APPARATUS FOR THE TREATMENT OF GRANULATED LIQUID SLAG IN A HORIZONTAL FURNACE

Abstract

Improvements to the gasifier furnace design and process method to facilitate continuous production of mainly H.sub.2, CO and granulated solid from molten liquid or the liquid slag in the presence of carbonaceous material. It is a method of quenching molten liquid and cooling post quenched hot granulated solid which is done within a long horizontal reaction chamber space of the furnace in the presence of C and H.sub.2O. A moving layer of continuously gas cooled granulated solid protects the moving floor underneath by substantially reducing the possibility of heat transfer from the horizontal reaction chamber to such moving floor and its parts and preventing direct contact between the post quenched hot solid granulates and such moving floor. Such moving floor having plurality of gas passages and is disposed above a plenum that receives gas from outside source and uniformly distributes the gas to pass through all the gas passages.

Claims

1. The base of a horizontal furnace when in operation is; a) covered by a moving layer of granulated solid material which is continuously introduced from one end of the furnace; b) to form a layer above a moving floor having plurality of gas passages to pass the received gas from underneath as updraft above and across the length and width of such moving floor and consequentially through such entire moved layer of the granulated solid material; c) such moving floor is disposed above a plenum that receive the gas from outside the furnace and uniformly distribute the gas underneath all such gas passages; d) such plenum having at least one opening to receive gas from a source external to the furnace; and e) such moving layer of the granulated solid material is removed continuously from the other end of the furnace which is opposite to the end where it was introduced into the furnace as in (a).

2. The furnace as in claim 1 comprises: (01) at least one opening (01a) to receive the liquid slag or molten liquid; (02) at least one divider of received liquid slag or the molten liquid stream to divide the received liquid slag or molten liquid into plurality of thinner streams (02a) and make them fall by gravity; (03) at least one spray member (03a) disposed to spray coolant on to the falling (02a) to simultaneously fragment (02a), quench (02a) and solidify (02a) into hot granulates (02b); (04) at least one opening to receive the granulated solid slag or any other granulated solid material (04a) which is maintained at near ambient temperature when received into the furnace; (05) at least one opening to receive solid material (05a) other than (04a); (06) at least one opening to receive gas, liquid and powdered fines (06a); (07) at least one opening to exit the gas (07a) formed inside the furnace; and (08) at least one opening to exit the solid (08a) formed inside the furnace; wherein (01), (02), (03), (04), (05), (06), (07) and (08) further comprise method and steps: i. to move the movable floor having plurality gas passages forwards in the direction of (08a); ii. evenly spread (04a) across the width of the moving floor having plurality gas passages; iii. evenly spread (05a) which is an option, across and above the width of (04a); iv. inject gas into the plenum from an outside source; v. spray coolant through (03a), receive the liquid slag or molten liquid and direct the coolant spray on to (02a) in such way to make the (02b) fall evenly across the width of the (04a) or (05a); vi. inject (06a) which is an option; vii. receive the gas formed inside the furnace from (07a); and viii. receive from (08a) a mixture of (04a) with (02b) and any other remaining residual of (05a) and (06a) if (05a) and (06a) were introduced into the furnace.

3. The furnace as in claim 1 or as in claim 1 and claim 2 further comprises at least one plasma electrode and heat delivery torch.

4. The furnace as in claim 1 and claim 2 is coupled to at least one liquid slag or the molten liquid reservoir.

5. The furnace as in claim 1 or as in claim 1 and claim 2 further comprise at least one opening to receive catalyst material and at least one opening to exit such received catalyst material.

6. The base of a horizontal furnace as in claim 1 when in operation is; a) covered by a moving layer of carbonaceous material spread over a moving floor having plurality of gas passages or the layer of the carbonaceous material which is continuously introduced and spread over a moving layer of granulated solid material which is continuously introduced from one side of the furnace; b) to form a layer above a moving floor having plurality of gas passages to pass the received gas from above as downdraft below and across the length and width of such moving floor and consequentially through such entire moved layer of the carbonaceous material or the layer of the carbonaceous material over the layer of the granulated solid material; c) such moving floor is disposed above a plenum that receive the gas from above through such gas passages; d) such plenum having at least one exit opening connected with a mechanical blower to suck gas into the plenum and deliver the gas outside the furnace; and e) such moving layer of the carbonaceous material or the layer of carbonaceous material over the layer of the granulated solid material is removed from the other end of the furnace which is opposite to the end where it was introduced into the furnace as in (a).

