Material processing system and method

Abstract

The present invention presents a system for and method of processing a particulate material, for example carbonaceous materials, food products or minerals, to produce a processed material having more desirable properties. The method comprises the steps of: introducing the particulate material into a chamber; providing a flow of fluid into said chamber for entraining the particulate material via inlets at a lower end of the chamber; and providing an exhaust of fluid out of the chamber via an outlet at an upper end of the chamber. The chamber comprises a processing zone having a substantially circular transverse cross-section, the fluid flow being introduced into the processing zone at a non-perpendicular angle with respect to a tangent of the substantially circular transverse cross-section of the processing zone to establish a fluid flow following a substantially helical path in the processing chamber. Said processing zone is provided in a central region of said chamber. Individual particulate material during processing in the processing zone is entrained by the fluid flow exceeding the terminal velocity of the particulate material, exits the processing zone in a radially outward direction, circulates to a base of the chamber and then returns to the processing zone in a repeated cycle. Individual particulate material can increase in mass or aggregate to form a mass of particulate material with larger mass during processing until its terminal velocity exceeds the fluid flow and thereby exits the processing zone by descending through an opening at the base of the chamber under gravity. A toroidal bed reactor is also provided.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.