Apparatus for the pyrolysis of comminuted solid carbonizable materials

Apparatus for pyrolyzing comminuted solid organic materials to form a hydrocarbon gas-vapor mixture and a solid carbonaceous residue which comprises:

• (a) a substantially horizontally disposed elongated tubular reactor vessel having end walls and forming a pyrolysis reaction zone, said vessel having a solid materials inlet conduit at one end thereof and a solid residue outlet conduit and a gas-vapor mixture outlet conduit at the other end thereof;
• (b) a jacket arranged coaxially around said reactor vessel and having end walls thereby forming an annular heating zone with said vessel, said reactor vessel presenting an inner heating zone wall of substantially uniform diameter throughout its length and said jacket presenting an outer heating zone wall of substantially uniformly decreasing dimension from the forward end of said heating zone proximate the outlet conduits of the pyrolysis reaction zone to the rearward end of said heating zone proximate the inlet conduit of said reaction zone whereby the annular cross-sectional area of the heating zone is of uniform configuration throughout the length of said zone and decreases substantially uniformly from said forward end to said rearward end, and said jacket having an exhaust gas outlet conduit positioned at a point below said reactor vessel and proximate the rearward end of said heating zone;
• (c) feed means in communication with said solid materials inlet conduit for introducing comminuted solid organic materials into said reactor vessel through said solid materials conduit under conditions to effectively exclude oxygen-containing gases therefrom;
• (d) means for conveying said comminuted solid organic materials through said vessel as an agitated moving bed of said materials;
• (e) multiple burner means for introducing combusting mixtures of fuel and air into said annular heating zone tangentially to the wall of the reactor vessel for heating said vessel, said means being disposed so as to cause said combusting mixtures to spirally pass through said heating zone about said reactor vessel to said exhaust gas outlet conduit in a direction generally counter-current to said agitated moving bed of said comminuted solid organic materials;
• (f) outlet means in communication with said solid residue outlet conduit of said reactor vessel for removing said solid residue from said vessel through said conduit under conditions to effectively exclude oxygen-containing gases therefrom;
• and
• (g) outlet means in communication with said gas-vapor mixture outlet conduit of said reactor vessel for withdrawing said mixture from said vessel under conditions to effectively exclude oxygen-containing gases therefrom.