Appeal No. 1998-1215
Application No. 08/091,039
(i) Hazardous waste, such as paint waste, which contains
solids and liquids, is burned as fuel in industrial burners,
such as cement kilns (page 1, lines 15 to 26).
(ii) The waste is transported to the kiln in tank trucks (page
1, line 33, to page 2, line 1).
(iii) Discharge of the waste from the tank truck to the kiln
burner is a problem because the solids remain at the bottom of
the tank. This has several undesirable consequences (page 2,
line 10, to page 3, line 16).
(iv) "It is known that a previous attempt to agitate the
contents of a hazardous waste transport tank included the use
of vertically extending augers or the like, but it resulted in
a considerable residue of solids in the tank after it was
supposedly drained." (page 3, lines 25 to 29)
Wallace discloses apparatus for maintaining solid
particles in suspension in a liquid, particularly when
contained in a right circular cylindrical tank. The patent
discloses that an agitator which rotates about a vertical axis
is not satisfactory (col. 1, lines 23 to 49). Instead,
Wallace utilizes an agitator which rotates about a horizontal
shaft 24 extending along the tank 12, eliminating growth of a
12
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