Reactor for Waste Gasification with Highly Superheated Steam

Abstract

Using highly superheated steam (HSS) with a temperature of above 2000 K for oxygen-free gasification/detoxification of industrial, municipal, and toxic waste, the organic component of waste can be completely converted to syngas or power gas. It was proposed for the first time to produce such HSS by cyclic detonation of stoichiometric ternary mixtures fuel–oxygen–steam at a near-atmospheric initial pressure and to feed it into a cooled flow-type spherical reactor as supersonic countercurrent two-phase jets together with finely divided waste particles. Three-dimensional gas-dynamic calculations showed that the cyclic feed of supersonic jets into the reactor gives rise to intense vortex zones of high-temperature HSS. Waste particles repeatedly enter into these vortex zones and are gasified or heat-treated, and the shock waves accompanying the feed of the supersonic jets prevent particle agglomeration. In the quasi-stationary operation process, a small overpressure is maintained in the reactor (to prevent the suction of atmospheric air), and the median mean residence time of the particles is sufficient for their complete gasification.