Method for recovering volatile components from a solid

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9334172-B2
Application number	US-201514702944-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 4, 2015
Priority date	Jun 22, 2010
Publication date	May 10, 2016
Grant date	May 10, 2016

Abstract

In a method for recovering volatile components from a solid material, a liquid phase is mechanically removed from the solid material. Subsequently, the solid material is dried by exposing the solid material to superheated steam circulating in a closed circuit. From the closed circuit excess steam that contains volatile components given off by the solid material is removed. The volatile components are separated from the excess steam by condensing the excess steam to a condensed phase and the volatile components are from the condensed phase by adding suitable ions to the condensed phase to crystallize the volatile components.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising the steps of:
removing a liquid phase mechanically from a solid material of organic origin, wherein the solid material of organic origin is selected from the group consisting of manure, dung, digestates, and sewage sludge;
subsequently drying the solid material by exposing the solid material to superheated steam circulating in a closed circuit;
removing from the closed circuit excess steam that contains ammonia given off by the solid material;
separating the ammonia from the excess steam by condensing the excess steam to a condensed phase and recovering the ammonia from the condensed phase by adding suitable ions to the condensed phase to crystallize the ammonia from the condensed phase.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the solid material of organic origin is subjected to a biological pretreatment prior to drying.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the biological pretreatment is anaerobic.

Assignees

• Fraunhofer Ges Forschung
• Univ Stuttgart
• Fraunhofer Ges Zur Föderung Der Angewandten Forschung E V

Inventors

• Campos Alejandra
• Egner Siegfried
• Lohner Alexander
• Laopeamthong Sukhanes
• Stoll Maria Soledad

Classifications

• B01D53/1418

  Recovery of products · CPC title

• F26B25/006

  Separating volatiles, e.g. recovering solvents from dryer exhaust gases · CPC title

• B01D9/00

  Crystallisation (crystallisation directly from the vapour phase B01D7/02; making single crystals C30B {; crystallisation as part of the Bayer process also classified in C01F7/14}) · CPC title

• B01D3/38

  Steam distillation · CPC title

• B01D3/14 Primary

  Fractional distillation {or use of a fractionation or rectification column} · CPC title