Waste to energy system and process for solid waste feedstock
AssigneesJanak H. Handa, Hossam Gaber
InventorsHossam Gaber, Emmanuel Galiwango, Mustafa Abdalmejeed Mansour Aldeeb, Sharif Abu Darda
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Abstract
A waste conversion apparatus and a method of implementing the apparatus are provided. The apparatus includes a control system, and a feedstock analysis system or output analysis system. A plasma forming device within a reactor of the waste conversion apparatus is controlled by the control system to apply a plasma arc to a supply of waste feedstock supplied to the system. Integrated feedback control is provided to the plasma forming device based on an analysis by the feedback analysis system to characterize of the supply of waste feedstock, and/or an analysis by the output analysis system to characterize a gas product from the reactor.
Claims15
An apparatus for plasma-based conversion of solid waste feedstock into hydrocarbon gaseous products using closed-loop control, the apparatus comprising:
- a reactor vessel defining a reactor chamber including an inlet, at least one plasma forming device for generating a plasma arc within the reactor chamber and an outlet conduit for expelling at least one gaseous product from the reactor chamber;
- a continuous feed-in unit positioned for feeding a supply of solid waste feedstock to the inlet of the reactor chamber;
- a feedstock analysis system being positioned to collect and analyze a sample from the supply of solid waste feedstock fed along the continuous feed-in unit, the feedstock analysis system including at least one physicochemical sensor for detecting at least one physicochemical characteristic of the sample of solid waste feedstock, and at least one spectral sensor for detecting at least one spectral characteristic of the sample of solid waste feedstock;
- and
- a control system being connected to the feedstock analysis system and to the at least one plasma forming device of the reactor vessel, and including at least one processor programmed with computer executable instructions to:
- characterize a composition of hydrocarbon-containing materials in the sample of solid waste feedstock based at least on the at least one physicochemical characteristic and at least one spectral characteristic detected by the feedstock analysis system;
- and
- control the at least one plasma forming device, based at least on the composition of hydrocarbon-containing materials in the sample of solid waste feedstock, to apply heat at a target temperature profile, for a target time interval, to the supply of solid-waste feedstock to form the at least one gaseous product.
The apparatus according to 1, wherein the target temperature profile and target time interval are determined by the control system based at least on the composition of hydrocarbon-containing materials characterized by the feedstock analysis system.
An apparatus for plasma-based conversion of solid waste feedstock into hydrocarbon gaseous products, the apparatus comprising:
- a reactor vessel defining a reactor chamber including:
- an inlet;
- at least one plasma forming device for generating a plasma arc therewithin;
- and
- an outlet conduit for expelling at least one gaseous product from the reactor chamber, the at least one gaseous product having a target composition of hydrocarbon-containing materials;
- a continuous feed-in unit positioned for feeding the supply of solid waste feedstock to the inlet of the reactor chamber;
- an output analysis system including at least one gas composition sensor positioned to detect at least one physicochemical characteristic or at least one spectral characteristic of the at least one gaseous product from the reactor chamber;
- and
- a control system being connected to the output analysis system and the at least one plasma forming device and including at least one processor programmed with computer executable instructions to:
- control the at least one plasma forming device to apply heat at a target temperature profile, for a target time interval, to the supply of solid-waste feedstock to form the at least one gaseous product having the target composition of hydrocarbon-containing materials;
- determine an actual composition of the at least one gaseous product based on the at least one physicochemical characteristic or at least one spectral characteristic of the at least one gaseous product;
- and
- adjust at least one of the target time interval and the target temperature profile of heat applied by the at least one plasma forming device based on a detected difference between the target composition of the at least one gaseous product and the actual composition of the at least one gaseous product.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.