Methods and Device for Low Contamination Energy Generation

• US 20120036832A1
• Filed: 11/23/2009
• Published: 02/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clean Marine AS
• Original Assignee: Clean Marine AS
• Inventors: Eyal, Aharon M., Canari, Riki, Hoy-Petersen, Nils Christian
• Granted Patent: US 9,157,360 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 60/274
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 45/12 by centrifugal forces centrifuges B04B; cyclones B04C
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 47/06 Spray cleaning
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 50/40 Combinations of devices covered by groups B01D45/00 and B01D47/00
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 13/004 specially adapted for marine propulsion, i.e. for receiving simultaneously engine exhaust gases and engine cooling water for submerged exhausting F01N13/12; treating exhaust by using liquids F01N3/04
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 3/037 by means of inertial or centrifugal separators, e.g. of cyclone type, optionally combined or associated with agglomerators
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 3/04 using liquids
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 29/0437 Liquid cooled heat exchangers
• CPC Class Codes: F02M 26/35 with means for cleaning or treating the recirculated gases, e.g. catalysts, condensate traps, particle filters or heaters
• CPC Class Codes: F02M 26/37 with temporary storage of recirculated exhaust gas internal exhaust gas recirculation F02M26/01
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/12 Improving ICE efficiencies

Abstract

A method for low-contamination generation of energy comprising: (a) forming a gas mixture by mixing a treated gaseous effluent stream and air; (b) introducing the gas mixture and fuel at a given gas to fuel ratio into at least one diesel engine (3); (c) burning the fuel in the diesel engine to generate energy and a flue gas stream comprising particulate matter (PM), and nitrogen oxides (NOx); (d) treating at least a portion of the flue gas stream with an aqueous stream in a cyclone unit (27) comprising a housing defined by a cylindrical peripheral wall (2) and provided with at least one inlet opening (10) for receiving flue gas and at least one inlet opening for receiving fluids thereinto and with at least one swirling means, whereby a treated gaseous effluent stream and an aqueous effluent stream are formed; (e) emitting a portion of the treated gaseous effluent stream to form an emitted portion; (f) using a portion of the treated gaseous effluent stream to form the gas mixture, and (g) repeating steps (a) through (f) multiple times;

Claims

1. A method for low-contamination generation of energy comprising:

(a) forming a gas mixture by mixing a treated gaseous effluent stream and air;

(b) introducing said gas mixture and fuel at a given gas to fuel ratio into at least one diesel engine;

(c) burning said fuel in said diesel engine to generate energy and a flue gas stream comprising particulate matter (PM), and nitrogen oxides (NOx);

(d) treating at least a portion of said flue gas stream with an aqueous stream in a cyclone unit comprising a housing defined by a cylindrical peripheral wall and provided with at least one inlet opening for receiving flue gas and at least one inlet opening for receiving fluids thereinto and with at least one swirling means, and wherein said cyclone unit is characterized in that the velocity of said flue gas stream inside said cyclone unit is between 20 m/sec and 120 m/sec, whereby a treated gaseous effluent stream and an aqueous effluent stream are formed;

(e) emitting a portion of said treated gaseous effluent stream to form an emitted portion;

(f) using a portion of said treated gaseous effluent stream to form said gas mixture, and

(g) repeating steps (a) through (f) multiple times;

whereby said emitted portion has reduced PM, and reduced NOx content when compared with a reference gaseous effluent stream formed by standard burning of the same fuel in an identical engine to which air and fuel are provided in the same given gas to fuel ratio as above.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said engine is a turbo-charged marine diesel engine.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that said NOx content in said emitted portion is reduced by at least 50% when compared with said reference gaseous effluent stream.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that said PM content in said emitted portion is reduced by at least 60% when compared with said reference gaseous effluent stream.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said fuel comprises sulphur compounds and wherein said flue gas stream of step (c) comprises sulphur oxides (SOx), characterized in that said SOx content in said emitted portion is reduced by at least 90% when compared with said reference gaseous effluent stream.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said fuel is a fuel oil.

7. The fuel according to claim 6, wherein the fuel is in accordance with ISO fuel standard 8217.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein said fuel is a HFO

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said treated gaseous effluent stream forms between 10% and 40% (v/v) of said gas mixture.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein said portion of said treated gaseous effluent stream is not filtered prior to mixing with air to form said gas mixture.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein said swirling means comprises a plurality of vanes, said vanes being arranged regularly along a circular path, tangentially with respect thereto and passages are formed by open spaces between adjacent vanes.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one aqueous stream is contacted with said flue gas stream to form said treated gaseous effluent stream and an aqueous effluent stream.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein at least one aqueous stream is contacted with said flue gas stream, prior to treating said stream in said cyclone unit and wherein the ratio between said aqueous stream and said flue gas stream is in a range between 3 and 100 gram per Nm³ of said flue gas stream.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein at least one aqueous stream is contacted with said flue gas stream in said cyclone unit and wherein the ratio between said aqueous stream and said flue gas stream is in a range between 1 Kg per 1 Nm³ and 2.5 Kg per 1Nm³.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein said aqueous stream is selected from the group consisting of water, steam, aqueous solutions, sea water, NaOH-comprising aqueous solution, waste water, bisulfite aqueous solution and basic aqueous solutions and combinations thereof.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein said treating is conducted in multiple cyclone units.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the temperature and composition of said portion of said treated gaseous effluent stream is adjusted prior to said emitting.

