Automatic combustion control for a rotary combustor

Abstract

A combustion controller controls the supply of combustion gas to the combustion barrel of a rotary combustor used for incinerating solid waste material. The rotary combustor includes a combustion barrel having a gas-porous side wall and windboxes underneath the combustion barrel to supply the combustion gas to support incineration of the waste material into combustion products which include exhaust gases. The windboxes receive combustion gas via individual control ducts which are controlled by the combustion controller to regulate the corresponding supplies of combustion gas and thereby to provide substantially complete incineration of the solid material. An oxygen sensor detects the percentage of oxygen present in the exhaust gases and the combustion gas supplied to the combustion barrel is controlled to maintain the percentage of oxygen near a predetermined level. In addition, flame and temperature sensors may detect temperature and the existence of a flame, respectively, in an area above each of the windboxes, so that the combustion gas supplied to each windbox can be individually controlled.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.