CA2339457A1 - Gas and energy generation system - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention was developed to change a faulty system of using landfills for waste or just moving it from place to place without solving a growing problem. This invention takes any waste material and processes it all by combining several known technologies that work in concert to process the entire waste into usable commodities.
The energy derived from municipal solid waste that includes almost every combustible material there is and a certain amount of non-combustibles. The combustibles are converted to gases and the ash residue, that is composed of ash, carbon and non-combustibles, is diverted to a separate chamber where it is vitrilized with a plasma torch and the molten material is poured into molds to make unleachable flag stones or it can be crushed into filler material for asphalt, concrete or used as road bed material.
The gases are burned at a high temperature, which destroys all the smoke and other pollutants. The heat derived therefrom is channeled through a heat exchanger and steam boiler to power a turbine that in turn drives a generator or alternator to generate electricity. The electricity powers the fans, pumps, compressors and motors for the material handling throughout the entire system. The waste heat from the turbine is diverted to the thermophilic digesters that stimulates the production of enzymes to digest sewage leaving only irrigation water or in cases where water is scarce it too can be treated and recycled or made potable.
The Thermophilic digester uses the waste heat from the turbine and any fumes that are emitted by the sewage digester are drawn into the after burner of the gas generator or that smelly air can first be used to aerate the sewage to provide oxygen to enhance bacterial action. It is injected into perforated pipes in the sewage tanks where it not only aerates the sludge but simultaneously, convectively circulates the said sludge, eliminating the need of a mechanical paddle system.
In the event the waste contains any heavy metals it is melted in the plasma oven and becomes imbedded in unleachable flagstones, asphalt or concrete.
The invention provides a safe and economic method to recycle waste to energy without polluting the air, land or groundwater's.

Description

A SERIES OF PROVEN TECHNOLOGIES WORKING TOGETHER TO
RECYCLE WASTE INTO USEFUL COMMODITIES OR USABLE
ENERGY
SPECIFICATIONS AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention is the result of observing the wasteful and inefficient manner municipal solid waste (MSW) is handled by storing it in land fills or moving it from one place to another only to find that in due course it is polluting the land, air and ground waters.
It is well known that the costs are now out of hand and City Councils, Industry Managers and every body needs to be concerned at the damage being done to the planet by improperly handling waste.
The invention, which is a combination of technologies working in concert, is a solution that can solve the garbage problem. No one of these good systems, working alone, can do the job There are incinerator systems that can bum waste but they all pollute the air and produce a lot of ash that, in some cases, is loaded with heavy metals. A
real good system that gases combustible vi~aste is an important step in the chain of experiments but it also pollutes the air and leaves the same unacceptable ash.
A third system has been developed whereby the gases can be safely burned at a high temperature that destroys the bad elements and consumes the smoke but this method does not deal with the ash problem either. There is now a method whereby vitrilification of the ash with a plasma torch not only completes the gasification of combustibles present in the ash such as carbon but melts the non combustibles like tire wire, cans, nails, heavy metals etc and the molten material is poured into flag stone molds or crushed when cooled for use as filler for asphalt, concrete or road beds. This glassy product is absolutely unleachable and will not pollute the air or ground water.
The above combination of systems used by this invention can make land fills unnecessary and totally recycle the waste but there remains two major faults in spite of the good technologies referred to above.
They are the cost which is enormous and the tremendous waste of energy that could more than offset the handling cost by converting said wasted energy into marketable electricity.
The invention can utilize all the heat energy created by burning the gases and vitrification of the ash to convert said heat to electrical energy.

This is a standard procedure to convert super heat to steam with a water-cooled heat exchanger and a boiler to drive a turbine to power a generator or an alternator.
The sale of the electricity makes for a profitable enterprise for the plant and a saving for the community. The true environmentalist will find this system is a friend of the environment. The used steam heat exhausted from the turbine can be used for heating purposes or best diverted, with air, into the thermophilic digesters to hasten the processing of the sewage by enhancing the production of enzymes that digest the solids.
The digesters emit no bad smells that invariably occur when lagoons are used as the fumes from the digesters is drawn into the after burner, heat treated and discharged as clean air.
This invention constitutes a combination of unique technologies none of which can do the job alone but, by working in concert, the waste problems can be completely resolved without polluting the air, land or ground waters.

