Patent ID: 6843185

Claim:
An apparatus for combining oxygen and fuel to produce a mixture to be burned in a burner, the apparatus comprising a fuel supply system including a solid-fuel conduit formed to include a fuel transport passageway, the solid-fuel conduit including a side wall formed to include oxygen-injection holes opening into the fuel transport passageway, and first oxygen conductor means for conducting a first stream of oxygen through the oxygen-injection holes formed in the side wall of the solid-fuel conduit to mix with fluidized, pulverized, solid fuel conducted through the fuel transport passageway prior to combustion to produce an oxygen-enriched, not spontaneously combustible, oxygen-fuel transport mixture, wherein the first oxygen conductor means includes a first oxygen-supply housing formed to include first and second openings, an oxygen chamber adapted to receive a supply of oxygen, and an oxygen inlet adapted to admit oxygen into the oxygen chamber, and the solid-fuel conduit extends through the first and second openings to place the oxygen-injection holes in the oxygen chamber to allow oxygen extant in the oxygen chamber to flow through the oxygen-injection holes into the fuel transport passageway formed in the solid-fuel conduit.