Abstract: A particulate coal combustor with two combustion chambers is provided. The first combustion chamber is toroidal; air and fuel are injected, mixed, circulated and partially combusted. The air to fuel ratio is controlled to avoid production of soot or nitrogen oxides. The mixture is then moved to a second combustion chamber by injection of additional air where combustion is completed and ash removed. Temperature in the second chamber is controlled by cooling and gas mixing. The clean stream of hot gas is then delivered to a prime mover.

Abstract: A process and apparatus are described with which pulverized coal can be burned with an essentially non-turbulent flame in which the residence time of individual cool particles within the burner flame is generally increased. Pulverized cool is supplied through a plurality of annularly-distributed conduits. A supply of secondary air is passed around the conduits in a manner so as to produce an axial or low turbulent flow of air from the burner with a relatively small amount of the combustion air being swirled to produce a vortex suitable to anchor the burner flame. The pulverized solid fuel is injected to enter both the vortex and flame regions so as to expose a large portion of fuel particles to a low turbulent diffusion flame in which oxygen reaches burning particles primarily by way of a diffusion process.

Abstract: A cyclone furnace for a pulverized fuel boiler comprises a casing enclosing a cage of water tubes and having studs extending inwardly from each of the water tubes. Refractory tiles line the inside of the furnace, each fitted over a stud and secured in place thereby protecting the water tubes from the intense corrosion and abrasion. The furnace has three sections in which the design of the tiles vary. In the neck section the joints of the tiles are straight, in the barrel section they are curved and sympathetic to the gas flow and in the re-entrant throat the joints are shiplapped or rebated. Although the tiles may be generally rectangular in all sections, they are preferably hexagonal in the barrel.

Abstract: In a coal combustion system suitable for a gas turbine engine, pulverized coal is transported to a rich zone combustor and burned at an equivalence ratio exceeding 1 at a temperature above the slagging temperature of the coal so that combustible hot gas and molten slag issue from the rich zone combustor. A coolant screen of water stretches across a throat of a quench stage and cools the combustible gas and molten slag to below the slagging temperature of the coal so that the slag freezes and shatters into small pellets. The pelletized slag is separated from the combustible gas in a first inertia separator. Residual ash is separated from the combustible gas in a second inertia separator. The combustible gas is mixed with secondary air in a lean zone combustor and burned at an equivalence ratio of less than 1 to produce hot gas motive at temperature above the coal slagging temperature.

Abstract: Coal combustion and the capture of pollutants are optimized by a method which applies two mechanisms for sulphur capture, one in which pulverized coal particles suspended in the gas stream in the injection zone of the combustor are affected by reaction with a suspended sorbent, and another in which the particles are reentrained in the gas stream by a "sand storm" effect near the wall of the combustor. Use of the two mechanisms results, in commercial scale cyclone combustors, in 70 to 90% sulphur capture at economical Ca/S ratios. The method also minimizes emission of ash by removal from the pulverized coal fuel particles too small to be retained in the combustor and too large to be completely burned in the combustor, minimizes reevolution of sulphur compounds from slag by rapid and continuous removal of slag from the combustor, minimizes emission of NO.sub.x pollutants by maintaining a favorable overall fuel-rich stoichiometry.

Abstract: An improved multi-fuel burning method and apparatus having means for regulating the fuel-air mixture passing therethrough and including four separately controlled passageways delivering the air necessary for combustion and transport of the fuel while reducing the formation of nitrogen oxides.

Abstract: The present invention provides an incinerator capable of completely burning pulverized coal or oil and waste products. The main feature of this invention resides in that a heavy oil or a pulverized coal can be mixed with a primary air flow and injected into the burning furnace so as to introduce a rapidly revolving secondary air flow from tangential air flow inlets on an inner pipe to help combustion and thus completely burn waste products which are sent into the incinerator through a preheating chamber. Tangential air inlets and a radiating whirling sheets are provided on the inner pipe of the incinerator so as to enable a primary air flow and a secondary air flow in the incinerator to continuously revolve the waste products and thus lengthen the time duration of combustion.

