Abstract: An ash basket can act as a sieve or strainer, allowing a user to lift out the charcoal from a kamado grill, clean out the ash, and place the ash basket back into the grill for future use. The ash basket retains larger pieces of charcoal that can be reused, while allowing the ash to pass through to a bottom plate of the grill. The bottom plate has openings to permit the ash to fall to an ash collection chamber. Without the ash basket, pieces of charcoal can block the openings in the bottom plate, making ash collection difficult. Moreover, with the openings blocked, proper air flow through the openings. Finally, the ash basket creates and additional air space that covers the entire surface of the interior walls by separating the ash from the wall, improving air flow, which is critical to the kamado grill design.

Abstract: A system and process for disposal of dry fly ash that effectively confines and damps fugitive dust during the collection, sorting, transporting, storage and treatment of fly ash at a landfill. The system and process for disposal of dry fly ash utilizing an enlarged, oversized hopper positioned at the top of a hill and an elongate channel that runs between the enlarged hopper and the landfill. A bulk transport truck hauling a belly dump trailer dumps dry fly ash through an elevated platform having a centrally aligned orifice into the oversized hopper having a slurry rack and a large hopper grate. The ramps and raised platform of the enlarged hopper allow the belly dump trailer compartments to be closer to the orifice and the hopper grate in order to minimize fugitive ash during the disposal process.

Abstract: The removable fireplace cleanout facilitates the chore of cleaning ash and/or other residue from a fireplace. The cleanout device is a relatively wide, low pan or tray configured for placement within a fireplace hearth. Wheels and/or other rolling supports extend beneath the device to facilitate its installation in and removal from the fireplace hearth. One wall of the device includes a dump door, with the weighted door being held closed by gravity until the unit is tilted to dump ash and residue therein. Fillets may be provided to preclude trapping of ash in the corners of the device. An integral grate may be permanently installed atop the floor of the device, thereby precluding need for grate removal and soiling of the area where the grate is placed during conventional fireplace cleanout.

Abstract: A combustion apparatus for recovering heat according to the present invention comprising a combustion tank for burning fuel contained in the interior by combustion air supplied from the exterior, characterized in that: a combustion chamber surrounded by an inner wall for burning fuel is defined in said combustion tank; a swirl flow supply chamber for supplying a combustion air into said combustion chamber is defined around the outer circumference of the inner wall of said combustion tank; a combustion air supply passage for supplying combustion air from said swirl flow supply chamber into said combustion chamber is defined on the inner wall of said combustion tank; said combustion air supply passage is slanted at a predetermined angle to the vertical direction of the inner face of the inner wall in said combustion tank; and the combustion air generates a swirl flow in the combustion chamber.

Abstract: A method of combusting a fuel in a burn pot includes forming an ash column within the burn pot, and removing a portion of the ash column. The burn pot includes a first sidewall portion, a second sidewall portion, and a translatable plate interposed between the first sidewall portion and the second sidewall portion. The translatable plate is capable of at least two positions. The translatable plate has an opening therein corresponding substantially to a cross sectional area of an inside area of the first sidewall portion or the second sidewall portion.

Abstract: A melter for the vitrification of waste, and method of using the melter, in the form of a disposal canister, wherein the melter is capable of filling multiple disposal canisters of waste and subsequently of being filled with vitrified waste and disposed of in like manner to that of a disposal canister. In the method of the invention, while waste is loaded into the melter, it is melted and then allowed to flow out of the melter and into a disposal container. The filled disposal container is then removed and and replaced with an empty disposal container. This is repeated until a fixed number of disposal containers are filled. Then, the melter is filled with vitrified waste and disposed of in the same manner as for a disposal canister.

Abstract: Embodiments are shown of a floor opening and/or closing system for pellet stoves and other solid-fuel combustion devices with ash-dumping floors. The system uses a cam system wherein a cam member automatically moves to urge the ash-dumping floor open and/or closed, preferably by means of contact with a following arm extending from or connected to the floor. Preferably, the cam member is a crank arm/lever that contacts surfaces of a cam arm in order to cause the cam arm to pivot between two positions. The cam arm is preferably connected to the ash-dumping floor by a connecting rod, so that movement of the crank arm and resultant movement of the cam arm causes movement of the floor. Adaptations may be made for manual control of the floor, for example, by providing a neutral position for the crank member, wherein the cam arm and its connecting rod may be moved independently from, and unhindered by, the crank arm.

Abstract: A refuse incinerating oven includes a refuse loading car, and a furnace body with lower and upper combustion chambers. The car is conveyed through the furnace body such that refuse loaded on the car can be ignited in the lower combustion chamber. The combustion exhaust generated in the lower combustion chamber flows into and is heated in the upper combustion chamber. A spraying tank is communicated with the upper combustion chamber for receiving the combustion exhaust. Water mist is sprayed to the combustion exhaust in the spraying tank so as to generate aerated water. The aerated water and the combustion exhaust flowing from the spraying tank are cooled as they flow into a reservoir. The aerated water is pumped from the reservoir to an upper end of a waterfall tank so as to generate a downwardly cascading water stream inside the waterfall tank. An exhaust port unit is connected to the upper end of the waterfall tank for sucking and releasing the combustion exhaust.

