CA1084420A - Means and method for disposing of fluid floating matter - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
A means and method for disposing of fluid floating matter which comprises; providing a recovery-separation tank with the surface of water inside lower than that of water outside, drawing in floating matter such as oil floating on the surface of the water outside the recovery-separation tank through an inlet of the recovery-separation tank, separating the floating matter and the water into layers which flow into the recovery-separation tank, and providing a drain pump which discharges the water lying in the lower portion of the recovery-separation tank.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE I~VENTION
The present invention relates to a means and method for disposing of fluid floating matter efficiently and properlyO
Conventionally> several means have been proposed to dis-pose of floating matter on waeer~ such as oil and red tide, which would cause ocean pollution and exext a harmful influence on the life of human beings. When the floating matter is oily matter such as discharged oils, some methods have been available for recovering it. Among these are the following:
(1) to treat the floating matter with a neutralizing agent;

(2) to absorb the floating matter into an absorbent and

(3) to pump the thickened layer of floating matter gathered by the aid of a spread-preventive barrier such as an oil fence.
These methods, however, have their own drawbacks when implementedO As for the method (1), a problem i8 that a huge amount of neutralizing agent has to be ready for use, and further-more the oil thus neutralized might cause secondary pollutionO
A~ for the method (2), it is very troubl2some to rid the absorbent of the discharged oil adhering to it, and thus repeated use of the absorbent renders it ineffective. Al~o, the rainbow-colored film re~ulting from ~mall amounts of di~charged oil also makes it impo~sible to adopt this method. In carrying out the method (3) with its advantage of feasibility in preventing the discharged oil from spreading over the surface, it was found that it gave rise to various kinds of problems in the proces~ of removing the discharged oil thus encircled. Since the use of either a neutralizing agent or an absorbent entail~ the difficulties men-tioned above, the method usually adopted i8 to gather the dis-charge oil into a smaller area by U3 ing a spread-preventive -- 1 -- .

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barrier, thus making the oil layer thick enough to get pumped by a special pump 3uch as a vacuum pump and a float-saxon type pump designed especially to be capable of pumping out only the layers near the surface of the water. In this method the difficulty i~ that the water surface 80 fluctuates with the waves which occur that it frequently happens that the pump takes in a large amount of water it should not, thus making it impossible for the thick-layered rainbow-colored film to be restoredO When the floating matter i8 of a kind other than an oily one such as red tide, the methods (2) and (3) to be used for oily matter are not any more effective in this case, and only the method (3) can be applied to such a limited extent that the oil fence can only keep the red tide from spreadingO So the important fact to be under-stood i~ that there has been virtually no effective means available to get rid of non-oil matter such as red tide.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention enable~ not only to recover the fluid floating matter to be removed, it also enables to remove and recover a larger amount of fluid floating matter through a continuou~ proce~sO The invention gives a high ratio of fluid floating matter to the water flowing in through the inlet, thus giving a higher removal and restoration efficiency, and it makes it possible to remove and re~tore the widely spreading fluid floating matter.
~ he invention allows a better condition of water and floating matter being segregated from each other in~ide the reCoVery-SQparation tankO More particularlyJ it i8 well designed to prevent the water and the floating matter from co-existing in emulsified condition for long period as a result of the floating ` ` - 10#44Z0 matter having interacted with the water when it waterfalls through the inletO
Another feature of the invention i~ that i~ is capable of forcing the emulsified fluid floating matter to float, making ea~ier the ~egregation of the water and of the fluid floating matter.
Still another feature of the invention is that the water to be returned outside the recovery-separation tank will contain as littl~ fluid floating matt~r as po~ible, 90 that it lead~
to the prevention of secondary pollution of the sea and to the prevention of accidental inflow of the fluid floating matter into ~:
the recovery-separation tank when the water level is lowered.
Another important feature of the invention i~ that by ~:
. giving mobility to the recovery-separation tank ths floating matter removal operation also is given mobility, thus making it r,' pos~ible to operate promptly at a location where the fluid float-ing matter is all over the water ~urfaceO
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BRI~F DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS .
: ~he invention will now be described with references to the attached drawings, in which:
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Fig. 1 i8 a sectional side elevation of a recovery-separation tank having a floating matter re~ervoir and provided in one of the preferred ambodimenta of the invention;

