Method of processing waste product into fuel

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/958,996, entitled Method of Processing Waste Product Into Fuel, filed Oct. 5, 2004, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/878,491 entitled Combustion Engine, filed Jun. 28, 2004 which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of Provisional Patent Application No. 60/545,841, filed Feb. 18, 2004; Provisional Patent Application No. 60/536,770, filed Jan. 15, 2004; and Provisional Patent Application No. 60/483,311, filed Jun. 27, 2003, the disclosures of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/958,996 also claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/561,128, filed Apr. 9, 2004, and is a continuation-in-part of International Application PCT/US03/17643, filed on Jun. 3, 2003, which claims the benefit of 60/385,710, filed Jun. 3, 2002; 60/388,067, filed Jun. 10, 2002; 60/391,702, filed Jun. 24, 2002; 60/411,138, filed Sep. 16, 2002; 60/422,949, filed Oct. 30, 2002; 60/424,388, filed Nov. 5, 2002; 60/427,516, filed Nov. 19, 2002; 60/429,644, filed Nov. 25, 2002; 60/433,526, filed Dec. 13, 2002; and 60/438,546, filed Jan. 7, 2003. All the above applications are herein expressly incorporated by reference in their entirety.

The present invention relates to a method of processing waste product into fuel.

The present invention relates to a method of processing organic waste product into a bio-fuel. The invention also relates to manufacture of an apparatus intended for use, for example, as the primary drive in any suitable vehicle, tractor, truck or boat. The invention also relates to a method of operation of an apparatus commonly known as an engine and most particularly, engines requiring fuel supply including gasoline (fossil fuel) and alternatively vegetable or biomass derived fuel burning engines. Existing engines in this field are most predominantly employed, as the installed drive means in personnel and goods transport vehicles. A purpose of this invention is to provide a more compact, lighter and more powerful engine with significantly improved fuel efficiency with the intent to enable easy replacement of the more complex and costly existing reciprocating gasoline engines presently used in most automotive applications.

Gasoline engines presently installed in automobiles and transport vehicles are inefficient in terms of energy conversion of ambient liquid (or natural gas) fossil fuel to usable energy. Such efficiency can be measured at less or not much more than 25% extraction of available energy from any given quantity of fuel (fossil fuel or otherwise). The present invention discloses an engine that may be capable of greater efficiency, such as significantly greater than 25%, such as 30%-70% efficiency, in terms of conversion of fuel to useable energy upon demand, particularly in vehicles intended for human and goods transport.

The use of fossil fuels is obviously limited by the availability of such natural resources. Costs associated with their mining refining and ultimate use, for simple energy production include losses associated with all aspects of mining and drilling recovery of the crude oils and natural gas, shipping (whether via installed pipeline or other means, which is typically fully dedicated, transport systems), environment deterioration due to oil spills at sea and on land and even wars. These costs are typically not factored into the total fuel costs but clearly they should be.

It is a purpose of this present invention to facilitate the most efficient use of fossil fuels, enable their dilution and assist in the ultimate displacement by renewable fuels such as vegetable or biomass derived fuels including hydrogen, ethanol and methanol. It is also intended that an engine formed in accordance with the present invention will be capable of operation using fuels that may, in the future, be produced from biomass sources with small fuel production facilities operated by farmers and/or present day, regional fuel distributors, close to the point of use, as opposed to the typically massive, centralized, crude oil (petroleum) refining and distilling plants.

Other interesting vehicles are now available such as the so called “hybrid” cars which have been developed to enable improved efficiencies in automobile operation. However, such new vehicles are not as efficient as they should be and typically consume fossil fuels by conversion to an electrical associated energy state. This method of energy conversion involves storage in a battery or as may otherwise be described, by chemical reaction in a batteries which contain environmentally hazardous acids. The chemical reaction in a battery is subsequently reversed to produce electricity which in turn is converted via electric motor means, to usable energy required to drive the hybrid vehicle. This approach may be more efficient than other gasoline consuming vehicles but it must be noted that each time the captured energy is converted into a different form, unavoidable inefficiencies result in unrecoverable energy loss. A purpose of this invention is to enable a direct and efficient conversion of the fuel energy source to a usable energy condition (i.e. a drive means) such as the means of driving a vehicle with reduced inefficiencies. In particular, the present invention enables conversion of a suitable fuel to a mechanical driving force, as required to power vehicle drive wheels, in the most direct and efficient manner.

It is a further purpose of this invention to enable manufacture of an engine that is simpler and less costly to produce, when compared to the presently and most commonly used internal combustion engine arrangement while still allowing ease of engine manufacture within the existing automotive manufacturing infrastructure. Even though the inevitable barrier of “control” by large automobile manufacturers operating in concert with large oil companies must be overcome, the benefits to society that may be available to society with an engine formed in accordance with the present invention should prevail.