Abstract: A method of combusting a coal-water mixture fuel. The mixture is atomized into a conically-shaped primary pre-combustion chamber. Primary air is supplied, at a rate smaller than that required for complete burning of the mixture and in the form of a swirl about the axis of the jet of the atomized mixture, from the peripheral portion of the primary pre-combustion chamber into a secondary pre-combustion chamber connected to said primary pre-combustion chamber, thus forming a region of low pressure around the jet of the mixture. The region of low pressure serves to induce the atmosphere gas from the secondary pre-combustion chamber of higher temperature back into the primary pre-combustion chamber of a lower temperature, so that the water content of the mixture is evaporated and the mixture is ignited by the heat of the hot atmosphere gas.

Abstract: A pressurized cyclonic combustion method and a cylindrical burner apparatus for pressurized combustion of particulate solid fuels to produce a pressurized clean effluent gas. In the burner, the particulate solids such as wood chips are fed tangentially into a primary combustion chamber at its inlet end and flow at high tangential velocity in a helical path through the burner. Oxygen-containing combustion gas such as air is supplied tangentially at high velocity through multiple ports spaced along the burner length to maintain and/or increase the high tangential velocity and produce high centrifugal forces on the particulate solids and provide for prolonged combustion and produce high burner volumetric heat release rates exceeding about 400,000 Btu/hr ft.sup.3. A choke opening is provided centrally located at the combustion chamber outlet end for promoting prolonged combustion of solid fuel particles upstream of a quench zone. A secondary combustion chamber is provided downstream of the choke opening.

Abstract: In a furnace (10) in which a sulfur-bearing fuel is burned, a sorbent material such as limestone is introduced into the upper portion of the furnace through a plurality of nozzle arrangements (40). Each nozzle arrangement comprises a pair of concentric pipes (42,44) with deflector means (46) located between the pipes and adjustable by means (54), so that the sorbent material introduced through the outer pipe is dispersed in an area near the furnace wall, while that introduced through the inner pipe is projected to the central portion of the furnace. There are sufficient nozzle arrangements, and they are so located, so as to cover substantially the entire cross-sectional area of the furnace with sorbent material.

Abstract: An apparatus is described for burning solid fuels, preferably coal in pulverized form, which are mixed with a carrier liquid, such as water and/or oil or the like, to thereby form an emulsion, and for this purpose the fuel emulsion is injected through a substantially annular entrance port into a combustion chamber so that an approximately hollow cone-shaped flow configuration is produced. Within this flow configuration, a low pressure is built up immediately behind the entrance port for the fuel emulsion opening into the combustion chamber so that a portion of hot combustion gases and a remainder of unburnt fuel particles are recirculated to the entrance port. Furthermore, gas entrance ports are provided in the end wall of the combustion chamber, through which the gas or air flows, the path of flow of which extends concentrically and spirally towards the axis of the entrance port for the fuel emulsion opening into the combustion chamber.

Abstract: A furnace (10) in which pulverized coal is burned in suspension. The coal is introduced along with primary air, tangent to an imaginary circle (42). The auxiliary air is introduced tangent to an imaginary circle (44) directly above the primary air, in a direction of rotation opposite that of the primary air. The auxiliary air is directed tangent to a circle of greater diameter than that of the primary air. There are a plurality of alternating levels within the furnace where primary air (38), and then auxiliary air (40), is introduced.

Abstract: An incineration equipment for removing organic substances from various parts of an extruder in a plastics forming machine, has a combustion chamber formed in the upper portion of a heating furnace accommodating a fluidized-bed consisting of refractory particles therein, into which furnace the various parts are to be thrown, and a burning system for heating the fluidized-bed and also for causing gaseous decomposed polymers produced by thermal decomposition of the organic substances and mixed with air fed from the bottom of the furnace through a porous dispersion plate to burn in the combustion chamber. This burning system connects through a single directional control valve with a fuel tank and an air tank, and it comprises a burner having its tip end opened in the combustion chamber, and a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature in the furnace and outputting an operation signal for actuating the directional control valve in accordance with the sensed furnace temperature.

Abstract: The invention relates to burners for the gasification of pulverized coal--injected in a dense phase--with steam and oxygen, and it can be employed for coal gasification in the chemical industry. Objects of the present invention are to increase the reliability in operation of the burner and to improve the quality of the gas obtained from the gasification process. The burner should be designed in such a way that a reliable operation is attained under the conditions of the gasification process (e. g. high pressures and temperatures within the gasifier). The design of the pulverized-coal feeding device, the water-cooled jacket and the swirl chamber according to the invention are described in detail.