FigO 2 is a top view partly in section of the recovery-~eparation tank of FigO l;

FigO 3 is a sectional view taken on line X-X in Fig. 2;

FigO 4 i8 a sectional view taken on line Y-Y in FigO 2;

FigO 5 is a foreshortened ~chematic view in ~ide elevation - partly in section of a recovery-separation tank installed between . 3 :
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the hulls of a catamaran in one of the preferred embodiments of the invention;
Fig. 6 is a semi-diagrammatical top view of the recovery-separation tank showing the flow of the floating matter and of the water;
Fig.~7 is an expanded sectional view showing the flow of the floating matter and of the water in the recovery-separation tank when providing an arch-like convex on the inflow board according to another embodiment of the invention;
Fig. 8, found on the same sheet as Fig. 5, is a reduced scale schematic plan view showing the flow near the inlet of the recovery-separation tank;
Fig. 9 is a graphical respresentation of recovery-efficiency vs. thickness of oil layer, using the speed of a vessel as a parameter; ~ -Fig. lO is a graphical representation of recovery-efficiency v8~ thickness of oil layer, using the speed of a vessel as a parameter;
Fig. 10 is a graphical repre~entation of recovery-efficiency vs. wave height, using vessel speed as a parameter;
Fig. 11 is a reduced plan view according to a further embodiment of the invention in which a recovery-separation tank is installed in a barge;
Fig. 12 is a reduced scale top view of one of the embodiments of the invention in which the recovery-separation tank is installed in a small power boat;
; Fig. 13 i8 an enlarged scale top view partly in section showing a recovery-separation tank according to one of the embodiments of the invention in which the recovery-separation tank itself forms a recovery ~arge;

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Fig. 14 is an enlarged scale sectional view taken on the line z-z in Fig. 13;
Fig. 15 is a plan view showing a mode of applying the invention; and Figs. 16 through 22 are schematic representations showing further modes of applying the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
~REFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to Figures 1 - 8, a recovery-separation tank 2 has at its front an inlet 1 from which an inflow board

4 extendsforwardly; two separator plates 5, 5a parallel to each other and slanting downwardly are located inside of the inlet 1, and a grid for skimming debris may be provided in the inlet 1 when necessary. The tank 2 in this embodiment of the invention is of boat shape having a deck 6, and a floating matter reservoir 7 is provided at the rear and at each side of ~ ~-the tank 2.
Referring now to Fig. 5, the tank 2 is located be-tween th~5 hulls 3a, 3b of a catamaran 3 and is suspended from the hulls 3a, 3b by arms 9 each having one end connected to the side of the tank 2 and its other end is pivoted to a supporting member 8 on the catamaran 3. The tank 2 is capable of being ~-raised and lowered by turning a support axle 10,10 of the arm 9 by a crank mechanism 12 operated by a hydraulic cylinder 11.
Inside the tank 2, there are installed partitions 13a, 13b and baffle plates 14a, 14b with their surfaces facing per-pendicularly in the inflow direction of the floating matter A
30 tsee Figure 7) the top end of the partitions 13a, 13b being ;~ positioned adjacent the lower surface of the layer of floating matter~A, suchasoil introduced into the tank 2, and the top part of the baffle plates 14a, 14b being higher than the top ., :.

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~0844Z() end of the partitions 13a, 13b. The lower portion inside of the tank 2 is divided by the partitions 13a, 13b which have a flow port 15 at their lower ends, the flow ports 15 being at opposite ends of each partition 13 so that water B (e.g. sea water) entering with the floating matter flows in a zigzag path through these flow ports 15. The lower portions of each baffle plate 14a, 14b is open so as to regulate the current of the water B under the floating matter A. The arrow-headed solid lines in Fig. 6 and 7 indicate the flows in the water B
in the lower portion of the tank 2, while the arrow-headed chain lines indicate the flow of floating matter A in the upper portion of the tank 2. The separator plates 5, 5a ex-tend slanting downwardly from the inlet 1 toward th~ inside of the tank 2, forming the intermediate layer between the plates