18. A method according to claim 1, wherein said aqueous effluent stream is discharged, further comprising a step of adjusting at least one of the temperature and composition of said aqueous effluent stream before discharge or simultaneously with it.

19. The method according to claim 17 wherein adjusting said portion of treated gaseous effluent stream comprises controlling at least one of the parameters selected from a group consisting of pH, temperature and reducing the content of at least one of sulfur compounds, oil, odor molecules, toxic metals, particles, soot, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), nitrogen oxides and CO₂.

20. The method according to claim 1, wherein said diesel engine is one of a group of engines, each of which generating energy and a flue gas, further comprising combining flue gases of multiple engines for said treating in step (d).

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein flue gases of all of said engines are combined for said treating in step (d).

22. The method according to claim 20, wherein said unit of step (d) comprises an exhaust collecting hat element, wherein said combining is conducted.

23. The method according to claim 20, wherein said group of engines operate on board of a ship.

24. The method according to claim 1, wherein said flue gas stream generated in step (c) is at a temperature in a range between 180 and 300°

C.

25. The method according to claim 1, wherein said treated gaseous effluent stream of step (d) is at a temperature in a range between 40 and 60°

C.

26. The method according to claim 1, wherein said treated gaseous effluent stream of step (d) is further treated for reducing moisture and temperature before using to form said gas mixture.

27. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of compressing said gas mixture prior to introducing said mixture into said engine.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein said compressing is to a pressure in a range between 1 bar and 3 bars.

29. The method according to claim 27, wherein said compressing is conducted at least partially by a turbo charger compressor.

30. A device for low-contamination generation of energy from fuel comprising:

(a) at least one diesel engine, which burns fuel and concurrently generates a flue gas;

(b) a cyclone unit for treating said flue gas, operationally connected thereto, said cyclone unit comprising a housing defined by a cylindrical peripheral wall and provided with at least one inlet opening for receiving flue gas and at least one inlet opening for receiving fluids thereinto and with at least one swirling means, and wherein said cyclone unit is characterized in that the velocity of said flue gas stream inside said cyclone unit is between 20 m/sec and 120 m/sec preferably between 60-100 m/sec and whereby treating said flue gas generates a treated gaseous effluent stream and a aqueous effluent stream;

(c) a mixer which mixes said treated gaseous effluent stream and air to form a gas mixture; and

(d) a shunt for directing said gas mixture to said diesel engine.

31. A device according to claim 30, further comprising at least one of:

a. a turbo charger;

b. a flue gas collector hat operationally connected to two or more diesel engines such that flue gas steams generated by each engine is shunted to said collector hat;

c. an exhaust fan;

d. a clean flue gas uptake device

e. a collecting tank for said treated gaseous effluent stream;

f. a unit for treating said aqueous effluent stream; and

g. a pumping unit supplying a water solution or sodium hydroxide to said cyclone unit.

32. A device according to claim 31, further comprising at least one of:

a. a regulation device for maintaining level pressure in said collecting tank and in an engine room;

b. a regulation device for said mixing means;

c. a self adjusting recirculation device for said treated gaseous stream; and

d. a regulation device for said pumping unit

33. A method for low-contamination generation of energy from fuel comprising

e. providing a device comprising:

at least one diesel engine which burns fuel and concurrently generates a flue gas;

a cyclone unit for treating said flue gas, operationally connected thereto, said cyclone unit comprising a housing defined by a cylindrical peripheral wall and provided with at least one inlet opening for receiving flue gas and at least one inlet opening for receiving fluids thereinto and with at least one swirling means, and wherein said cyclone unit is characterized in that the velocity of said flue gas stream inside said cyclone unit is between 20 m/sec and 120 m/sec preferably between 60-100 m/sec and whereby treating said flue gas generates a treated gaseous effluent stream and an aqueous stream;

a mixer for mixing said treated gaseous effluent stream with air to form a gas mixture; and

a shunt for directing said gas mixture to said diesel engine.

f. forming a gas mixture by mixing a treated gaseous effluent stream and air in said mixer;

g. introducing said gas mixture and fuel in a given gas to fuel ratio to said at least one diesel engine;

h. burning said fuel in said engine to generate energy and a flue gas stream comprising particulate matter (PM), and nitrogen oxides (NOx);

i. treating at least a portion of said flue gas stream in said cyclone unit whereby a treated gaseous effluent stream is formed;

j. emitting a first portion of said treated gaseous effluent stream to form an emitted portion;

g. using a portion of said treated gaseous effluent stream to form said gas mixture wherein said treated gaseous effluent stream forms between 10% and 40% by volume of said mixture; and

k. repeating steps (a) through (g) multiple times;

whereby said emitted portion has reduced PM, and reduced NOx content when compared with a reference gaseous effluent stream formed by standard burning of the same fuel in an identical engine to which air and fuel are provided in the same given gas to fuel ratio as above.