A Holow Cathode DC Plasma Torch for Waste Treatment

随着传统的废物储存场所，如堆填区，变得越来越少，以对环境负责的方式处理废物已成为我们的核心问题之一。由于许多类型的废物都是有机的，焚烧已越来越多地用于减少废物量。然而，高废气流量和随之而来的高废气净化成本，以及含有有害物质的残留物的产生，意味着焚烧并不能完全解决废物问题。此外，许多废物的热值很低，它们的燃烧需要额外的燃料来源。热等离子体为垃圾焚烧处理提供了一个有吸引力的替代方案。等离子体为处理过程提供的主要优点是：(a)高能量密度和高温，允许快速加热和反应堆启动；高热量和反应物转移率；在废物处理量相同的情况下，装置尺寸较小；高温材料的熔化；(b)使用电力作为能源，从而使燃烧产生的热量脱钩，从而减少所需的空气量；降低废气流速，从而降低气体清洗成本。拟议的项目是制造和测试用于废物处理的75千瓦直流等离子炬。我们的工业合作伙伴Aplas已经完成了火炬的初步设计。

As traditional waste repositories, such as landfills, become less and less available, treatment of waste in an environmentallyresponsible manner has become one of our central problems. Since many types of waste are organic, incineration has beenincreasingly used for reduction of the waste volume. However, high off-gas flow rates and the consequent high cost of off-gasclean-up, as well as the production of residues containing hazardous materials, mean that incineration does not offer a completeanswer to the waste problem. Furthermore, many wastes have a low heating value, and their combustion requires additionalsources of fuel.Thermal plasma offers an attractive alternative to incineration for waste treatment . The principal advantages that a plasma offersto treatment processes are :(a) high energy densities and high temperatures which allow for rapid heating and reactor start-up; high heat and reactant transferrates; smaller installation size for a given waste throughput; melting of high temperature materials; and,(b) use of electricity as the energy source which results in decoupling of the heat generation from combustion and hence thevolume of air required; lower off-gas flow rates and consequently lower gas cleaning costs.The proposed project is on the manufacture and testing of a 75-kW DC plasma torch for waste treatment. Our industrial partner,Aplas, has made the preliminary design of the torch.