5, 5a. Many tiny holes 16 about 1 cm in diameter are perfo-rated through the separator plates 5, 5a so as to introduce the floating matter A and the water B coming in from the inlet 1 in layers while keeping their stratified state, thus flush-ing down only the water B through the tiny holes 16 into the lower portion of the tank 2 and carrying the floating matter B along the separator plates 5, 5a into the upper portion of the tank 2, and preventing the floating matter from emulsify-ing due to impulsive stirring that occurs when the floating matter A rushes in from the surface of water outside the tank 2 in which the surface level Ll of the water is lower than the surface level L2 of the water outside the tank 2.
In this embodiment of the invention, an arrangement is shown in which two separator plates 5, 5a are provided.
However, only one separator plate may be sufficient to prevent emulsification, while a plurality of plates are also effective.

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The upper anti-emulsion plate 5 has holes 16 slightly larger than those of the lower one Sa so as better to separate the floating matter A from the water B.
A water chamber 17 is installed in the rear part of the tank 2 and a diaphragm 18 spans between the front wall of the chamber 17 and the adj~cent partition 13b with a slight slant downward from the lower end of the front wall to just above the flow port 15 of the partition 13b. The diaphragm 18 has a plurality of perforations 18a about 1 cm in diameter so as to prevent floating matter A from invading the chamber 17 through the water entrance 17a. Floating matter collection ports 19 are provided in the upper portion of the tank 2 so that the floating matter A overflows from the tank 2 into the reservoir 7 through the ports 19 past valves 20.
An opening 21 is provided at the rear of the deck 6 with its top end above the deck 6 and is divided into an open-ing 21a for removing the floating matter and an opening 21b for draining out the water, and is encircled by a wall 22 so that the top end of the opening 21 is above the surface level L2 of outside water. A floating matter suction pipe 23 connec-ted to a suction pump 25 is installed in the opening 21a, and a water drainage pipe 24 connected to a drain pump 26 is posi-tioned in the opening 21b. A filter 27 is attached in the drainage pipe 24.
An introducing plate 30 of arc-like section (see Figure 7) is preferably located on the inflow board 4 with a convex slope facing in the direction of the inflow of the , . ..

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water; it is supported by a counterplate 38.
When the catamaran goes about the area where reco-very of floating matter is required, the tank 2 is lowered by means of cylinder 11. A valve 29 is opened by turning a handle 28 to fill the tank with water to a prescribed level and on fixing the tank 2 at a depth such that the upper sur-face of the inflow board 4 comes beneath the surface level L2 of the outside water, the floating matter layer begins to flow into the tank 2, remaining stratified. During this procedure, the catamaran 3 remains stationary or proceeds at a low speed of about 0.5 to 1.5 knots to continuethe recovery operation.
The floating matter and the water in the tank 2 remain in layers due to the separating action of the plates 5, 5a which prevent the floating matter from emulsifying and from being ' vigorously mixed with the water as they cascade into the tank '!~ 2, thus the floating matter A and the water B are divided into upper and lower layers (see Figure 7). The layer of floating matter A in the upper portion of the tank 2 is forced to flow into the reservoir 7 through the collection port 19,19~ and the floating matter A in the reservoir 7 is sucked up by the suction pump 25 through the suction pipe 23 so as to be stored in a floating matter tank 31 provided in the hulls 3a, 3b of . .
the catamaran 3. The water B occupying the lower portion of the tank 2 is led to the chamber 17 provided at the rear of the tank 2 through the flow ports lS, 15 and is then sucked up by the drain pump 26 through the drainage pipe 24 and the filter 27, after which the water B is discharged. The reco-very-separation tank 2 is also equipped with a boundary detec-tor 32 to ascertain the boundary between the water and the .

