The
McCutchen Process(TM), developed by Wilmot H. McCutchen, centrifugally separates a
fluid mixture using vortices created in high shear between axially fed
counter-rotating disk impellers. Numerous patent-pending uses of the McCutchen
Processor(TM), under exclusive license to Vorsana, include mechanical desalination, oil processing, wastewater treatment,
separation of gases, liquids and solids, and mechanical carbon capture and
scrubbing of flue gas.The device is
simple, inexpensive and scalable.
The
McCutchen Processor makes use of radial counterflow.The fluid mixture feed comes in continuously at
the axis of rotation, and divergent heavy and light fraction streams emerge
from the space between the disks, separated by a myriad of vortices induced by
the disk impellers.The vortices, both
large and small, form in the shear layer between the disks in a branching,
radial tree of organized turbulence. The
g force for separation is extremely high because the vortex radii are small,
and for each rotation of the impellers, the vortices rotate many times.As the fluid mixture is spun at high speed in
the vortices, centrifugal force moves heavy fractions toward the outside of the
vortices and away from the axis of rotation, while light fractions remain
inside the vortices, and are sucked inward by an axial pump.Vortex axis stretching, due to the axial
pump, tightens the vortices, increases the g force, and maintains the coherence
of the radial tree of low pressure gradients.The separation effects of even the tiniest vortices flow inward along
the radial tree, to be gathered together in the central axial pump.
A
shrouding tank at the periphery of the disks collects the heavy fractions that
remain.The shrouding tank also causes back
pressure, impeding the outward centrifugal flow of the feed, and providing a
long residence time for centrifugal separation and scrubbing in high turbulence
between the disks.This back pressure
also helps drive the radial inward flow of light fractions through the vortex
cores toward the axis of rotation.If the
radial vortices meet impedance at the periphery, rebound jets also push back
through the vortex cores due to the so-called vortex-wall interaction.The feed mixture is thus made to be essentially
porous, because of the high shear vortices in combination with axial suction
and back pressure, and pulled apart into its constituent parts without the use
of added heat, chemicals, or dead-end filters.
Light fractions (such as nitrogen in flue gas,
fresh water in desalination, light oil in oil processing) go radially inward to
the axial pump, and heavy fractions (such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide
in flue gas, concentrated brine in desalination, or solids in wastewater
cleanup) go radially outward to the tank.A shear filter inset into the bottom impeller can let liquid through
without being clogged, enabling simultaneous separation of gases, liquids and
solids in a continuous stream by purely mechanical means.