APPARATUS FOR TREATING WASTE MATERIAL AND A PRODUCT GAS

Abstract

The invention relates to an apparatus for treating waste material including organic components and radioactive agents. In the apparatus the waste material including organic components and radioactive agents are gasified at temperature between 600-950° C. in a fluidized bed reactor to form a gaseous material. The gaseous material is than cooled in a water quenching device so that temperature is between 300-500° C. after the cooling. The solid fraction including radioactive agents is removed from the gaseous material in a in at least one filtration device. A gas scrubbing device then removes sulphur by scrubbing the treated gaseous material after the filtration in order to form a treated gaseous material.

Claims

1. An apparatus for treating waste material including organic components and radioactive agents to form a treated gaseous material, the apparatus comprising: a fluidized bed reactor configured to gasify the waste material including organic components and radioactive agents from the group consisting of resins, clothes, contaminated wood, and contaminated vegetable matter, wherein the radioactive agents are low-level and/or medium-level radioactive agents, using air at an air ratio greater than zero and less than 1 at temperatures between 600-950° C. to form a gaseous material, a water quenching device configured to quench the gaseous material to temperature which is between 300-500° C. after cooling by water quenching to form a cooled gaseous material, a gas cleaning device configured to remove a solid fraction by filtration carried out at temperature between 300-500° C. in at least one filtration device, including removing the radioactive agents, from the cooled gaseous material and to form a treated gaseous material, and a gas scrubbing device configured to remove sulphur by scrubbing from the treated gaseous material after the filtration.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising at least one heat exchanger for cooling the gaseous material.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the filtration device is hot gas filter.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a combustion reactor in which the treated gaseous material is burnt after the removing of the solid fraction including radioactive agents.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the treated gaseous material is burnt at temperature over 1000° C.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] In the following section, the invention will be described with the aid of detailed exemplary embodiments, referring to the accompanying figure wherein

[0031] FIG. 1 presents one embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention, and

[0032] FIG. 2 presents another embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] FIGS. 1 and 2 present the apparatuses according to the invention for treating waste material including organic components and radioactive agents.

Example 1

[0034] The apparatus of FIG. 1 comprises a fluidized bed reactor 2 in which the waste resin material 1 including organic components and radioactive agents is gasified at temperature between 750-950° C. to form a gaseous material 3, a water quenching step 4 in which the gaseous material is cooled so that temperature is between 350-450° C. after the cooling, and a metal filtration device 6 in which solid fraction 8 including radioactive agents is removed from the gaseous material 3. The waste resin material 1 may be dewatered before the gasification.

[0035] The apparatus comprises a combustion reactor 9 in which the treated gaseous material 7 is burnt at temperature over 1000° C. after the removing of the solid fraction 8 including radioactive agents. Further, the apparatus comprises a gas scrubbing device 11 for post-treating the gas flow after the combustion of the treated gaseous material. Sulphur 10 is removed from the gas flow during the gas scrubbing 11 wherein clean exhaust gas 12 is achieved.

Example 2

[0036] The apparatus of FIG. 2 comprises a fluidized bed reactor 2 in which the waste material 1 including organic components and radioactive agents is gasified at temperature between 600 950° C. to form a gaseous material 3, a heat exchanger 4 in which the gaseous material is cooled so that temperature is between 300-500° C. after the cooling, and a metal filtration device 6 in which solid fraction 8 including radioactive agents is removed from the gaseous material 3. In this example the waste material 1 comprises contaminated clothes, wood and vegetable matters.

[0037] The treated gaseous material 7 is used directly as a fuel of energy production process. The treated gaseous material may be post-treated by gas scrubbing before the using as a fuel. Alternatively, the treated gaseous material may be burnt in a combustion reactor and/or post-treated by a gas scrubbing.

[0038] The devices used in this invention are known per se in the art, and therefore they are not described in any more detail in this context.

[0039] The apparatus according to the invention is suitable in different embodiments for treating different kinds of waste material.

[0040] The invention is not limited merely to the examples referred to above; instead many variations are possible within the scope of the inventive idea defined by the claims.

[0041] As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale; some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.