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~0~44'~0 floating matter, a level detector 33 which reads the level of the surface of the floating matter, and a level detector 34 which detects the level of the surface of the floating matter inside the reservoir 7, and an oil densitometer 35 in the drain pipe 24.
Th~ the output of the detector 33 controls the drain pump 26 so as to keep the surface level of the tank within a specified range and at the same time the output of the detec-tors 32, 32 which are placed at two upper and lower positions in order to read the upper and the lower limits of the boundary, open the valves 20 so as to admit the floating matter A into the reservoir 7 through the collection port 19 when the thick-ness of the layer of the floating matter A becomes greater than a certain value (e.g. 100 mm) and closes the valve 20 when the thickness of the layer of the floating matter A becomes less than a certain value (e.g. 50 mm). For this operation the valves 20 may also be operated by handles 36, and the output of the detector 33 may control the opening and clo~ing of an outlet valve 37 so as to maintain the surface level (the level of the upper surface of the layer of floating matter A) within a prescribed range. The output of the detector 34 controls the suction pump 25, keeping the level of the floating matter A in the reservoir 7 within a specified range. For example, the suction pump 25 operates when the level of the floating matter A in reservoir 7 is greater than 1,100 mm and stops when it is less than 800 mm, thus reducing the fall of the floating matter A from the collection port 19 as much as pos-sible. During the recovery of floating oil on the surface of water, and if the oil densitometer 35 reads that the oil con-centration in the discharge water is above a prescribed value, , ~,,,,~r/ '~

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the cylinder 11 works to move down the tank 2 so as to drawin a greater amount of water through the inlet 1, thus lowe-ring the oil concentration, and the extra water introduced being discharged through the drainage pipe 24. The use of a method that processes appropriately the output signals of the detectors 32, 33, and 34 which monitor the degree of recovery and of separation may be utilized so as to vary the position of the lower edge of the inlet 1 (or that of the convex sur-face 30 of the inflow board 4) against the water surface level L2 outside the tank 2.
In the embodiment described above, the output signal from each detector is processed to alter the ratio between the ~ ;
amounts of water and of floating matter which flow in through the inlet 1 so that the floating matter can be recovered with improved efficiency.
Reference will next be made to the results of the experiments which have been conducted using models of the recovery-separation tank. The experiments were carried out to investigate (1) the capacity to draw in floating material; (2) -the amounts of material sinking beneath the tank rather than entering it, and the amount of oil that fails to enter it; (3 the distribution of the water flows inside the tank; (4) the affect on the water flows of the oil on the surface immediately before it enters the tank; and finally (5) recovery efficiency in respect of floating matter. The following are the conditions under which these indoor experiments were conducted~
The recovery-separation tank used was 10 meters long, 1.5 meter broad, 0.5 meter deep, and was made of iron-framed canvas. The catamaran was 1.9 meter long by 0.8 meter, each to a scale of ....................................................

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1 to 10 and i~ made from wood; the floating matter reservoir included in the tank iB 0045 meter long by 0.3 meter and is made of plastic, also to a scale of 1 to 10; the drain pump ha~
a pumping capacity of 12 liters/minO at its maximum efficiency;
and the suction pump ha~ a pumping capacity of 20 liters/minO
The one to ten scale was adopted for the height of waves to be produced by stirring the water with a board near the front edge of the experimental tankO In regard to the oil we u~ed a~ a model for the floating matter, we made a calculation to decide ~; 10 from the whole area of the experimental tank t8m X 105m) to determino the amount to be deposited so that the oil membrane to bo formed may ~e 1/10 as thick as it might be under real conditionsO Next we ~et the ~peed at which the model catamaran wa~ run to one tenth that of a real one, which we did by winding a rope around a turning drum in~talled in front of the tank and pulling the rope tied to the model catamaran in such a way that ~ the model could be drawn at a constant speedO The temperature ; at the time of the experiment was between 9 and 10 degre2s ~.
i Centigrade, and the water u~ed was clear water with its tempera-:. 20 ture kept at 7 degrees CentigradoO The above-mentioned oil used ~ a~ the flosting matter was A-crude oil at a temperature of 7 degree8 Centigrade and a specific weight of 0.8386, immiscible with water, kinematic viscosity at 2038 CstO visco~ity of 3107 Rw, pour point of l2.g, flush point of 85, less than Ool~ of .-- water content, OJO1% of ash content, 0081% of ~ulphur content, -. 0.07~ of residual car~on, and 105 calO of heat eapacityO

