Abstract: A method for processing waste material converts organic matter such as non-pretreated infectious hospital wastes, hazardous wastes, refinery wastes, paper wastes and other similar gaseous, liquid, or solid organic wastes, into hydrogen and carbon by photodecomposition. The waste material is converted by exposing the organic waste materials to a sufficiently intense field of radiation which causes the decomposition, or breakdown, of the organic materials into their component elements. Because the environment within the reaction chamber is controlled to minimize the presence of oxidizing agents, the decomposition products, primarily carbon and hydrogen, can be withdrawn and collected for subsequent use.

Abstract: A method for converting solid organic fuels, most particularly coals, into high temperature gases that can easily be transformed into useful energy. This method employs a substantially closed reactor, referred to as a gasifier, having an internal reaction chamber or cavity made of materials that can tolerate the presence of oxygen at high temperatures, that possess low thermal mass, that limit or restrict the passage of heat, that function as almost perfect black bodies at high temperatures, and that are resistant to the abrasive effects of the solid fuels.

Abstract: A method is described for photochemically decomposing organic materials into hydrogen gas and elemental carbon, preferably in the form of carbon black, and to a smaller extent carbon monoxide. The organic materials are induced to decompose primarily and solely through their exposure to a sufficiently intense field of radiant energy, for a sufficient time, in a substantially closed reactor.

Abstract: A waste material incinerator which produces an exhaust, containing trace amounts of a toxic organic substance, includes a flue containing a refractory filter. The refractory filter is heated by the exhaust produced by the incinerator to a temperature above 700.degree. C. to destroy the toxic organic substance in the exhaust. The refractory filter preferably includes a plurality of ceramic cylinders and is periodically cleaned to remove accumulated solid particles on the upstream surface of the cylinders by injecting high pressure air into the cylinders.

Abstract: A rotary combustor for incinerating solid waste material, such as municipal trash, includes a combustion barrel supplied by air through windboxes underneath the barrel. Molten metal, such as aluminum, which is commonly present in the waste material, drops through perforations in the side wall of the combustion barrel and collects on a heated contact surface in each of the windboxes. The heated contact surface may have a funnel shape and be connected to a heated pipe for transferring the molten metal out of each windbox. Alternatively, the heated element may be attached to the interior surface of each windbox and separated therefrom by heat insulation. In this case, heated airlock doors at the lower end of the windboxes are used to discharge the molten metal from the windboxes.