Gasification apparatus

Apparatus for effecting the high temperature gasification of solid organic feed materials having a fuel value into clean-burning and uniform gaseous fuel comprising:

• (a) a gasification reactor vessel having an upper tubular section, a lower double-shell section including an inner tubular shell element and an outer tubular shell element, said inner and outer shell elements of said lower section being affixed to one another at their upper peripheries with said inner shell element hanging freely within said outer shell element, a solid material inlet at the upper end of said upper section and a gas outlet at the lower end of said lower section, and two funnel-shaped transition pieces located in stacked relationship within the lower portion of the inner shell element of the lower reactor section providing a series of throat-like constrictions in said section leading to the gas outlet therein, said reactor vessel sections defining a sequence of reaction zones from the material inlet to the gas outlet including drying, distillation, oxidation and reduction zones and confining a centrally disposed downwardly moving column of said solid feed materials within said zones, and said lower double-shell section defining with its respective shell elements an annular shell space therebetween;
• (b) means for charging solid organic feed materials through said material inlet to continuously supply a downwardly moving column of said materials in said reactor vessel;
• (c) gas-feed means for admitting an oxygen-rich gas into said reactor vessel proximate the oxidation zone thereof so as to promote and sustain combustion of the column of organic materials passing therethrough;
• (d) means connecting the gas outlet at the lower end of said lower reaction section with the lower end of the annular shell space of said section;
• and
• (e) gas suction means in communication with the upper end of the annular shell space of the lower reactor section for sequentially drawing oxygen-rich gas into the reaction vessel through the gas-feed means, drawing reacting gases and vapors downwardly through the zones of the reactor vessel, and drawing gaseous fuel produced within said vessel outwardly through the gas outlet and thence upwardly through the annular shell space of the lower reactor section in indirect countercurrent heat exchange relationship with the materials column portion in the reduction and oxidation zones within said vessel.