Mobile solid waste gasification unit

Abstract

A mobile waste gasification system comprised of a container, at least one gasification chamber, and a produced fuel gas combustion chamber, and may include a control room. Waste material is loaded into a suspended mesh liner that is offset away from the walls of the gasification chamber, thereby increasing the surface area of waste materials that are exposed to gasification conditions, and thus decreasing gasification temperature, time, and cooling period between subsequent gasification procedures. Process gas and supplemental flaring gases are preferably comprised of an oxygen or hydrogen rich gas. Produced fuel gases are withdrawn from the gasification chamber and into the produced fuel gas combustion chamber. The produced fuel gas combustion chamber may be comprised of a maze ignition chamber for the flaring of said fuel gases. Alternatively, the fuel chamber may be comprised of a gas accumulation tank that stores the produced fuel gas.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 518,245, filed Nov. 7, 2003, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 561,936, filed Apr. 14, 2004, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. This application also claims the benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 632,043, filed on Jul. 31, 2003, which in turn is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 439,398, filed on May 16, 2003, which in turn claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application 60 / 381,958, filed on May 17, 2002, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] [Not Applicable]MICROFICHE / COPYRIGHT REFERENCE [0003] [Not Applicable]BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0004] Many attempts have been made at creating waste disposal systems that eliminate or reduce the need to landfill municipal solid waste. Traditional approaches have included incineration and pyrolisis. C...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0032] The present invention is directed to an apparatus that converts combustible solids, sludges, and liquids into a usable non-fossil fuel gas. More particularly, the present invention relates to a self-contained mobile gasification unit that includes at least one gasification chamber and a produced fuel gas combustion chamber. Additionally, the present invention may be adapted to also include a control room, wherein the gasification chamber, produced fuel ga...

Problems solved by technology

Conventional incineration however is objectionable because the high burn temperatures result in the formation of complex pollutants that are difficult and expensive to control.

Furthermore, the vast majority of incinerated organic material is converted into undesirable carbon dioxide and nitrous oxides, which are implicated in global warming, ozone layer depletion, and the formation of volatile organic compounds which contribute to smog problems in urban areas.

However, the high temperature, depleted oxygen environment of pyrolisis creates some extremely toxic compounds.

Furthermore, pyrolisis is an inefficient method for disposing large volumes of waste materials due to the requirement that pyrolisis feed stocks must be pre-sorted and processed.

However, conventional gasification systems have proved to be somewhat difficult to cost-effectively construct.

These systems have high capital costs.

The permanency of such systems prohibits the ability to move the waste disposal systems to a areas of need as job demands change or vary over time.

Yet, higher gasification temperatures tend to reduce the Btu content of the resulting produced fuel gas.

Longer cycle durations also greatly reduce the overall capacity of the system.

Furthermore, the costs associated with obtaining and maintaining higher gasification temperatures, along with the cost of fabricating a complex gasification reactor chamber that can withstand prolonged exposure to high temperatures, also increase.

Application of refractory material is thus labor intensive, time consuming, and a significantly expensive step.

Additionally, the weight of the refractory liner necessitates a expensive, high strength gasification chamber construction, such as a steel vessel constructed from at least {fraction (1/4)} inch thick hot rolled A36 steel plate and heavy structurals.

This additional weight of the superstructure further increases the overall cost of manufacturing, shipping, and installation.

An additional problem with the use of refractory material is the length of time required for cooling the gasification reactor chamber before it can be re-used to gasify a subsequent load of solid waste material.

More specifically, a subsequent gasification process typically cannot begin until the gasification reactor chamber has cooled to approximately 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

Yet, at the end of a process cycle, the clay refractory material tends to retain heat for a long period of time.

The limited waste load capacity of prior art gasification systems often required the construction of multiple gasification reactor chambers to meet demand requirements.

As the length of the rectangular sidewalls is increased to satisfy larger feed stock capacity requirements, the size of the gasification reactor chamber creates problems associated with load density in various fee...

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