Patent ID: 7452392

Claim:
A process for the production of gaseous effluent product rich in hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and other fuel gases from a feed of heterogeneous organic material comprised of municipal trash, refuse, garbage, other post-consumer wastes or combinations thereof, which process comprises: (a) subjecting a feed of heterogeneous organic material in a single reaction chamber under conditions essentially devoid of free oxygen sufficient to gasify said heterogeneous organic material; wherein said gasification and pyrolysis occur via an upward countercurrent flow of a wet, oxygen-devoid thermal driver gas having sufficient heat and water content to effect anaerobic gasification and pyrolysis contacting directly a downward flowing moving bed of said heterogeneous organic material; wherein said driver gas is produced externally to said single reaction chamber; and (b) producing said gaseous effluent product and separating said product by conventional methods for subsequent use as a chemical feed stock or as a subsequent fuel; and (c) removing slag, in the form of liquid exiting the single reactor chamber and solidifying said slag under ambient conditions for optional subsequent use, with the proviso that in the reaction conditions of step (a), the hot driver gas is essentially devoid of free oxygen wherein the free oxygen content ranges from about 0 to less than 1000 ppm.