Firstly, we ~hall discus~ the re~ult~ gained a3 to -- lV1944Z() sucking capacity. This experiment, with a small amount of oil and saw dust cast in front of the inlet of the tank, wa~ con-ducted while the catamaran with it~ recovery-separation tank was kept stationaryO ~he drain pumps we used were the one of 12 lits/minO capacity (the real equivalent of which is 720M/H) and the one with 5 lits/minO capacity (the real equipment of which i 300 M/H)o And finally illustrated in FigO 7 i8 the way the ex-periment was carried out in which an arch-~haped bra~s board wa~
attached 80 as to create a convex member and it~ sloping surface in the direction of inflow proceededO Thi~ experiment was con-ditioned by the above stated specification. The other experiments were carried out only with the inflow board attachedO Therefore the e~ult~ obtained from this experiment were the measured time that the floating matter such a~ oil or a dust took to reach the inlet and the sucking capacity was calculated ba~ed on that.
Table 1 shows the result# of the experiment on tho ~ucking abilityO
And al80 indicated in the results shown on the Table 1 i~ that the floating matter was found being sucked into the inlet at a speed of more than 1 cm/secO and gave a good result of the floating matter being sucked and recovered, e~pecially when the arch-shaped ; introducing plate wa~ in~talled on the inflow boardO A great increase was ob~erved in the sucking rate. Al~o, it was found a~ to the material used for the inflow board and the introducing plate that brass or stainless steel is better ~uited than plastics.
It may be implied from this that we need to use a material with good corrosion re~i~tance, erosion resistance, and with a small friction factorO

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TABLE
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Capacity of Kinds of Time Remark~
Drain Pump Floating Required Matter . . .

12 ~/minO A-Crude Oil 1 min. 46 secO Flow Speed;
0.014 m/sec.
. . .. , 5 ~ minO A-Crude Oil 2 min. 13 sec. Plow Sp-ed;
0.011 m/~ec.
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12 ~/minO Saw Du~t 1 minO 43 sec.
. - . _ ,,_ 5 ~ minO Saw D~st 2 min. 10 sec.

5 ~ min. Saw Dust 1 minO 12 secO When attached an introducing plata which i~
arch-~haped in _ ~ection Next we go on to an experiment to observe the oil tend-inq to go down under the tank i~msdiately beforo it~ entry into . .
the tank or to be diverted to mi~ the inlet. This experim~nt wa~ done in ~uch a way that we could see if the floating matter (such as oil) flowing along the oblique counter plato set und~r the front part of the tank and if the floating matter iff diverted and driftJ off to both ~ides of the catamaran, the height of tho waves in the experimental tank was set at 105 cm (the roal equiva-lent of which ~ 30 om) and with a large dose of ~aw dust ca~t in, tho speed of each of two hulls wa~ set respectively at O m/eec.
0.026 m/sec. (the real equivalent of which i~ 005 knots),O0051 m/secO(the real equivalent of whi~h i~ 1 knot),O026 m/secO(the real equival~nt of which is 5 knots),and 0051 m/sec. (the roal ; equivalent of which is 10 knot~ And it was carried out with the uso of a drain pump for water which had a capacity of 5 lits/min.

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None of these experiments showedthat any diversion or sinking of the water was occurring. A spray of floating matter from the water resulted however in unsatisfactory data on recovery-efficiency. These speeds represent from 5 to 10 knots in real conditions, whereas in fact on actual recovery operation is conducted at slower speeds of from 0.5 knot to 1 knot. It seems very unlikely that the above-mentioned scattering of the floating matter would take place if we take into account the fact that a real tank would be 10 times bigger than the experi-mental model one. Fig. 7 shows the distribution of the flowsbelow the water as well as in the floating matter in the experi-ment (3). The flows were observed with the 10 lits/min. capa-city (the real equivalent of which is 600 M3H) drain pump and with the help of several strings attached to the various parts of the tank to see the distribution of the currents, the arrows in solid lines show the direction of flow in the water and the arrows in broken lines showing the flows in the floating matter.
Thus, in this experiment, the deflection caused by the two partitions and their flow ports is such that the lower part of ~ -the tank sees a zig-zag flow. And as is obvious from the illustration, the two partitions and the baffle plates with the strings on them floating upward show how the residual floating matter in water is encouraged to flow upward into the floating layer. Thus flow indicater above the bottoms of the diaphragm !

