity of 15.48 billion of aerosol cans were produced in 2015 in the world with an expectance of 21.66 billion for the year 2024 according to GVR-Grand View Research (2015), and other researchers and data gathering corporations on private or public releases including ABAS, Brazilian Aerosol and Household Cleaning Products Association. The majority of the aerosol cans are not properly treated or destined after use. The majority of these cans, either scrapped in production, scraped by usable date expiration or scraped after final use are sent or have direct or indirect ways to finish in landfills or general non prepared dumps as a final destination and become potential or real waste pollution, with a minimum quantity being prepared for and properly recycled. The necessary resources used on shredding recycling methods or the low productive capacity dismantling and destruction methods on several situations are prohibitive and on the majority known situations not cost effective and are commercially or financially unrealizable. Also the proposed approaches to hollow needle systems do not consider the variation on can format and sizes. Another list of possible methods to increasing in value the potential individual parts of an aerosol can, as much as the potential energy already part of the several arrangements and combinations are neglected or completely not addressed on the previous methods as: proper separation of the plastics, proper separation and preparation of the metallic compounds, use of the high quantity existent flammable gases and other components on the production or expired scraped aerosol cans or resilient flammable gases existent on used cans. None of the energetically usable potential of the dumped material is availed or exploited.

As per the application description, to solve the presented problem, the method applied, diminishes the operational costs by the smart specialized dedicated use of mechanical resources and increase of the process operational capacity by means of the automatic handling, decrease the necessary power for the process by means of mechanical dedicated unprecedented devices on unprecedented combination of devices, increase the added value of each recyclable components by the prepare of the main product for reuse or recycling as cutting and separating the flange, valve and dip tube from the main body of the set and use the full or resilient quantity of gases, liquids or solids to generate exploitable electrical, chemical, thermal or other power, being all these features effected with no direct human contact, inherently scalable and ecologically concerned. On the liquid gas separation chamber, with limited volume and controlled concentration, the resting time of the liquid portion is enough to allow most of the gases to finish separate from the inner compound and to allow part of the aerosol particulate separates gravitationally from the gases. keeping the mixture air and flammable gases always on a ratio lower than the L.E.L. (lower explosive limit) or higher than the H.E.L. (higher explosive limit), in the means of air movement control and volume of the pressure controlled separation chamber.

The invention has a list of advantageous effects by the following means: the automatic bulk feeding of the applied method avoid direct human contact with the aerosol cans from the beginning to the complete end of the process. The automatic sorting, positioning and extraction of the cover or trigger feature provides the automatic and immediate availability of separated recyclable plastics and other valuable material adding value to the component and to the productivity of the operation. The separation of the valve, crimp and dip tube or bag from the main metallic body by the means of the unique cutting head fed by the automated grippers also increases the added value of the metallic parts comparing with regular assembled pierced cans or particle shredded material. The mechanical approach, utilizing as few a number of motors as possible maximize the use of energy. The use of the remaining gases or other material to generate power taking advantage of the potential energy previously induced om the product contributes to the viability of the method. The whole combination of all features are more advantageous considering not only economic and financial aspects, but also and mainly the ecological and human aspect.

To clarify the intent and claims but not limiting it to the drawings:

FIG.1 represents the general view of the method showing all the flow and steps of the process as much as the unprecedented parts and unprecedented and existing arrange of the use of the parts.

FIG.2 shows a more detailed upper view of the cutting head set, featuring the double alternated automatic grippers, the cutting set, a fragment of the dripping grading and part of the post cut sorting device.

FIG.3 shows a lower view of the cutting head arrangement, detailing the cutting set, the mechanical opposite grippers and the cutting knives arrangement.

Fig.1

General view of the method main basic items and flow.

Fig.2

Upper view of the cutting head set.

Fig.3

Lower view of the cutting head set showing the knives arrangement.

Fig.4

Reference of typical aerosol can and basic parts.

