Method and apparatus for treating waste and for obtaining usable by-product
OwnerCharles L. Pierceinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention is directed to the art of treating waste using laser technology. Industrial and toxic waste materials are irradiated with a laser inside a reactor chamber such that they are heated to high temperatures. Organic compounds are thermally destroyed and chemical bonds are broken. Cool oxygen is pumped into the reactor to provide a refractory protective shield. Silica is added into the vessel at the high temperatures and encapsulates any heavy metals into its crystal matrix. The resulting solidified product may have a hardness of at least 8 on the Knoops scale of hardness and may be used as tooling, road material, oven lining, building materials and the like.
Claims12
A method of treating waste, comprising the steps of:
- introducing waste into a spherical reactor vessel;
- bombarding the waste in the reactor vessel with a 20 kW laser beam to heat the waste sufficiently to form a gas;
- initiating a neutronic reaction within the spherical reactor vessel to create a plasma field;
- reaching a reaction temperature in a range between 3000.degree. F. and 20,000.degree. F.;
- adding oxygen to the spherical reactor vessel;
- and
- ionizing the gas to plasma state.
A method of producing a pyroclastic material from waste, comprising the steps of:
- introducing waste into a spherical reactor vessel;
- heating the waste by exposing it to 20 kW laser radiation to leave a liquid melt;
- bombarding the liquid melt with photons from a CO.sub.2 laser to sever molecular bonds in the melt leaving a magma;
- initiating a neutronic reaction at a temperature in the range of 3000.degree.-20,000.degree. F. within the spherical reactor vessel to create a plasma field;
- adding silica sand to the liquid melt;
- and
- subsequently cooling the magma to leave a hard pyroclastic material having an ordered crystal matrix.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.