Abstract: A cyclone separator is disclosed for effectively separating a gaseous or liquid medium from solid particles or for separating two or more similar substances by size or weight. The cyclone separator includes a chamber having a cylindrical member closed off by lower and upper end walls. A first inlet is tangentially formed in a lower portion of the cylindrical chamber and provides a means for introducing a first substance, for example, a carbonaceous fuel. A second inlet is also tangentially formed in a lower portion of the cylindrical chamber above and at an inclined angle to the first inlet. A second substance, for example, pressurized air, can be routed through the second inlet so as to combine with the fuel to form a combustible mixture. The mixture is circulated at a high velocity in an upwardly extending spiral path to promote burning and to produce combustible gas and ash.

Abstract: A pulverized coal burner device capable of ensuring stabilized combustion of pulverized coal even when mill load is low.

Abstract: An incinerator, or furnace, receives low-level radiation waste from a nuclear installation in varying volumes and calorific values. A supplemental, conventional fuel is concomitantly supplied under the control of the exhaust temperature of the products of combustion. The low-level radiation waste and supplemental fuel are mixed with combustion air in a first stage where combustion is initiated, the products of combustion being flowed downward into a second stage where the combustion is complete prior to exhaust.

Abstract: An ignition and combustion supporting burner for pulverized solid fossil fuel comprises an axial conduit for feeding the pulverized fuel in a primary combustion supporting gas. The shape of a refractory tap-hole enables the initial part of the flame to be confined. A conduit for feeding tertiary combustion supporting gas is concentric with the tap-hole and partially or totally surrounds it. The burner also incorporates a flame detector device and an igniter in the refractory tap-hole or in the axial conduit. The axial conduit is provided with translation means providing for adjustment of the length of a chamber for preliminary mixing of the fuel and part of the combustion supporting gas comprised between the end of this conduit and the inlet of the tap-hole.

Abstract: A coal combustion control system is provided with independent means for supplying primary air and secondary air to a burner pipe assembly having a longitudinal central conduit through which pulverized coal suspended in primary air passes. Surrounding the central section is a first annular conduit through which secondary air is supplied, the secondary air passing through a spinner section near the outlet end of the annulus which imparts turbulence to the secondary air flow. In a preferred embodiment, a second annular conduit conveys a portion of the secondary air without spinners and turbulence. The relative quantities of air passing through the first annular, spinning or turbulent, zone and the second annular, straight or non-turbulent, zone can be regulated to obtain the desired flame characteristics and flame length appropriate for a given use of the coal burning system.

Abstract: The flame established in the combustion chamber is short in the direction of material flow and of tornado configuration due in part to swirling in spiral fashion of primary air bearing pulverized coal particles along a conduit together with swirling in spiral fashion of secondary or combustion air along a conduit which is concentrically arranged with respect to the primary air and coal particle conduit so that these two flame components are dispersed in a transversely outward manner due to centrifugal force and for wall jet attraction and by this means the longitudinal length customarily necessary for high temperature pulverized coal burners is substantially shortened and the temperature at which combustion may take place is substantially reduced.

Abstract: A gasified fuel combustion apparatus is constructed such that an air chamber connected with a blower is provided to surround a cylindrical combustion chamber having an outer wall made of a heat-resistant material. A fuel supplying tube is provided to open tangentially in a closed end portion of the combustion chamber and a plurality of main air blowing holes of a comparatively large diameter are provided through the outer wall of the combustion chamber at positions adjacent to the fuel supplying tube such that the main air blowing holes are inclined to both of the rotating direction of the fuel and the blowing direction of the combustion flame. A number of auxiliary air blowing holes having a comparatively small diameter are also provided through the outer wall of the combustion chamber at positions downstream from the main blowing holes with orientations similar to those of the main air blowing holes.

Abstract: A rotary fluidized bed combustion system in which air and particulate solid fuel are introduced and mixed. The mixture is caused to rotate to generate an artificially induced gravitational field. Some of the air is introduced so as to flow inwardly at a later time in a manner such that it interacts aerodynamically with the fuel particles which are propelled outwardly by the centrifugal forces caused by the artificial gravitational field, thus generating a fluidized bed effect for the particles. The fuel and air chemically react and combustion results. As the fuel particles burn, their sizes decrease and they are slowly pushed inwardly by the gas flow which is forced to follow an elongated path around generally conical surfaces of decreasing radii, toward the exhaust vent. The residence time of the fuel particles, inside the combustion region, is thereby increased. The combustion effectiveness of the fuel is thus considerably improved and no recycling of the unburned fuel particles is then required.

