Removable Basket Dissolver Reactor for Faster Filtration and Unloading
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing chemical reactors for recycling polymer-based articles with textiles or fibers face issues such as difficult and time-consuming loading and unloading, inefficient filtration, solvent retention, and fiber wrapping around agitators, leading to prolonged downtime and increased energy consumption.
Innovation Solution
A horizontal reactor design with a rotating cage and removable baskets, featuring multiple openings, allows for easy loading and unloading, efficient filtration, and centrifugal spin-drying, reducing solvent use and processing time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a vertical reactor with a central vertical stirrer and filter grid is used, then the reactor structure is simple, but the loading and unloading operations are time-consuming and difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The reactor is divided into functional segments: a stationary housing and a rotatable cage that can be independently removed. This segmentation allows the cage to be extracted through a reduced opening while the housing remains, enabling efficient loading and unloading without requiring the entire reactor to be opened.
Solution Approach 2:
The cage is designed to be rotatable on a horizontal axis and removable from the housing. This dynamic design allows the cage to be positioned for loading/unloading operations and then reinserted into the housing, transforming a static structure into a flexible system that reduces downtime.
2Device complexity
If a filter grid with small surface area is used, then the reactor structure is compact, but the liquid evacuation is inefficient and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The cage is equipped with multiple openings distributed across its structure, creating a porous configuration that allows efficient liquid passage. This porous design provides large filtration surface area while maintaining a compact overall structure, enabling rapid liquid evacuation without increasing structural complexity.
3Productivity
If fibers or textiles are present in the recycled articles, then the dissolution process can be performed, but the fibers wrap around the agitator requiring manual removal
Solution Approach 1:
The cage containing the fibers and textiles is extracted as a separate removable unit from the housing. This extraction prevents fibers from wrapping around agitators since the cage design eliminates traditional agitators, and allows the entire cage to be removed for easy fiber retrieval without manual unwrapping operations.
4Reliability
If the opening dimensions are reduced to address sealing problems, then the sealing is improved, but the loading and unloading operations become more difficult and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system is segmented into a stationary housing with a sealed opening and a separate removable cage. The housing maintains a reduced opening for reliable sealing, while the cage is designed to be easily inserted and removed through this opening, separating the sealing function from the loading/unloading function.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design enhances dissolution efficiency, reduces solvent usage, and minimizes downtime, providing economic and ecological benefits through faster operations and reduced energy consumption.
Implementation Method 1
The rotational drive of the rotating cage and of the removable basket allows for efficient centrifugal spin-drying.
Data Source
AI summary
A horizontal reactor equipped with a front cover and including a circular cylindrical rotating cage having multiple openings and rotated about a horizontal axis by a motor, a single horizontal rotary shaft mechanically connecting the rotating cage to the motor and extending towards the outside from the distal face of the housing, at least one bearing provided around the rotary shaft to hold it and guide it, and to support the weight of the rotating cage in cantilever, at least one removable basket having multiple openings and intended to be able to be introduced inside the rotating cage and to be removed through an open circular face of the rotating cage provided opposite the cover.