Patent ID: 7217302

Claim:
Process for the recovery of chemicals and energy from spent liquor obtained in a chemical pulping process comprising: gasifying the spent liquor under sub-stoichiometric conditions in a burner to produce partly at least one phase of solid and/or fused material and partly at least one phase of a flammable gaseous material; removing the phases from the burner and then cooling the phases by direct contact with a cooling medium; and separating the phase of solid and/or fused material from the phase of flammable gaseous material such that the solid and/or fused material is dissolved and collected as a product liquid in a product liquid receiver, wherein the cooling medium consists of an essentially water-free cooling medium, which cooling medium is at least partly vaporized or cracked, whereby the vaporized/cracked cooling medium is drawn off together with the phase of flammable gaseous material, and the cooling medium after vaporizing/cracking increases the calorific value of the flammable gaseous material relative to the calorific value of the flammable gaseous material without addition of the essentially water-free cooling medium.