Furnaces – Process – Incinerating refuse
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-27
2001-02-06
Lazarus, Ira S. (Department: 3743)
Furnaces
Process
Incinerating refuse
C110S250000, C588S253000, C219S121370
Reexamination Certificate
active
06182585
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY
The invention deals with thermal destruction of wastes, in particular, it refers to methods for wastes incineration and designing of incinerators with an extra heating of processed wastes.
In particular, the invention relates to the methods and equipment for thermal treatment of assorted wastes which consist of both combustible and non-combustible materials including refractory components.
Specifically, the invention concerns methods and equipment for the thermal destruction of wastes which contain or may contain harmful components dangerous to the environment or wastes which produce such components during decomposition, especially thermal.
To be more specific, the invention concerns methods and equipment for the destruction of infectious wastes generated by medical and veterinary clinics and institutions.
TECHNOLOGIES CURRENTLY APPLIED IN WASTE TREATMENT
Proper treatment and disposal of wastes in an environmentally acceptable manner has been an issue of serious concern in the industrial community regarding each and every region and field of industry.
Processing of multicomponent waste with harmful and/or uncontrolled inclusions such as medical and veterinary wastes, domestic garbage or municipal wastes has become the most troubling problem. When dealing with such types of wastes any sorting or mechanical processing prior to wastes destruction is unwanted because it provokes some additional contact with harmful and hazardous components and creates an extra risk of contamination for the environment. It is generally agreed that wastes of such types are to be destroyed intact with no preliminary sorting, in the incinerators equipped with devices for extra (usually, electrical) heating, which enables the proper heat recovery of complex wastes consisting of combustible (organic) and noncombustible (metals and slag-forming materials) components.
Before transportation and loading into the furnace, the wastes are usually dosed, packaged and, if required, hermetically sealed to prevent the pollution of the area during wastes transitional storing (collecting) and transportation to the destination facility.
Of considerable current use is incineration of waste in a shaft furnace with heating with plasma jets up to a temperature not less than 2000° C. in an oxidizing atmosphere. With a sufficient time of treatment, the method allows full destruction (combustion) of organic components and melting of solid inclusions (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,040, issued in 1985, F 23 D/100 class). According to this patent, off-gases are released through a gas duct located in the shaft upper zone and the melt is discharged through a tap hole located at the bottom of the furnace.
A high level of reliability is ensured when wastes are incinerated on the surface of melted slag produced initially of appropriate materials loaded and melted prior to wastes introduction and maintained subsequently by melting of metallic components of wastes and by forming of slag of noncombustible compounds whereas surpluses of both melted metal and slag obtained are to be discharged. This related method and equipment are described, in particular, in Russian Federation Application No. 4953477/33 submitted Jun. 24, 1991 by the applicants who are in part the authors of the invention (Panfilov, S.; Simonov, A.; Ilyakhin, S.); corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 1,836,603 issued on Aug. 23, 1993, in class F 23 G 5/00.
Given common technological reasons, the walls and roofs of such furnaces, including the wastes loading area, are cooled. In the above-mentioned Russian Federation patent, the reaction zone is sealed and the heating in plasma jets on the surface of melted slag is conducted at temperatures between 2500° C. and 4500° C. provided by plasma torches located over the hearth of the shaft furnace along the perimeter. The heating in the oxidizing atmosphere generated by oxygen-enriched air fed into the torches provides the full destruction of all solid wastes and the safe release of wastes processing products, such as melted slag and metal. Considering that a certain part of gas components in the products of decompositing may be given off at an early stage of the treatment and may, therefor, contain some undecomposed harmful elements, the off-gases are released through a layer of melted slag through one or several waterlocks, formed between a sealed bath located beneath the roof and reaction zone of the furnace, the off-gases also pass through the waterlocks formed in the bath due to the vertical partitions with windows in the bottom area; for the same purpose, the gas duct is located opposite from the furnace end of the bath. For a more reliable thermal treatment of slag constituent in the waste processing products, the tap hole is equipped with a siphon trap and is placed next to the gas duct with a slag drainage level higher than the window of the partition.
In some cases, more stringent requirements are placed, however, upon the thermal treatment and destruction of medical bacteria-contaminated waste, of certain types of municipal waste which most likely contain some radioactive elements (luminescent dials and signs) and of used polymeric materials which generate toxic products when incinerated. If medical waste includes bacteria-infected materials, a bacteria-contaminated zone may spread beyond the complex of equipment causing the pollution of the environment which occurs due to the possible contact of contaminated wastes with the cooled parts of the facility outside the high-temperature plasma treatment zone; in particular, the infectious waste may come into contact with water-cooled units of loading device and plasma torches, especially during the moments immediately after a regular portion of wastes is loaded into the furnace, a sealed packing (usually, made of plastic) is already destroyed and the process of hazardous waste destruction is at its earliest stage.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The objective of the invention is to develop the method for waste thermal destruction using extra heating (normally, electrical) of treated materials which causes no pollution of the environment with dangerous or unwanted constituents of waste, such as infectious waste generated at hospitals and veterinary clinics.
The other purpose of the invention is to create a facility for wastes destruction, namely, the furnace for wastes incineration which provides the safe combustion of wastes and prevents harmful and hazardous components from penetrating into surroundings and coming into contact with cooled units of the equipment, particularly the moment immediately after the wastes are loaded.
The third purpose of the invention is to develop the method and equipment for waste destruction which allow regular bacteriological testing of products generated by the infectious medical and veterinary wastes processing.
These objectives among other ones stated in the invention are met by implementation of the method for wastes thermal destruction in a closed space on melted slag surface while wastes are loaded onto the surface of melted slag and additionally heated, the generated metal, slag and off-gases produced are released with off-gases passing through the melted slag; according to the invention, the method also provides that a plasma hose is formed over the melt surface and wastes are fed through the plasma hose.
The term “closed space” means a space which prevents products generated by treatment, such as metals, slag and off-gases, from an uncontrolled release and provides that the output of these products occurs in places designed for the purposed; the term “off-gases”, unless otherwise implied within context, refers to both gases released by wastes and the reaction gases which are purposely fed into the closed volume for implementation and/or intensification of wastes thermal destruction.
The term “additional heating” is used in reference to any specially conducted heating other then heating resulting from the liberation of thermal energy during incineration of combustible components of treated wastes.
Off-gases passing through the m
Doniants Nikolai
Goldshtein Yakov
Gonopolsky Adam
Panfilov Sergei
Tilman Edward
Ciric Ljiljama V.
General Phosphorix LLC
Lazarus Ira S.
Zborovsky I.
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