Patent ID: 6101958
Filing Date: 2000-08-15
Classification: F23G

Abstract:
A method of operating an apparatus for thermal degradation of a waste material, comprising the steps of:(a) thermally reacting a first waste material to be degraded with air in a reaction chamber to at least partly decompose said waste material and produce a gas;(b) passing the gas produced in step (a) through a waste-heat boiler downstream of said reaction chamber and recovering heat from said gas;(c) recovering from a second waste material an additive fuel which is separate from the waste material reacted in step (a) and which is in dust, powder or granular form and introducing said additive fuel into said reaction chamber as a supplemental fuel separately from said first waste material to be degraded;(d) measuring at least one parameter selected from a released thermal energy in said reaction chamber, the spatial temperature distribution in the reaction chamber, and a temperature at an outlet from said reaction chamber;(e) controlling feed of said subdivided additive fuel into said reaction chamber in response to said parameter: and(f) admitting said additive fuel into said reaction chamber only when conditions exist in said reaction chamber enabling autoignition of the substitute fuel.