초록 ▼

A facility for reclaiming useful products from solid municipal and hazardous waste uses a rotary kiln to convert the material into a stream of inorganic ash and a stream of gaseous combustion products. The stream of combustion products passes in heat exchange relation to unburned waste and produces

A facility for reclaiming useful products from solid municipal and hazardous waste uses a rotary kiln to convert the material into a stream of inorganic ash and a stream of gaseous combustion products. The stream of combustion products passes in heat exchange relation to unburned waste and produces a stream of volatile carbon compounds which are deficient in oxygen. The streams of combustion products and volatile carbon compounds are converted in a plasma arc generator into a stream of hot, disassociated atoms. The stream of hot gas is cooled by passage through one or more heat exchangers that reclaim process heat. The stable compounds that are produced are hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The process is controlled by monitoring carbon dioxide in the carbon monoxide stream. The carbon monoxide and hydrogen may be used separately or combined, as in a methanol synthesis plant.

대표청구항 ▼

[ I claim:] [1.] Apparatus for converting products containing a sizeable proportion of organic material into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, comprisingmeans for generating a feedstock stream including means controlling the amount of oxygen in the feedstock stream to a value sufficient to produce a sub

[ I claim:] [1.] Apparatus for converting products containing a sizeable proportion of organic material into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, comprisingmeans for generating a feedstock stream including means controlling the amount of oxygen in the feedstock stream to a value sufficient to produce a substantial proportion of carbon monoxide and less than that stoichiometrically required to produce a substantial proportion of carbon dioxide, the generating means comprising a starved air burner receiving and combusting the products and generating a gaseous feedstock stream and means for controlling the amount of air delivered to the starved air burner;a plasma arc generator receiving the feedstock stream for converting the feedstock stream into a stream of hot atoms stoichiometrically deficient in oxygen;means for cooling the stream of hot atoms to a temperature where the atoms recombine into a molecular stream of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and an inert gas;means for converting the carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen and inert gas into a useful product;an analyzer for determining the amount of oxygen downstream of the plasma arc generator; andmeans responsive to the analyzer for altering the oxygen concentration in the molecular stream to produce carbon monoxide in preference to carbon dioxide, including means for manipulating the controlling means for reducing the amount of air delivered to the starved air burner when the oxygen concentration rises above a predetermined value.