18 is directed upward so that it is clear that floating matter is unlikely accidentally to flow through the diaphragm into the water chamber 17 and therefore no floating matter will be found in the water drained from chamber 17. The distribution of the flows in front of the inlet in the experiment (4) is as shown in Fig. 8. This indicates that the flow is most rapid near the bows of the catamaran and it was observed that there was considerable suction around the .........................

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- 10~44Z0 reflecting gunwales of each bow of the catamaran and it was also discovered that it would gain a higher speed of flow if we put the convex on the inflow board to form an introducing bulge. The Table 2 shows the results obtained in the experiment (5), the values in parantheses representing those converted into actual values. Also Fig. 9 illustrates recovery-efficiency plotted against the oil layer thickness, and Fig. 10 illustrates r~covery-efficiency plotted against the height of the waves. In Figs. 9 and 10, the values used are all converted into actual ones. Therefore these ex~eriments prove that an increase in the speed of the catamaran or the oil-layer thickness might not only bring the expected result of having an increased recovery efficiency. This demonstrated that the higher the waves become the better recovery efficiency i9 obtained, which might as well be considered to be characteristics. This can be interpreted as a good recovery efficiency due to the increase in speed resulting from the alternative action that the floating matter piled up on the inflow board at the time of wave rise flows into the tank at following wave shrink.
But an exceptional case was observed when the height of the waves read 60 cm so that interference among the waves inside the tank took place and resulted in less efficiency in the recovery.
It i8 deduced that high efficiency will be obtained when the capacity of the drain pump is boosted as when the vessels are moving at a higher rate or the waves are high. To add to it, the experiments as shown in Fig~. 9 and 10 were performed with the use of a drain pump capable of draining 5 lts/min. (the real equivalent of which is 300 M/H) which was kept constant, and the amount it says was recover-ed was not the one actually recovered, but the one calculated back based on the gross amount of the floating matter (crude oil) and . .

~ - 15 -0~344ZO

the thickness of the layer which was formed by the floating matter inside the tank.

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10#44Z0 FigO 11 ~hows another embodlment of the invention wherein the recovery-~eparation tank 2 is incorporated into a barge 70 that has a floating matter ~torage pool 31, with the inlet of the tank 2 located at the middle front of the barge 70, a suction pump 25 installed on the barge 70 tran~fers the floating matter from the tank 2 to the pool 31, while a drain pump 26 installed on the bargo 70 drains out the water occupying a wator chamber 170 ~his embodiment differ~ from the above-mentioned embodiment in that the tank 2 i9 secur2d to the barge 700 However, controlling the amount~ of feeding water with a ballast tank 71 enables the draught of the barge 70 to vary, thus raising and dropping the inlet 1 arbitrarily again3t the level of the water outside the tank 20 In FigO 11 there also are shown a bridge 72 and an engine room 730 Referring now to FigD 12 there i8 shown a further embodi-ment o~ the invention wherein the recovery-separation tank 2 i3 providod in the cutaway portion on the forward left side of a relatively small power boat 74 which has a floating matter storage pool 31. The floating matter to be transferred from the reservoir 7 iB selectively gath~red through a shifting pipe 76 into the pool 31 by means of valves 77, 770 The boat 74 is also provided with a bridge 78 and with a chLmney 79 for discharging the ex-hau~t gas from the engine 75O In addition to that, the tank 2 : shown in Pig~ 12 may be 80 constructed as to ri~e and fall arbitrarily from the boat 74 a~ is described in connection with the embodiment ~hown in FigO 5, or the boat 74 may be ~o con-structed as to alter it~ draught a~ in the ambodiment shown in Fig. llo FigO 13 and Fig~ 14 show one of the preferred embodi-ments of the invention in which the tank 2, the reservoir 7, and 10844Z() a buoyancy chamber 39 are incorporated into a recovery barge 50 ~o that the tank 2 itself can floatO An arch-shaped convex : ::
~ection provided on the upper ~urface of the inflaw board 4 ex-tends forwardly from the upper end of an elevator 40 which is capable of going up and down with the result that the inflow ~-board 4 united with the elevator 40 can be moved up and down ~;
arbitrarily by turning a handle 41, that i8, the turn of the ~:
handle 41 i8 reduced by a reduction gear 42 ~o as to drive the elevatos 40 and the inflow board 4 up and downO In addition to this manual operation, a power ~ource ~uch a~ an slectric motor which enables the elevator 40 and the inflow board 4 to ri~e and fall may be utilized; the motor may be controlled by :
the output signal of the detector 32, 33, 34, and of the don~
tometer 350 In Fige. 13 and 14, there al~o are ~hown a vent duct 44, a parting strip 45 dividing the buoyancy chamber 39, an entrance board 46 ~upported by a prop 47, and an anti-rolling member 48 detachably connected by a leg 49 to each side of the recovery barge 50. Unfolding a lid 51 with a handle 52 makes the opening 21a, 21b wide enough to install an extra pipe and a pump adding to the suction pipe 23 and the drainage pipe 240 Lattice plate~
83, 84 are provided at the front of the deck 6 ~o a~ to get rid of the du~t and of drifting wood coming from the deck 6, and manhole~ 53 are provided in the middle of the tank 2 through the deck 60 Other arrangements are as described in the embodiment illustrated in FigsO 1 through 40 In the above-mentioned embodi-ment the elevator 40 also i~ used to ~hut off entirely the in-let 1 for preventing the inflow of water and of floating mattesO

