FLUID-SOLID CONTACTING APPARATUS

摘要

An apparatus for continuous fluid-solid contacting includes a plurality of chambers (20) on a rotating carousel (30), each chamber having a supply conduit (22) and a discharge conduit (24), and a single valve (40) for controlling a supply and discharge of fluid to the chambers. The valve includes a stationary annular disk (50) having a plurality of conduits (44, 46) and a lower planar surface forming a disk valve face (54), and a rotatable annular plate (72) having an upper planar surface forming a plate valve face (74) and a plurality of holes (76) forming ports in the plate valve face. The plate is supported in pressurized contact with the disk valve. The frame supporting the chambers and the annular plate are rotated by separate devices. To ensure that the valve ports remain in rotational correspondence with the rotating chamber frame, the invention includes optical control for synchronizing the rotation of the frame and the rotation of the annular plate.