Combustion characteristics and energy recovery of a small mass burn incinerator

The burning characteristics and energy recovery of a small mass burn incinerator, which is featured by a Cyclone Heat Recovery System (CHRS), are investigated experimentally. The burning behaviors of two combustion chambers are analyzed by observing the variations of temperature that are monitored by thermocouples. On the other hand, hot flue gas and cool water respectively passing through the cyclone inside and outside implements the energy recovery. As a result, it demonstrates that there is a drastic interaction between the two chambers' combustion, resulting from the sensitivity of wastes burning on charging period. In particular, when the charging period is large to some extent, combustion instability in the secondary chamber is exhibited obviously. With regard to the cyclone, the obtained results indicate that the efficiencies of heat exchange and heat recovery are in the ranges of 65% to 75% and 15% to 20%, respectively. The above result reveals that the efficiency of energy recovery from the CHRS is not very high. However, this designed system simultaneously covers the merits of conservation of energy resource, air pollution control, as well as corrosion and erosion prevention. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.