Dual Torch Plasma Arc Furnace for Medical Waste Treatment

In this paper,characteristics of a dual torch plasma arc used for hazardous wastetreatment and operated at atmospheric pressure are studied,and also compared with those of themulti-torch plasma arc and the single torch plasma arc.The dual torch plasma arc is generatedbetween the cathode and anode with argon as the working gas.The temperature distributionsof the plasma arc are measured using a spectroscope and line pair method with the assumptionof local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) for the DC arc current I=100 A and argon flow rateQ = 15 slpm.The measurements show that the temperatures of the dual torch arc plasma in theregions near the cathode,the anode and the center point are 10,000 K,11,000 K and 9,000 K,respectively.And the high temperature region of the multi torch plasma arc is of double or muchwider size than that of a conventional dual torch plasma arc and single plasma torch.Based onthe preceding studies,a dual torch plasma arc furnace is developed in this study.The measuredgas temperature at the center region of the argon arc is about 11,000 K for the case of I = 200 Aand Q=30 slpm operated in atmosphere.