Continuous thermal reactor

A thermal reactor comprising a reactor vessel defining an elongated upright reaction chamber including upper and lower end portions, a rotary distributor in the upper portion of said chamber for introducing a particulated carbonaceous feed material and preheated pebbles into said chamber and a residue outlet in the lower portion of said chamber for withdrawing the pyrolyzed residue therefrom, a separator in the lower portion of said chamber for separating the pyrolized residue from the pebbles, a pebble lift conduit having upper and lower end portions and extending longitudinally of said chamber having a pebble inlet in the lower end thereof and a pebble outlet in the upper end portion thereof, conveying means in said lift conduit for conveying separated pebbles from said pebble inlet upwardly for discharge from said pebble outlet into said rotary distributor, gas supply means disposed in communication with said lift conduit for introducing an oxidizing gas for combustion of the carbonaceous residue on the pebbles and to provide a preheating of said pebbles during their ascending movement, vent means disposed in communication with the upper portion of said lift conduit for withdrawing said oxidizing gas and combustion products exteriorly of said chamber, supply means for supplying feed material to said rotary distributor, drive means for rotating said rotary distributor for mixing a portion of the preheated pebbles with the feed material in the form of a downwardly moving columnar reaction mass and for distributing the remaining portion of the pebbles substantially devoid of any feed material in the form of a downwardly moving upstream layer and a downwardly moving downstream layer overlying and surrounding said reaction mass, a gas inlet for introducing a gas into said reaction chamber along a region intermediate of said rotary distributor and said separator for passage substantially transversely through said upstream layer, said reaction mass and said downstream layer;

• and a gas outlet for withdrawing the gas and gaseous pyrolysis products from said reaction chamber along a region disposed adjacent the said downstream layer and transversely spaced from said gas inlet.