, ~

Referring now to Fig~ 15, two tug boats 54, 54 tow the : -recovery skiff 50 by mean~ of oil fences and tow a container 56 which is linked with the tug boat~ 54, 54 by cables 57, 570 The ~uction pump 25 for sucking up the floating matter and the drain pump 26 for draining out the water are installed in the container 56; also the floating matter pool 31 i8 built in~ide the container 560 The oil fences 55, 55 fan out from the re-covery barge 50 toward the tug boat~ 54, 54,with their rear ends coupled to connecting holes 58 on the forward side~ of the re-covery barge 500 Fig~. 16 and 17 ~how embodiments of the invention in which the recovery barge 50 i8 driven by a ~elf-propelled con-tainer 59 which ha~ a floating matter pool 31 along with the ~uction pump 25 and the drain pump 260 In Fig~O 18 and 19, the recovery barge 50 held ~tationary by an anchor or the like at the pivot part of the oil fence~
fanning out forwardly, and is supplied with power by an electric power line 60 from an electric source equipped in a small self-propelled container 59 80 as to gathler the floating matter into the pool 31 through the ~uction pipe 23 (shown in FigO 18)o .Or the recovery barge 50 may be supplied with power from an elec~ric - power ve~sel 61 80 a~ to gather the floating matter through the suction pipe 23 by means of the ~uction pump 25 and the drain pump 26 provided in the recovery barge 50 it~elf which tran~fer the floating matter and discharge the ater, re~pectively. Al~o the recovery barge 50 i~ connected to a water container 62 for ~toring the water di~charged and to a floating matter container - 63 for ~toring the floating matter removed, thu~ enabling the récovery barge 50 to recover a great deal of floating matter due ; - 23 -to the increase in ability to drain.out the water and the .~.
floating matter, (shown in FigO l9)o Therefore, the use of ~ :
this means re~ults in a continuou recovery operation becau~e the :.
container 56 is capable of being substituted by another container 5Ç when the pool 31 becomes full of floating ~atterO ~.
Fig. 20 show~ another embodiment of the inventionO In thi~ embodiment the recovery barge 50 attached to a ~mall power boat 65 is located near a shore 64 together with oil fences 55, 55 80 as to prevent seconaary pollution. In FigO 21 the 10 recovery barge 50 i8 stationed or moved about along the shore ...
64 in order to perform a recovery operationO In the embodiments of Fig~O 20 and 21, the suction pipe 23 may be connected to the floating matter pool 31 which i~ installed on the ground, thus resulting in hiyh recovery capacityO
Referrlng now to FigO 22, the tank 2 i~ located between the ~hores 82, 82 of a river or canal with its front facing upstreamO Oil fonce~ 81, 81 span from the inlet 1 of the tank 2 to each hore 82 ao as to catch the floating matter on the waterO Al~o the tank 2 may be installed on the bottom or at a floodgate in the river or the canalO
Although illustrative embodiments of this invention hav~
boen described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, it i~ to be understood that the invention i~ not limited to those specific embodiments, and that variou~ change~
and modification~ may be effected therein by one skilled in the ..
art without departing fro~ the spirit of the invention or the - scope of the claims~
. , .
:' : , , , , . . . . -