Attempts to improve efficiency of fuel consumption in gasoline engines have been made and several inventions are disclosed in patents. Examples of engines, designed for the purpose of improved fuel consumption efficiency, are disclosed in the following U.S. Patents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,686, Inventor: Porter, K. W., Title: Constant Volume, Continuous External Combustion Rotary Engine With Piston Compressor And Expander; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,550, Inventor: Bryant, Clyde C., and Title: Internal Combustion Engine.

Methods associated with the torrefaction of wood is disclosed in the following US Patents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,978, Nov. 19, 1985; entitled “Process for Converting ligneous matter of vegetable origin by torrefaction and product obtained thereby”. Inventor Yvan; Schwob (Paris, FR); U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,917, Nov. 29, 1988; entitled “Methods for producing torrefied wood, product obtained thereby, and application to the production of energy”. Inventor; Leclerc de Bussy; Jacques (Bussy, F R); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,620, Sep. 4, 1990; entitled “Thermocondensed lignocellulose material, and a method and an oven for obtaining it”; Inventor; Bourgeois; Jean-Paul (Creteil, F R).

The subject matter of the above patents is hereby expressly incorporated by reference for all purposes.

The present invention includes a method of processing organic waste products into fuel and includes homogenizing the waste products. The waste products are heated and pressurized. Water is removed from the waste products. Selected constituent of the waste products are separated from the waste products into a waste stream. The waste stream is blended with a fuel to form a bio-fuel mixture.

The fuel may be transferred into a gasification vessel and converted to carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2) gases and then converted to a diesel fuel in a Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process.

Another embodiment of the present invention comprises an efficient and dimensionally compact revolving and rotary piston engine having a generally cylindrical external profile with a centrally disposed drive. A pair of central rotors or series of rotors having radial disposed cylinders are mounted to a relatively fixed drive. Pistons mate with corresponding cylinders and are attached to piston rods via suitable pins at a first end (small end) of the piston rods. The second ends of the piston rods (big ends) are attached by a pivoting pin to an outer ring. The “outer ring” encloses the pistons with rods attached thereto and the centrally disposed rotor. A variable capacity feature is enabled by an adjusting mechanism that allows the efficient conversion of a wide range of suitable fuels to energy as required in low speed, high torque or high speed, low torque conditions.

An engine formed in accordance with the present invention may be provided with any suitable method for temperature control and most preferably, be cooled by forced air and/or water, or suitable fluid medium enabling temperature control (TC), recirculation within an enclosed loop comprising a series of pressurized pipes with an integrated pumping means and heat exchanging means, such as a radiator. Such radiator may be provided with a suitable fan to force air, as required, with thermostatic water and air flow control arranged to maintain heat exchange across the radiator surfaces, thereby controlling temperature of the medium transferred through the radiator. In this configuration, ambient air may be in contact with the outer surfaces of the heat exchanger. With an engine formed in accordance with the present invention having a forced air cooling arrangement to control engine temperature, internal passages in the engine may be connected via a series of forced air inlet and outlet ducts to provide internal engine cooling as is well known in the art. Alternatively, other cooling means may be applied as should be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Furthermore, an engine formed in accordance with the present invention is designed to control the speed of a vehicle, not merely provide a means of forward or reverse drive. An engine formed in accordance with the present invention is arranged such that when the driven vehicle is braking or coasting down a hill the driving force provided by the engine combustion rotor is reduced and the stroke of the engine compressor rotor may be increased, thereby offering a controlled and adjustable resistance to the forward motion of the vehicle. This provides an inhibiting factor to the vehicle\'s forward motion which may be controlled to provide a steady speed, for example down a hill, or alternatively, causing the vehicle to slow and ultimately stop as may be required. The “resistance” or opposition provided by the engine\'s compressor rotor (and combustion rotor), to the forward movement of the subject vehicle is adjustable to a maximum degree beyond which standard vehicle disc or drum braking systems can be provided to stop the vehicle in any normal extreme or emergency. However, in most instances the forward acceleration, braking or reverse movement of the subject vehicle can be controlled completely by the engine and in such a manner that enables compressed air, created by the braking action, to be generated and conveniently stored in a suitable pressure vessel. Such stored compressed air can then be used as required to drive the vehicle in a selected direction which may be to assist the engine combustion rotor in providing drive to the vehicle in an uphill direction or perhaps during acceleration. In this manner, the efficiency of the vehicle is enhanced substantially. This and other aspects of An engine formed in accordance with the present invention are disclosed in further detail below.