Abstract: An air register is provided for admitting to and regulating combustion air in industrial open flame heated boilers and furnaces. The register comprises an outer member to impart rotation, balancing and blending of opposed incoming air streams; an inner member to impart a spiral motion to a resultant single air stream in the direction of the boiler or furnace entrance; and a third member to form the air stream into a flame encompassing envelope.

Abstract: A method of and apparatus for burning liquid fuels such as oil or the like and/or solid fuels, especially coal, peat or the like, in pulverized form, the latter either in dry condition or mixed with a carrier liquid such as water and/or oil to form an emulsion being introduced together with the liquid fuel into a combustion chamber while creating a recirculating flow profile, said flow profile being confined by a rotating outer flow of air. For thorough breaking-up of the fuel introduced into the combustion chamber the fuel inlet is constituted by a plurality of inlet ports approximately evenly distributed along a circumference, especially a circle, the liquid-fuel inlet ports and the inlet ports for solid fuel or a fuel emulsion being alternately arranged along said circumference. The fuel inlet ports may be directed either radially and/or at an outward inclination in the direction of flow, based on the longitudinal axis of the combustion chamber.

Abstract: A tangentially-fired furnace is disclosed in enough detail to illustrate the location of injection ports for excess air above the fireball of the combustion chamber to eliminate the swirl of the flue gases as the flue gases flow into the convection section, in order to produce a uniform mass flow and temperature pattern of the flue gases over the cross section of the furnace exit.

Abstract: A pressurized cyclonic combustion method and a cylindrical burner apparatus for pressurized combustion of particulate solid fuels to produce a pressurized clean effluent gas. In the burner, the particulate solids such as wood chips are fed tangentially into a primary combustion chamber at its inlet end and flow at high tangential velocity in a helical path through the burner. Oxygen-containing combustion gas such as air is supplied tangentially at high velocity through multiple ports spaced along the burner length to maintain and/or increase the high tangential velocity and produce high centrifugal forces on the particulate solids and provide for prolonged combustion and produce high burner volumetric heat release rates exceeding about 400,000 Btu/hr ft.sup.3. A choke opening is provided centrally located at the combustion chamber outlet end for promoting prolonged combustion of solid fuel particles upstream of a quench zone. A secondary combustion chamber is provided downstream of the choke opening.

Abstract: In a combustion zone a fuel injector is immersed in a mixture of oxidant and products of combustion having a temperature of about 2000 degrees F. or higher. In order to maintain rapid and stable combustion, it is desirable to avoid excessive absorption of thermal energy from this mixture. To that end, the present invention provides means for impeding transfer of heat to the fuel injector from the adjacent mixture, such that portions of the mixture immediately adjacent the fuel injector may be kept at a temperature of approximately the ash-fusion temperature of the fuel, or higher, while the interior of the fuel injector is kept at a temperature substantially below the ash-fusion temperature. This means for impeding heat transfer preferably comprises at least one material having a thermal conductivity substantially lower than that of the fuel injector and, in a preferred embodiment, consists essentially of slag formed from noncombustible-mineral constituents of the fuel.

Abstract: Emissions of sulfur oxides produced during combustion of a sulfur-bearing fossil fuel in a furnace chamber 10 are reduced by injecting a sulfur oxide absorbing particulate into the product gases in an upper region 60 of the furnace chamber. The sulfur oxide absorbing material is dispersed into a quantity of air which is introduced in the furnace chamber through a plurality of nozzles 80, 82 and 84 disposed at different elevations. The air streams with entrained absorbent are introduced at each elevation tangent to an imaginary circle, with the radii of the circles of the elevations being different, thereby distributing the sulfur oxide absorbent over a wide volume of the furnace chamber.

Abstract: A method and annular burner for binding sulfur and other impurities during the combustion of fuels that contain such impurities. The fuel is burned in an annular burner flame that has an internal recirculation zone. An additive in the form of an aqueous suspension is sprayed into the combustion chamber via at least one two-component atomizing nozzle, and the additive is mixed with the gases of the flame under optimum reaction conditions. In order to enable a particularly favorable binding of noxious material, an atomizing nozzle for the additive is disposed in the central portion of the annular burner, and the additive is sprayed as an external mixture, via the atomizing nozzle, along the longitudinal axis of the burner flame, as a fine or narrow stream, through the internal recirculation zone and into the flame.