DISCLOSURE - DETAILED DECRIPTION OF THE INVENTION AND
DRAWINGS
D(1 ) The invention consists of a combination of technologies that working individually are unable to achieve the desired objective but working in concert they can convert waste into usable energy and process wastes without damaging the environment.
D(2) The waste material, be it tires, plastic, paper, hulls or the multi mix called municipal solid waste, including tires, is delivered to the receiving hopper at the plant site by truck from where it is fed into a coarse shredder and transferred up conveyor (1) on the drawing into the feed hopper (2) and the augur (3) discharges it in a steady flow into the gas chamber(4).
D(3) Gas~cation commences immediately in the preheated gas chamber (4) where the temperature has reached 1600 F with outside fuel that is turned off, except a pilot light, kept on as a safety measure, as soon as the feeding of the shredded waste is commenced.
D(4) Only enough oxygen (air) is allowed into the chamber to bum enough gas to maintain the desired temperature. The gases and smoke rise through the throat (5)and mixed with air in the mixer (6) and the burn commences in the afterburner (7) where the temperature soon rises to about 2000F.
D(5) The heat created by burning the gases and smoke from the gas generator (4) in the burner (7) rises to about 2000 F . The burner (7) is sized to allow approx. 2 seconds burning time that destroys most of the pollutants and all of the smoke.
D(6) The hot exhaust exits out of burner (7) through a heat exchanger (8) and the preheated water, that keeps the temperature of the exchanger from getting to hot, continuously feeds the steam boiler (9) to replace the steam driving the turbine (10). The exhaust, now cooler, could be diverted into a scrubber, if perfection is desired, or it can be released up the stack (11 ) or used to heat a building depending on its proximity D(7) The steam generated in boiler (9) is released into turbine (10) that powers a gear box (12) to reduce the speed of the out put shaft that drives the generator / alternator (13) at the recommended speed.
D(8) The electricity produced is used to power all the plant components and the surplus is sold to a customer or to the power pool.
The steam exhausted from the turbine (10) is injected into the digesters (14) and (15) with air to enhance the production of enzymes and to provide them with oxygen as well as stir the tanks to prevent sludge build up which eliminates the need for paddles.
D(9) The raw sewage pump (16) injects the sewage into the digesters (14) and (15) where the steam heated bacteria is digesting the solids at a more rapid rate. The gases and odors that would normally emit from sewage and drift down wind are confined in the digester and drawn off by fan (17) and burned in burner (7).
D(10) Periodically the processed sewage is removed from the digesters (14) and (15) by pump (16) into a fine screen unit (19) to remove the undigested fibrous material that is a premium fertilizer and sends the water out to irrigation or to be recycled as the case may be.
D(11 ) The ash that is being produced by the gas generator (4) and discharged into the ash pot (19) is super heated with a plasma torch (20). Any gases from incomplete gasification of material in chamber (4) which is largely carbon is gasified by the plasma torch (20) and both the heat and the gases rise into the gas generator (4) on their way out with the other gases to burner (7) while the plasma torch (20) vitrilizes all the non-combustibles that consist of metals, wire, rust, rocks, dirt, cinders etc. They are all melted in the intense heat and drained out the overflow (21 ) into flagstone molds (22).
D(12) The end result is the system has converted all the waste into useful commodities including electricity, fertilizer, irrigation or recycled water and vitrified unleachable ash products.
D(13) The performance of this assembly of technologies will be enhanced by the acquisition and application of electronically operated micro processor data acquisition and control. This closed loop system will self monitor and self regulate each component to assure consistency to the best world standards of performance and efficiency related to air quality and emissions.
D(14) This invention is an association of units, none of which could do the job alone in an acceptable manner, but by working in concert, with each technology doing its part well, the end result is an environment friendly operation that converts waste into usable commodities on an economically sound basis and that no longer needs land fill sites.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows.

C(1) The claims made herein define a total process by combining many good and proven technologies that can eliminate major garbage problems by recycling waste and converting it into energy. It is a gross waste of free fuel to bury garbage made doubly evil by spending big money to truck it out of the country as happens in some areas.

C(2) This invention can use garbage instead of fossil fuel to safely generate electricity which is such basic common sense every tax payer in the country should be pressing for this change.

C(3) This invention enables the garbage collectors to handle the waste just once by delivering it to a plant that can convert it all into usable commodities at a profit to the plant owner and at a meaningful saving to the community.

C(4) Land fill sites are a waste of valuable land that is never ending as the sites fill which this invention can prevent.

C(5) Billions of cubic feet of natural gas is being burned every day to generate electricity. Using the garbage for fuel by this invention could reduce the waste of that asset which is worth much more when converted to an array of useful plastic products while helping save our shrinking forests.

C(6) The methane that is escaping from the many monstrous land fills, now known as mistakes, constitutes another serious stress on a fragile environment that this invention could eventually reverse.

C(7) The combination of technologies, involved in this invention, working as a unit can revolutionize the recycling of waste tires, plastic, garbage and other combustibles in one location without pollution of the air or waters and convert all that fuel which is actually free energy into electricity to help meet an ever increasing demand.

C(8) None of these unique technologies can eliminate the garbage economically or without damage to the environment working alone but by compliance with this invention and working together they can do the job efficiently at a reasonable profit while complying with the most rigid environmental regulations.

C(9) The invention can eliminate garbage and other waste without emitting smoke or releasing obnoxious odors from the gasification operation or the digesting of the sewage.