The ChemChar process

This paper reports on reverse-burn gasification is a thermochemical process that offers a number of advantages over conventional incineration for the treatment of a variety of waste materials. Patented as the ChemChar Process, reverse-burn gasification can treat wastes in the forms of solids, liquids, sludges, and soils. Waste constituents are destroyed by conversion to a combustible gas and to a dry, inert, carbonaceous solid which is either non-hazardous or can be readily mixed with cement to prevent leaching of the radioactive, toxic, or heavy metal constituents that are retained in the char residue or ash. In this way, reverse-burn gasification can be a very effective method for treating organic waste sludges containing heavy metals and mixed wastes consisting of hazardous chemicals contaminated with radioactive substances. As with any gasification waste treatment process, reverse-burn gasification offers inherent advantages in the areas of destruction efficiency and emissions control. This is because, instead of an exhaust gas that must treated to control emissions, gasification produces a combustible gas that is burned. Trace levels of contaminants are destroyed in burning the gas, and a catalyst may be employed, if necessary