Abstract: A carbonaceous material-water slurry burner includes a high pressure tip-emulsion atomizer for directing a carbonaceous material-water slurry into a combustion chamber for burning therein without requiring a support fuel or oxygen enrichment of the combustion air. Introduction of the carbonaceous material-water slurry under pressure forces it through a fixed atomizer wherein the slurry is reduced to small droplets by mixing with an atomizing air flow and directed into the combustion chamber. The atomizer includes a swirler located immediately adjacent to where the fuel slurry is introduced into the combustion chamber and which has a single center channel through which the carbonaceous material-water slurry flows into a plurality of diverging channels continuous with the center channel from which the slurry exits the swirler immediately adjacent to an aperture in the combustion chamber.

Abstract: The invention comprises a coal-fired burner system for use in a drum mix asphalt plant or drum dryer used for producing asphalt paving composition. Coal to fire the burner is ground to a -200 mesh size by an air-swept rotary impact mill, and a classifier at the exit from the mill controls the size of the particles leaving the mill. The pulverized coal particles are recovered from the exhaust airflow exiting the mill by a fiber filter collector and temporarily stored in a small surge bin. Coal is metered from the surge bin into a primary air conduit leading to the burner. The availability of a small but ready supply of coal in the surge bin provides quick response to a need for increased coal while avoiding the dangerous storage of large quantities of pulverized coal dust. As the weight of coal dust in the surge bin decreases, control circuitry provides for the processing of additional coal to maintain a ready supply of processed coal in the surge bin.

Abstract: A solid fuel burner especially useful in a system for pulverizing and burning solid fuel, such as coal or other fossil fuel, that is characterized by a possible turndown ratio of up to at least fifteen to one. The burner includes a valved firing nozzle having a firing conduit with firing orifice and internal turbulating means for a mixture of primary air and pulverized solid fuel, and a controlled secondary air supply. A movable valve element, preferably in the form of a double-taper-ended diffuser positioned downstream from the firing orifice, controls the outflow of a turbulent stream of the mxied primary air and fuel from the firing orifice into an ignition chamber and controls flame shape.

Abstract: A dual fuel burner for a furnace having a tubular housing with upstream and downstream ends and a coaxially disposed ignition chamber terminating in a discharge opening at the downstream end of the housing. A high volatility fuel is ignited within the ignition chamber and the resulting flame passes through the discharge opening. A plurality of pulverized solid fuel conduits surround the ignition chamber and extend from the upstream end to the downstream end of the housing where they discharge the fuel in close proximity to the discharge opening of the ignition chamber. An air intake supplies air to the downstream end of the housing, and a bulkhead is disposed between the air intake and the upstream end of the housing preventing air from flowing towards the upstream end. The air flowing through the downstream end flows out of the housing in a generally annular pattern between the flame issuing from the discharge opening and the solid fuel discharged from the conduits.

Abstract: A primary air exchange device for a burner of a pulverized fuel, such as coal, with burner including a supply line through which a primary air and pulverized fuel mixture is supplied. A separator having its inlet within the supply line is dimensioned to receive and remove approximately one half of the primary air while the remaining half of the primary air moves past the separator. Additionally approximately 90% of the pulverized fuel passes the separator while only about 10% of the pulverized fuel enters the separator along with approximately one half the primary air. This air and small quantity of fuel mixture is delivered from the separator to a nozzle where it is discharged into a burner throat of a furnace. Hot air is injected into the remaining mixture of half the primary air plus the large percentage of pulverized fuel to heat this fuel before it is injected into the furnace for ignition.

Abstract: An air-cooled cyclone coal combustor comprises a horizontally disposed shell, provided with a non-sacrificial refractory liner. The liner is surrounded by an array of air-cooling tubes, the tubes serving both to cool the liner and to physically support and reinforce it. Air cooling in the manner disclosed facilities precise control of the thickness and flow of slag on internal walls of the combustor, so as to avoid reevolution from the slag of the sulfur pollutants. Pulverized coal fuel and a pulverized sulfur sorbent (limestone or the like), as well as primary and secondary combustion air, are introduced into the chamber at an end wall. The cooling air, heated regeneratively in the cooling tubes, provides the secondary air, and is introduced in the chamber in helical flow, at a radius outwardly from the radius at which the solids and primary combustion air are introduced into the chamber. A thermally insulated nozzle provides an outlet for combustion gases.

