Hydraulic conveyor of floating objects provided with a device for sanitising conveying composition, plant provided with such a conveyor and sanitising method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10919785-B2
Application number	US-201716080124-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 24, 2017
Priority date	Feb 26, 2016
Publication date	Feb 16, 2021
Grant date	Feb 16, 2021

Abstract

A hydraulic conveyor for floating objects, having recirculation of a liquid composition, named conveying composition, for conveying the floating objects, includes at least one device for sanitizing the conveying composition. The sanitizing device includes: at least one device irradiating a composition, named composition to be sanitized, formed by mixing at least some of the conveying composition and an amount of a composition, named photoreactive composition, including at least one photosensitive compound that forms, under the effect of irradiation by the irradiation device, at least one compound, named active compound, transforming by chemical reaction at least one pollutant compound of the conveying composition into a non-pollutant compound; and at least two photolysis chambers mounted in series such that the composition to be sanitized can flow successively into the at least two photolysis chambers, at least one irradiation device being arranged in an inner volume of each photolysis chamber.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. Hydraulic conveyor for floating objects selected from the group formed of fruit and vegetables, of the type having recirculation of a liquid composition, named conveying composition, for conveying the floating objects, said hydraulic conveyor being provided with at least one device for sanitising said conveying composition;
wherein at least one sanitising device comprises:
at least two irradiation devices arranged to be able to irradiate a composition, named composition to be sanitised, formed by mixing at least some of said conveying composition and an amount of a composition, named photoreactive composition, comprising at least one photosensitive compound selected to be able to form, under the effect of irradiation by at least one irradiation device, at least one compound, named active compound, able to transform by chemical reaction at least one pollutant compound of said conveying composition into a non-pollutant compound; and
at least two photolysis chambers mounted in series such that said composition to be sanitised can flow successively into an inner volume of each of said at least two photolysis chambers, at least one irradiation device being arranged in the inner volume of each photolysis chamber, the hydraulic conveyor further comprises a device for mixing conveying composition and photoreactive composition upstream of the sanitising device.

2. Conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein at least one sanitising device is adapted to have a flow of composition to be sanitised pass through it and to allow the irradiation of the composition to be sanitised by at least one irradiation device between an inlet for a flow of composition to be sanitised drawn into a hydraulic channel of the conveyor, and an outlet for the flow of composition, named sanitised composition, directed towards a hydraulic channel of the conveyor.

3. Conveyor according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one circulation pump for composition to be sanitised formed from the conveying composition in the sanitising device.

4. Conveyor according to claim 1 , further comprising a pump for distributing photoreactive composition into said conveying composition.

5. Conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein in that at least one photolysis chamber is in the shape of a cylinder of revolution and includes a plurality of light sources in the form of tubes, each light source extending in parallel with the longitudinal axis of said photolysis chamber and facing one another, the plurality of light sources being distributed in said photolysis chamber so as to be positioned at the points of a regular polygon, as seen in any cross-section of said photolysis chamber.

6. Conveyor according to claim 5 , wherein the light sources of the plurality of light sources are uniformly distributed in the inner volume of said photolysis chamber.

7. Conveyor according to claim 5 , wherein the sanitising device comprises an inlet for photoreactive composition located upstream of a first chamber of the plurality of photolysis chambers.

8. Plant for sorting floating objects such as fruit or vegetables comprising at least one hydraulic conveyor according to claim 1 .

9. Method for sanitising a liquid composition, named conveying composition, for conveying floating objects selected from the group formed of fruit and vegetables, of a hydraulic conveyor of the type having recirculation of said conveying composition, wherein:
at least some of said conveying composition is mixed with an amount of composition, named photoreactive composition, comprising at least one photosensitive compound selected to be able to form, under the effect of irradiation by at least two irradiation device, at least one compound, named active compound, able to transform by chemical reaction at least one pollutant compound of said conveying composition into a non-pollutant compound; and
this mixture, named composition to be sanitised, is subjected to this irradiation so as to form an at least partially sanitised composition;

wherein said composition to be sanitised is subjected to this irradiation in a sanitising device which has a flow of said composition to be sanitised passing through it, the sanitising device comprising at least two photolysis chambers mounted in series such that said composition to be sanitised flows successively into an inner volume of each of said at least two photolysis chambers, at least one irradiation device being arranged in the inner volume of each photolysis chamber.

10. Method according to claim 9 , wherein at least one photosensitive compound is hydrogen peroxide.

11. Method according to claim 9 , wherein the irradiation is illumination by ultraviolet light radiation.

12. Method according to claim 9 , wherein the amount of said photoreactive composition and irradiation conditions are adapted such that said sanitised conveying composition has a residual amount of photosensitive compound which is less than a predetermined maximum amount allowed by regulations.

13. Method according to claim 9 , wherein at least one pollutant present in said conveying composition is a pesticide of the group formed of fungicides, bactericides and insecticides.

14. The conveyor of claim 5 , wherein each photolysis chamber is in the shape of a cylinder of revolution and includes a plurality of light sources in the form of tubes.

15. Conveyor according to claim 2 , further comprising at least one circulation pump for composition to be sanitised formed from the conveying composition in the sanitising device.

16. Conveyor according to claim 2 , further comprising a pump for distributing photoreactive composition into said conveying composition.

17. Conveyor according to claim 3 , further comprising a pump for distributing photoreactive composition into said conveying composition.

Assignees

• Maf Agrobotic
• Inst Nat Polytechnique Toulouse
• Centre Nat Rech Scient
• Univ Toulouse Iii—Paul Sabatier

Inventors

• Dueso Bernard
• Blanc Philippe
• Andriantsiferana Caroline
• Ayral Catherine
• Benoit-Marquie Florence
• Destrac Philippe
• Julcour Carine

Classifications

• B65G51/01 Primary

  Hydraulic transport of articles (B65G51/04 takes precedence; water roundabouts A63G3/00) · CPC title

• C02F2305/10

  Photocatalysts · CPC title

• C02F1/725

  by catalytic oxidation · CPC title

• C02F1/32

  with ultraviolet light · CPC title

• B65G2201/0211

  Fruits and vegetables · CPC title