Incinerator for complete oxidation of impurities in a gas stream

A device for oxidizing materials in a gas stream, comprising:

• a combustion chamber in said device, said device and said combustion chamber having a top and a bottom and a vertical axis;
• a preheater chamber located radially outside of said combustion chamber adapted to preheat oxygen-containing gas;
• a mixing zone at the top of said combustion chamber;
• means for introducing oxygen-containing gas into said preheater chamber;
• means for introducing oxygen-containing gas from said preheater, fuel, and impurity-containing process gas into said mixing zone;
• a first swirler for swirling said oxygen-carrying gas entering said mixing zone in a first direction;
• a second swirler for swirling said process gas entering said mixing zone in a second direction;
• an opening at the bottom of the combustion chamber through which exhaust gas can exit said chamber;
• and
• means for removing accumulations of particulate products of combustion from said incinerator.

A method for oxidizing materials in a gas stream comprising the steps of:

• introducing fuel and process gas into a combustion chamber, said chamber having walls;
• introducing preheated oxygen/carrying gas into said combustion chamber and mixing it with said fuel and process gas to form a burning mixture;
• directing said burning mixture outwardly toward a wall of said combustion chamber as it is burning and forming an exhaust gas which exits said combustion chamber;
• preheating said oxygen carrying gas prior to its entry into said combustion chamber with heat from said oxidation of said fuel;
• and
• mechanically scraping accumulated solid combustion products from the walls of said chamber.