Patent ID: 6855183

Claim:
A method for producing stainless steel using a plasma generator a. wherein the plasma generator comprises i. a vessel having a front side, a back side, bottom side, a first side, a second side, a third side, and a feed ramp; ii. a feed system with a sealable opening disposed in the front for supplying waste to the vessel; iii. a moveable non-transferred plasma arc torch disposed in at least one side of said vessel for contacting said waste creating molten material; iv. a moveable transferred plasma arc torch for contacting the molten material wherein the transferred torch is disposed in at least one side of said vessel; v. at least one steam injector disposed in at least one side of said vessel; vi. at least one molten material outlet disposed in the back of said vessel; vii. at least one stainless steel outlet disposed in the back of said vessel; viii. at least one gas outlet disposed in the third side of the vessel for transferring gas from the vessel to a dry scrubber having a dry scrubber outlet; ix. a wet scrubber connected to the dry scrubber outlet for receiving gas from the dry scrubber, and further scrubbing said gas and passing said gas to a wet scrubber outlet; b. heating the vessel; c. loading scrap metal waste comprising steel into the heated vessel; d. melting the loaded scrap metal waste comprising steel to a molten state in the heated vessel by first using a non-transferred plasma arc torch to cut and melt the scrap metal waste and then using a second transferred plasma arc torch to maintain the liquid state of the scrap metal waste; e. adding an additional 4 tons of steel to the heated vessel creating a molten metal pool with a minimum operating depth; f. raising the heated vessel temperature to an operating temperature of at least 2000 degrees Centigrade; g. acquiring EPA category MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE, HAZARDOUS WASTE and/or SPECIAL WASTE to load into the vessel, wherein the EPA category MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE, HAZARDOUS WASTE and/or SPECIAL WASTE comprises a portion of stainless steel; h. loading said EPA category MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE, HAZARDOUS WASTE and/or SPECIAL WASTE into the heated vessel at a defined rate per hour; i. transforming the EPA category MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE, HAZARDOUS WASTE and/or SPECIAL WASTE into molten material with the non-transferred plasma arc torch by cutting and heating said EPA category MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE, HAZARDOUS WASTE and/or SPECIAL WASTE; j. maintaining the molten material status of the waste by further melting any non-melted EPA category MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE, HAZARDOUS WASTE and/or SPECIAL WASTE into a molten status with the transferred plasma arc torch; and k. removing the portion of stainless steel in molten form from the molten metal pool through the stainless steel outlet.