Patent ID: 8475548

Claim:
A reactor for the gasification of solid and liquid fuels in an entrained-flow at temperatures between 1200 and 1900° C. and pressures between ambient pressure and 10 MPa, comprising: a burner comprising a burner outlet; a pressure shell; a cooling screen comprising cooling tubes enclosing a gasification chamber, comprising a first end fixed with respect to the pressure shell and defining an outlet, and a second end associated with the burner outlet, wherein the second end is free to thermally expand in a direction of a central axis of the reactor, and wherein the first end, the second end, the burner outlet, and the cooling screen are disposed concentric with the reactor central axis; a bellows compensator concentric with the reactor central axis and connected to the cooling screen second end, configured to accommodate thermal expansion of the cooling screen wherein the pressure shell and cooling screen are separated by an annular gap disposed therebetween, wherein the bellows compensator maintains gas-tightness between the annular gap and the gasification chamber, and a fluid conduit that provides fluid communication between pilot burner fuel gas upstream of the burner and the annular gap, effective to enable pressurization of the annular gap with pilot burner fuel gas, wherein the reactor operates with an oxidizing agent containing free oxygen and on fuels selected from the group consisting of: finely-pulverized coals of differing ranks, petrol cokes, other solid carbonaceous materials, oils, oil-solids and water-solids suspensions, and wherein an overpressure with respect to the gasification chamber is established and maintained in the annular gap between the pressure shell and the cooling screen by the fluid conduit such that the reactor operates with a steady state pressure difference.