Abstract: A floor (2) of the device communicates with one or more ash-extraction pipes (3) associated with a semi-cooled conveyor. The conveyor is a drag conveyor (5) that travels over a semi-cooled floor (12) inside a housing (4). Several such semi-cooled floors are positioned one above another at several levels. The floors (12) at each level are divided into several tables (16) separated by slots (17) that extend across the direction traveled by the conveyor. The tables are mutually displaced level by level such that the rear end of every table is above the front end of a table in the floor just below it.

Abstract: A wet ash remover installation includes a first wet ash remover (5) which is placed in operating position under an ash funnel (2) of a boiler and a second, similar, movable wet ash remover (12) placed in reserve position. The wet ash removers (5, 12) respectively consist of a water-filled trough (7) which houses a conveying implement and in which a dip member (4) connected to the ash funnel (2) is immersed. Each trough (7) is provided in one of the side walls (13) and at the same height with an opening (14) extending to the upper edge of the side wall (13) and having a width which corresponds to at least the width of the dip member (4) and a height which corresponds to at least the maximum depth of immersion of the dip member (4) into the wet ash remover (5). The opening (14) is surrounded by a frame (17) supporting a compressible seal (19) and is closed by a rotatable gate (16) which engages the opening (14) from the inside.

Abstract: In the stove, pluralities of elongated logs are stacked on top of one another, substantially on parallels to a generally horizontal axis, to form a pair of sloping, single-log-wide, axially extending stacks of the same which are spaced apart but converge in the bottom of a sump at points above a slot in the vertical plane of the axis. Air is admitted to the sump through the slot, and a pair of spaced abutments is disposed upright in the plane of the axis at the sump, to engage between the opposing faces of the bottommost logs in the stacks and form an air flow channel therebetween above the slot. Moreover, a chamber is formed above the channel to confine the flames and the flow of combustion products from the channel to the space between the stacks of logs. The chamber in turn discharges the combustion products to a low pressure zone where they escape to atmosphere or the like.

Abstract: An apparatus for removing solids from a solids upflow vessel, preferably an upflow retort, which includes a horizontally reciprocatable carriage containing a vertical feed cylinder that extends downward from a horizontal seal plate. A vertically reciprocatable piston is located inside the feed cylinder. One section of the seal plate contains a hole and a sliding door for opening and closing the hole. During normal operations when the apparatus is used to feed solids from a feed chute to an upflow vessel, the carriage is reciprocated between a first stationary position wherein the feed cylinder is aligned with the outlet of the solids feed chute while at least a portion of the closed hole in the seal plate is aligned with and below the inlet to the upflow vessel, and a second stationary position wherein the feed cylinder is aligned with the inlet to the upflow vessel while another section of the seal plate is aligned with the outlet from the feed chute.

Abstract: A ash-removal conveyor used in combination with an ash-quenching trough has a drive wheel above and spaced from the trough, horizontally spaced reversing and guide wheels in the trough below the liquid level therein, and an endless conveyor chain spanned over the wheels and having a horizontal lower stretch extending between the reversing and guide wheels, an inclined lower stretch extending between the guide and drive wheels, and an at least partially inclined upper stretch extending between the reversing and drive wheel. The drive wheels are tensioned away from the other wheels and to tension the belt. A drive connected to the drive wheel moves the chain to pick up ash in the trough and conduct the picked-up ash from the trough. The conveyor has a floor immediately beneath and extending along the upper stretch between the reversing and drive wheels and above the lower stretches.

Abstract: In a fluidized bed gasification system an ash removal system to reduce the particulate ash to a maximum size or smaller, allow the ash to cool to a temperature lower than the gasifier and remove the ash from the gasifier system. The system consists of a crusher, a container containing level probes and a means for controlling the rotational speed of the crusher based on the level of ash within the container.

Abstract: Symmetrical stepped grate/rabble arm combinations for use in a fixed bed coal gasifier are shown in which the stepped grates comprise step plates having in combination threwith means for controlling the rate of discharge of solids therefrom. The solids discharge controlling means described comprise adjustable mechanical dams at spaced locations along the step plate periphery together with means for the positioning thereof.

Abstract: A portable barbeque grill having a coal-receiving member hingedly connected to a cover member rotatably mounted between a pair of inverted U-shaped side frame members. The hinge means between the cover member and the coal-receiving member mounts the coal-receiving member and cover member off center between the juncture of the rear legs and the bight portion of the inverted U-shaped frame members so that the coal-receiving member can rotate under its own weight to a position wherein coals and ashes can be readily removed from its interior. The coal-receiving member can be locked in a substantially horizontal position by retaining pins received through the juncture of the front legs and bight portions of the inverted U-shaped frame members and inserted into the coal-receiving member to preclude it from rotating.