Abstract: A coal burner comprising a combustion chamber (18), a main nozzle (21) for particulate coal and a primary air supply opening (19) in said combustion chamber, a pilot nozzle (23) having an outlet (25) adjacent the outlet (26) to the main nozzle, a feed line (28) for feeding a mixture of ultrafine pulverized coal and an inert gaseous fluid to said pilot nozzle (23), and a separator (30) in said feed line for increasing the concentration of ultrafine coal to gaseous medium in said mixture.

Abstract: A powdered coal burner used for directly heating an object to be heated, particularly iron scrap, in a heating vessel. The burner is composed of an oxygen nozzle, a powdered coal nozzle, an air nozzle, disposed concentrically from the center, and a cone which is provided at the end of the opening part of the oxygen nozzle in such a way as to disperse oxygen in a radial direction and burn powdered coal. The burner burns with shortened length of flame, and temperature of the flame is not excessively high.

Abstract: A coal-water mixture (CWM) burner includes a conically shaped rotating cup into which fuel comprised of coal particles suspended in a slurry is introduced via a first, elongated inner tube coupled to a narrow first end portion of the cup. A second, elongated outer tube is coaxially positioned about the first tube and delivers steam to the narrow first end of the cup. The fuel delivery end of the inner first tube is provided with a helical slot on its lateral surface for directing the CWM onto the inner surface of the rotating cup in the form of a uniform, thin sheet which, under the influence of the cup's centrifugal force, flows toward a second, open, expanded end portion of the rotating cup positioned immediately adjacent to a combustion chamber. The steam delivered to the rotating cup wets its inner surface and inhibits the coal within the CWM from adhering to the rotating cup.

Abstract: A burner (10) is provided for supplying coal-liquid slurry and combustion air to a furnace (2). The burner housing (12) is mounted about the burner throat opening (6) and interconnected to a combustion air supply duct (8). A coal slurry gun (14) is disposed coaxially within the housing for spraying the coal-liquid slurry into the furnace. A first conduit means (20) is disposed coaxially about the coal slurry gun to define a primary air flow passage (22) surrounding the slurry gun. Additionally, a second conduit means (30) is disposed coaxially about the first conduit means (20) to define a secondary air flow passage (32) between the first and second conduit means and a tertiary air flow passage (34) between the second conduit means and the burner throat (4). Independently controllable dampers 41, 42 and 43 are provided in the air inlets to the primary, secondary and tertiary air flow passages to permit independent control of air flow velocity.

Abstract: A method of burning petroleum coke dust in a burner flame having an intensive internal recirculation zone. The petroleum coke dust is supplied to that region of the intensive recirculation zone which provides the ignition energy for the petroleum coke dust which is to be burned.

Abstract: A gas heating system for a natural gas dehydration or the like comprising a burner housing means, a main gas burner unit and a pilot light gas burner unit mounted in the housing means, and separate air-gas supply means for each of the main gas burner unit and the pilot light gas burner unit.

Abstract: Various embodiments of apparatus and methods are disclosed for the conversion of steam boilers from being oil fired to coal and natural gas fired without adversely affecting the normal power density of the boilers or the emission pollution therefrom. In some cases even the resultant coal ash can be modified by injecting a powdered catalyst or phosphate slimes into the flame to produce a fertilizer ash having desirable minerals to enhance the economic value thereof.Basically all embodiments include a swirling coal-air mixture directed along a path to form a sheath and a swirling gas-air mixture internally thereof with the swirling of the latter being in the same direction and fortifying the motion of the former. A gas-air mixture, swirling or non-swirling, may be supplied outwardly of such sheath to enhance the more complete burning of the coal-air mixture.

