Abstract: When gasifying fuels with oxygen in a shaft-like furnace adapted to receive solid charging stock and including a primary gas chamber on its lower end to be charged by at least one burner, a fixed bed is formed in the primary gas chamber by the charging stock. The charging stock is gasified by the hot offgases from the burner. The gas forming, upon passage through the fixed bed, is extracted from the furnace as a product gas. In order to keep the product gas free of impurities that constitue a load on the environment and limit its usability, such as tar and other higher hydrocarbons, an oxygen-containing gas is injected into the furnace space filled by the product gas and a slight portion of the product gas is burnt.

Abstract: There is disclosed a method for processing heavy-metal-containing residues from the chemical industry. For an economical and at the same time ecologically safe processing of the heavy-metal-containing residues, the heavy-metal-containing residues are introduced into a primary-gas reaction zone of a shaft gasifier containing at least one solid bed of carbon-containing material. Slag-forming substances are introduced together with the charge substances and/or together with the solid-bed formers to absorb and set the heavy metals. The lower zone of the solid bed is maintained at a temperature above the slag and ash melting temperatures. The viscosity of the slag is less than 100 poise.