Vertical ring processor

A processing vessel for thermally processing an feed having vertically-aligned, narrowly-spaced and heated walls for thermal treatments of conveyable feed being moved by gravity at selected process temperatures comprising:

• a ring-shaped cylindrical vessel having an outer ring wall between 2-3 feet larger than the diameter of an inner ring wall, the inner and outer ring walls comprising a narrow ring-shaped and tall processing chamber space;
• heating means for heating the inner and outer ring walls and control means for controlling the processing temperature along the height of the walls;
• a feed inlet at the top of the vessel and a residue outlet at the bottom of the vessel including a flow control means for keeping said vessel and a portion of said inlet means filled during processing;
• sampling means located at various heights of the vessel for sampling feed during processing;
• heat exchange means located at said residue outlet for cooling the residue and recovering heat from said residue prior to discharging the residue;
• at least one second outlet means located at an upper part of the vessel for removing boiling hot water and steam from the vessel;
• at least one third outlet means located along the height of said vessel for removing fluidized and gasified material;
• mean for preventing air from entering the vessel at all inlets, outlets, and the heat exchange means;
• wherein the heating means heats the wall surfaces thereby forcing boiling and gasified material upward along the walls while gravity simultaneously forces material along the inner portion of the ring-shaped chamber resulting in a downward spiralling and mixing movement of the feed material causing rapid heating, feed volume reduction, and steady downward gravity flow of the feed during processing.