Claims (5)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. Apparatus for removing fluent floating matter on a body of water, the apparatus comprising a floatable vessel; a recovery/separation tank in the vessel, inlet means at the front of the recovery/separation tank for drawing in the floating matter on the surface of the water outside the tank using a difference in level between the surface inside the tank and that of the outside water, the inlet leading to the recovery/separation tank; a water chamber adjacent to the recovery/separation tank for storing the water which settles out in a lower portion of the recovery/separation tank through a water entrance opening into a lower part of the water chamber, a reservoir adjacent to the recovery/separation tank for sto-ring floating matter overflowing therefrom; first pump means for discharging water from the water chamber and lowering the level of the surface inside of the tank; second pump means for removing floating matter from the fluid reservoir; and a plurality of normally submerged vertical plate means for defi-ning an extended flow path for the water through the lower portion of the tank to the water entrance without extending the flow path of the floating matter through an upper portion of the tank to the reservoir and producing a quiescent zone in the water in the middle portion of the tank beneath the floating matter.

2. Apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein the ver-tical plate means include longitudinally-spaced, vertical par-titions which divide the inside of the recovery/separation tank, the upper ends of the partitions being, in use, adjacent the lower surface of the layer of the floating fluid, the partitions being connected to a bottom wall of the tank, each partition having a flow port at a lower region thereof, alternate flow ports being at opposite sides of the tank so as to define a sinuous flow path for the water through successive sections of the lower part of the tank.

3. Apparatus according to Claim 2, fur her including baffle plates which are substantially parallel to each other and further divide the inside of the recovery/separation tank between the partitions, a lower end portion of each of the baffles being spaced from the bottom wall of the tank.

4. An arrangement for disposing of fluid floating on a body of water comprising:
(a) a vessel which can float;
(b) a fluid-containing recovery/separation tank in said vessel with a fluid surface lower than that of the outside water;
(c) inlet means at the front of the recovery/
separation tank for drawing in fluid floating on the surface of the water outside, said inlet means leading to the recovery/
separation tank;
(d) separator plate means extending from below the inlet means downwardly into the recovery/separation tank, said plate means having many tiny holes so as to allow water to run through in the direction of thickness thereof and floating fluid to flow along the surface thereof;
(e) a water chamber at the rear of the recovery/
separation tank for storing the water running from the lower portion of the recovery/separation tank through a water en-trance opening into the lower part of the water chamber;
(f) a floating fluid reservoir adjacent to the recovery/separation tank for storing floating fluid overflow-ing therefrom;
(g) drain pump means which discharges water from the water chamber;
(h) suction pump means which removes the floating fluid from the floating fluid reservoir;

(i) means in the recovery/separation tank for sepa-rating the floating matter and the water into layers, said means defining a quiescent region under the layer of floating fluid, a lower elongated travel path and an upper shorter path so as to elongate the flow path of the water running in the lower portion of the recovery/separation tank to said drain pump without extending the flow path of the floating fluid to said floating fluid reservoir whilst maintaining a quiescent region therebetween, said travel path defining means including a plurality of submerged vertical members comprising alterna-tively partitions connected to the bottom of said recovery/
separation tank and baffle plates spaced above the bottom of said tank and so located between said inlet means at the one end of said tank and the water chamber and the floating fluid reservoir at the other end of said tank as to cause a zig-zag flow of water through the lower separator of said tank.

5. An arrangement according to Claim 1, wherein the separator plate means comprises a plurality of superposed separator plates, the holes in a lower separator plate being smaller than those of an upper one.