Tiltable Tissue Digester with Perforated Basket
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional tissue digestion methods require high temperatures and pressures, leading to increased safety risks, regulatory complexities, and higher operational costs, while also being less efficient and more complicated than needed for effective tissue disposal.
Innovation Solution
A tiltable tissue digester that operates at lower temperatures and pressures, using alkaline hydrolysis with a perforated basket and agitator, allowing for easy loading and digestion of carcasses, and consuming less power, with a propeller-driven mixer that eliminates the need for liquid pumps and immersed seals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional tissue digesters operate at high temperatures and pressures, then tissue digestion effectiveness is improved, but safety risks and regulatory complexities increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the operating parameters from high temperature and pressure to low temperature and pressure conditions. The tissue digester operates at atmospheric pressure and approximately 93.33°C (200°F), which is significantly lower than conventional high-temperature high-pressure systems, thereby reducing safety risks while maintaining digestion effectiveness through extended residence time and optimized alkaline hydrolysis conditions
2Reliability
If conventional tissue digesters operate at high temperatures and pressures, then tissue digestion effectiveness is improved, but operational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system reduces energy consumption by operating at lower temperatures and atmospheric pressure, eliminating the need for expensive pressure vessels and high-energy heating systems. The reduced power requirements allow connection to conventional power supplies, significantly lowering operational costs while maintaining complete tissue digestion through optimized process parameters
3Reliability
If conventional tissue digesters use circulation pumps and mixing jets, then tissue digestion effectiveness is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the complex circulation pump and immersed seal systems from the tissue digester. Instead of using mechanical pumps and jets, the system employs simple gravity-driven liquid flow and a basic propeller-driven mixer, dramatically reducing device complexity while maintaining effective tissue digestion through improved fluid dynamics and contact efficiency
4Ease of operation
If tissue is loaded horizontally into the digester, then loading ease is improved, but digestion efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic repositioning of the tissue digester from horizontal loading position to an inclined digestion position. The digester can be tilted at angles between 15-45 degrees during digestion, which improves tissue fragment movement toward the agitator and enhances digestion efficiency, while still allowing horizontal loading for ease of operation
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 method achieves complete tissue digestion at reduced energy consumption and operational costs, with safer conditions and less regulatory burden, while maintaining the effectiveness of traditional systems, allowing for faster and more efficient processing of human and animal tissues.
Implementation Method 1
Alkaline hydrolysis, which exposes the tissue to a strong alkaline (or base) solution, is a process used in many tissue digesters
Implementation Method 2
a propeller-driven mixer, which is not as failure-prone as traditional digesters using circulation pumps and mixing jets
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
Tissue digestion methods and apparatuses that provide easy, safe and inexpensive disposal of biological tissue, for example animal carcasses and human cadavers, are disclosed. Embodiments include tissue digesters with elongated cylindrical vessels for holding digestive fluid and baskets for holding tissue within said vessel. Embodiments include baskets with perforations to allow circulation of digestive fluid around and about the tissue. In one form the basket holding the tissue is horizontally loaded into a horizontally disposed vessel. The vessel is then tilted to a more vertical orientation. Gravity helps to collect the tissue fragments in a sloped collection region of the basket, which is located near a mixer to allow continual agitation of the tissue fragments as they are digested. The tissue digester can operate efficiently at lower temperature and pressures, is mechanically less complicated, consumes less power and is less expensive to manufacture than conventional tissue digesting systems. At higher temperatures employed in a pressure vessel provided by this invention, the tilting mechanism also dramatically improves the efficiency of the process and the completeness of the tissue digestion.