Abstract: An ignition burner for igniting fuel oxygen-containing gas mixture. The burner utilizes a central electrode and means for supplying the electrode with both a low velocity flow and a high velocity flow of combustible gases to the electrode to form a first flame. The first flame is surrounded by a plurality of nozzles that supply additional fuel and oxygen-containing gas to form a large ignition flame.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for combusting solid fuel by introducing a mixture of fuel particles and carrier fluid into a reaction chamber near the center of one end of a combustion chamber and injecting oxidizer gas tangentially into the chamber to establish a swirling flow of gas, fuel particles, and combustion products within a region adjacent the chamber walls. The mass flow rates of oxidizer gas and fuel are regulated to maintain a relatively oxygen-rich stoichiometry within an annular region and a relatively fuel-rich stoichiometry within a central region, and to cause flow of the oxidizer gas and combustion products thru the reaction chamber with throughput residence times of the order of a few hundred milliseconds. This combination of a fuel-rich core portion and a relatively oxygen-rich annular zone effects oxidation of most of the carbon content of the fuel before it reaches the walls and avoids reduction of metal compounds in the fuel, all without overall excess-air combustion.

Abstract: A combustor for burning a feedstock includes a cylindrical body having a tangential feedstock inlet and an exhaust outlet. A catchment chamber of hollow cylindrical form intersects the wall of the body and opens into the cavity to provide a common boundary. Swirling or vortical flow is created in the cavity and a secondary vortex is generated and driven within the chamber by the main flow. In operation contaminant matter is sheared off from the flow in the body into the chamber and is entrapped by the secondary vortex from which it is precipitated, there being no net gas flow across the boundary.

Abstract: A system for recovering resources from sludge in which sludge containing water in the amount of 90 to 70 percent is first supplied to a sludge concentrator through a forced supply equipment where the sludge is concentrated to contain a water content of a maximum of about 60 percent; then is sent to a drying furnace having a fluidized sand bed. The product obtained in the drying furnace is separated to gas and solid. After the separated gas is pressurized by a fan and is heated by a heat exchanger through a circulator passage, a portion thereof is supplied to the drying furnace as gas for drying and the remainder is sent to the sludge concentrator. The water content is then removed from the concentrated gas and the gas obtained from the sludge concentrator is used in the system as gaseous fuel.

Abstract: A steam generator for burning a normally-solid fuel which produces non-combustible solid residues, including, an elongated combustion chamber, a fuel introduction means to introduce fuel adjacent the axis of the combustion chamber as a centrally-disposed stream moving in a downstream direction, a combustion-supporting gas introduction means for introducing the gas as an annular, rotating stream about the fuel stream and which, together with the fuel introduction means forms a rotating, toroidal vortex of the fuel and the combustion-supporting gas moving in a downstream direction. The combustion chamber has a volume sufficient to burn all of the fuel and, together with the fuel introduction means and the combustion-supporting gas introduction means, cause the vortex to collapse and form plug flow thereafter. Water introduction means introduces water into the flue gas at the downstream end of the combustion chamber as a plurality of peripherally-arranged jets.

Abstract: A combustion reactor which includes a reactor housing having an interior chamber, an inlet port at a top end of the housing and an outlet port at a bottom end thereof. The interior chamber has a circular cross-section, the diameter of which continuously increases from the inlet port to an intermediate level and then continuously decreases to the outlet port. A gas inlet conduit opens into the interior chamber adjacent to the inlet port at a location and in a direction tangent to a notional circle whose center lies on the axis of the interior chamber. By directing a high velocity flow of gas containing oxygen into the chamber tangent to the interior surface thereof and initially a combustible gas, upon ignition of the combustible gas and feeding into the inlet port combustible material, combustion of the fuel material takes place as the latter progresses from the inlet to the outlet.

Abstract: A burner for use in burning granulated solid fuel including a burner head having a combustion chamber and inlet and outlet openings at opposite ends thereof communicated with the combustion chamber. Means is provided to deliver granulated solid fuel to the inlet opening and means is provided for delivering primary combustion air to the inlet opening. The primary combustion air is preheated by passing along the burner head prior to entry to the inlet opening and a pilot assembly in the combustion chamber maintains a constant pilot during turndown of the burner. A retention barrier in the combustion chamber retains fuel particles larger than a predetermined size in the combustion chamber to insure complete incineration thereof.

Abstract: A thermal decomposition furnace in which waste tires having original shape, not broken up, can be laid horizontally and be thermally decomposed. The furnace is constructed by providing a feeder above, forming downward a fluidized bed-forming section having inlets for air, forming beneath a sealing bed-forming section of right cylindrical shape having a diameter smaller than that of fluidized bed-forming section, and installing a conveyor below said sealing bed-forming section. At the lower end of sealing bed-forming section, an oblique opening is formed so as to keep an progressively increasing clearance to the conveyor in the direction of advance of conveyor.