The invention and its method allows by means of use automatic feeding (1), sorting and positioning method (2), the automatic previous removal, separation (3) and storage (4) of the plastic cover (30) or trigger of the aerosol cans, deliver the cans positioned upside (6) down to the cutting head (7) formed by two opposite specialized grippers (8) that sequentially feed many different models of cans, specifically between 35mm and 75mm diameter and 90mm to 330mm height, to a cutting head unit (9) where a special set of mechanically synchronized knifes (10) cuts out completely the upper part of the can and separate the neck, flange (32) , valve set (31) and dip tube or bag (34) from the main metallic body (35). The upper section of the aerosol is sectioned from the can is separated and directed by an oscillating sorter (13) to a specific storage bucket (14) while the separated upper main section of the bottle is sequentially pushed by the movement of the same sorter thru a dripping grading (15) and then to another specific bucket (16). The compound inner product formed by liquid and gases is expelled by the combination of the released internal pressure and gravity force at the moment of the upper part separation. The inner compound is then directed to a pressure controlled separation chamber (17) where the liquid rests on a low volume reservoir for a controlled time before being transferred by ways of pumping (18) or streaming to a remote higher volume reservoir (19). The combination of positive pressure fan and a low pressure chamber created by a low level vacuum pump (app. 0,5bar) (20) positioned at the end of the way directs the mixture of gas and particles in aerosol form back upwards thru the angled separation tube (21), composed by chicanery, baffles, honeycomb shaped passages and filters, forcing the denser particulate to a slower velocity and to fall dawn back to the separation chamber (17) thru a streaming gutter or to crash in to the baffles and separate from the gas. The gas is directed to a concentration camera (22) and to the energy processing chamber (23) where it is used in order to immediately generate energy by external combustion engines (24) connected to electrical generator (25) or directed to a storage tank (26) for posterior processing or possible use, including powering electricity generation assemblies (27) driven by regular gas internal combustion engines. Another aspect of the invention is that includes a feeding and elevator conveyor system (28) where the aerosol cans are automatically fed from bulk handling, pallet or other handling storing to a feeder that automatically sort and position (2) the bottles, extract and separate the cover (30) and or aerosol trigger and delivers the cans correctly positioned to the cutting head grippers (8) in a rate up to 1(one) per second and are than fed by the grippers (8) to the cutting head unit (7). Another aspect of the invention is the energy optimized aspect of the mechanical devices and equipment, including the elevator conveyor system (28), the initial sorter (2), the positioner (2), the grippers (8), the cutting head (7) and the post cut sorter (13) all designed to need the minimum amount of energy with the possibility of these featured movements being driven by a single specifically dimensioned electrical motor (29). According to Another aspect of the invention, after the cut of the upper part and separation of the inner part in gas and liquid, the gas is directed and used to generate energy by means of burning or by any other chemical reaction on the hot part of an electricity generator set (25) driven by external combustion type motor (24). The cold part of the external combustion type motor receives low temperature (5) surrounding air and cold air resultant from the emptying process, from the area close to the cutting head. The low temperature caused by the enthalpy of the expansion and or vaporization of the inner mixture entirely or partially in aerosol form is also used on the electricity generation process. Another aspect of the invention is to permit the capture, storage and possible treatment of the separated gases (26) to use in regular or specially prepared internal combustion engines connected to electricity generators (27). According to another aspect of the invention, the method is prepared and ready to be adapted to energy generation system using the heat cause by the combustion or chemical reaction of any of the elements inside or outside the aerosol cans as pressure, combustion gasses, liquefied gases, liquids, LNG, LPG and other combinations of Butane, Isobutane, Propane also commonly known in the area as BIP mixture, compressed air, N₂, CO₂, N₂O and any other energy serviceable compound in liquid, gaseous or solid state. According to another aspect of the invention it is naturally scalable, ready to grow in production capacity just multiplying the devices and features that are constructively ready for expansion.

Not Applicable.

The method and its unprecedented particulars are ready for use by any general industry that uses aerosol as retail or wholesale format to treat any nonconforming result of production right beside the production line. The method is also liable to be used by the general recycling industry, including cooperatives and other collector organizations.

Not applicable.

WO/1990/010507 (NUGUES FRANÇOIS) 20 September, 1990 (20.09.90).

EP0416077 (NUGUES FRANÇOIS) 13 March, 1991 (13.03.91).

US5341853 (NUGUES FRANÇOIS) 30 August, 1994 (30.08.94).

Not applicable.

Claims

Aerosol cans dismantling method with proper segregation and storage of all concerned single parts and use of the inner and outer material to generate power by means of electrical, chemical, thermal, mechanical or other form of energy use or transformation.
Method to execute the claim 1 including complete automatic operation from start to end, with no human interference, with elevator feeding system, automatic positioning and covers extraction and initial segregation device that separates the external parts and delivers the main aerosol can body to an automatic double gripper mechanical device that feeds a cutting head that separates the main body of the can from the upper neck formed by the flange, valve, dip tube and other not cited items, automatic separation of gases and liquids, as much automatic use of the gases or other fluids or solids to power generation or for storage.
Separation of the upper part and dip tube of the can from the main can body by means of mechanical cutting head formed by 6 synchronized knives driven by a single motor together with the feeding mechanical double gripper system.
The method of claim 3 further including the automatic separation of the upper and lower part of the aerosol can by means of mechanical oscillating sorting device.
The method of claim 3 including the invention allows the automatic process of variable sizes and format of cans with variable dimensions.
The method of claim 1, further including the use of an external combustion engine connected to an electrical generator for energy use.
The method of claim 1, further including the use of an internal combustion engine connected to an electrical generator for energy use.
The method of claim 2 further including the automatic separation of the inner elements in gases and liquids, by means of chicanery, baffles, honeycombs format passages and filters on an upward passage tubing having the air and gases moved by a combination of fan and vacuum pump.