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0050] FIG. 1 is a schematic cross section of the preferred embodiment comprising horizontal furnace (001) with a corresponding horizontal reactor chamber space (002) which is internally surrounded in the base mostly by movable floor disposed with plurality reactant gas injecting passages herein referred to as movable floor (003), insulated ceiling (004) and insulated wails (005) comprising:

[0051] a plenum (006) to support the movable floor from below and to inject externally cleaned and cooled industrial flue exhaust (016) or air (016a) or their combination thereof (016b) into the reactor chamber space via inlet (007k),

[0052] means (007) to prevent outside atmosphere air entering the reactor chamber from any inlet and outlet in the furnace other than through the plenum inlet (007k),

[0053] Inlet (007a) to introduce a layer of externally cooled ambient granulated solid slag herein referred to as cold slag (008) or any other similar type of material, into the reactor chamber and spread across the width of the movable floor,

[0054] inlet (007b) to introduce a layer of the carbonaceous material (009) or a mixture of carbonaceous material and flux material (009a) into the reactor chamber and spread above and across the layer width of the cold slag,

[0055] inlet (007c) to introduce reactant (011) into the reactor chamber and spray (010) the reactant,

[0056] inlet (007d) to introduce molten slag (012) into the reactor chamber space and a means to divide the molten slag stream into smaller streams and fragment (013) the smaller stream of molten slag by spraying reactant across the falling small stream,

[0057] outlet (007e) to remove the mixture of hot solid materials (013) from the reactor chamber and such outlet located after the movable floor,

[0058] outlet (007m) to remove the produced hot gas stream (014) from the reactor chamber, wherein the method and steps to produce hot gas stream (014) containing mainly H.sub.2, CO (014a) and hot mixture of solid materials (013) containing mainly granulated slag (008a, 017b) comprising;

[0059] switching on the movable floor to move forward towards the outlet (007e) to remove the mixture of hot solid materials (013),

[0060] injecting the reactant gas (016, 016a, 016b) into the plenum via inlet (007k),

[0061] introducing the cold granulated slag into the reactor and continuing until such layer of the cold granulated slag (008a) covers the width and length of the movable floor and begin to exit the reactor chamber from the outlet (007e),

[0062] introducing the carbonaceous material (009) or the mixture of carbonaceous and flux materials (009a) into the reactor chamber until such layer (009b) covers the width and length of the cold slag layer (008a) and begin to exit the reactor chamber from the outlet (007e),

[0063] simultaneously introducing the reactant and the molten slag into the reactor chamber, divide the received molten slag into plurality of thinner streams, make them fall by gravity while spraying the reactant (010) onto the falling thinner stream and fragment thinner stream molten slag (017a) in the reactor chamber space to produce hot granulated solid slag (017b) and

[0064] receiving the produced hot stream of gas (014) containing mainly H.sub.2 and CO (014a), hot mixture of solid materials containing mainly layer of cold slag (008a), layer of hot granulated solid slag (017b) and the layer of formed residue from the layer of carbonaceous material (009a) or the layer of the mixed carbonaceous and flux material (009b) for further downstream processing.

[0065] The molten slag inlet (007d) of the reactor chamber connected to an outlet (018) of an externally located molten slag reservoir (019).

[0066] Inlet (007f) to introduce gaseous or liquid or powdered solid carbonaceous material or their mixture thereof (009a, 009b, 009c, 009d) after the molten slag inlet (007d). The reactor chamber in between the inlet (007d) and the outlet (007e) is considered as reactor chamber space (002) wherein all thereto-chemical reactions occur.

[0067] The first, second and third stage thermo-chemical reactions would occur above 800 C. throughout the reactor chamber space (002). This is based on Boudouard reaction and Ellingham drawing. It states the formation free energy of carbon dioxide (CO2) is almost independent of temperature, while that of carbon monoxide (CO) has negative slope and crosses the CO.sub.2 line near 700 C. According to the Boudouard reaction, carbon monoxide is the dominant oxide of carbon at higher temperatures (above about 700 C.), and the higher the temperature (above 700 C.) the more effective a reductant (reducing agent) carbon.

[0068] Inlet (007g) to introduce and outlet (007h) to remove catalyst pellets or flux or carbonaceous material or the mixture of carbonaceous and flux material from the reactor chamber section are disposed after the reactor chamber space outlet (007e). This purpose is to expose the produced hot gas after the third stage thermo-chemical reaction to catalyst pellets or flux or carbonaceous material or the mixture of carbonaceous and flux material. This would potentially generate a hot gas stream with maximum possible concentration of either H.sub.2 or CO or their mixture with required H.sub.2: CO ratio from all the inputs. This would result from the thermo-chemical reactions occurring below 800 C. for example as in a Water Gas Shift process.

[0069] Operational plasma electrodes and heat delivery torches or similar means (020) are disposed in the reactor chamber space to enhance the thermo-chemical reactions.

[0070] The preferred embodiment can further purify the produced hot H.sub.2+CO or covert any remaining hot CO.sub.2 contained in such gas streams into CO. For this purpose, the hot gas is made to flow as downdraft through a bed of solid granulated carbonaceous material which is moved by the moving floor having plurality of gas passages. Alternatively, a layer of carbonaceous material is spread over a cold layer of moving granulated solid material. The hot CO.sub.2 gas react with carbonaceous material to produce CO and simultaneously get cooled during the process. The cooled gas is collected from the plenum underneath and is drawn outside the furnace from the exits located in the bottom of the plenum. In this case, there can be plurality of exits fitted with mechanical blowers and such exits distributed evenly across the length and width of the plenum bottom. This arrangement would facilitate the cooled gas being uniformly sucked into the plenum throughout the underneath of the moving floor having plurality gas passages.

REFERENCES

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