 In terms of consumables, the PTDR-100 system requires electricity, water, auxiliary fuel (for the secondary reaction chamber), caustic (for the gas cleaning and conditioning system) and plasma electrodes.
Approximately 60 to 90 minutes is required to reach the operational bulk temperatures in the plasma reactor and the system cools down naturally after torch shutdown (and can be restarted at any time during the cool down process). During normal operations, at the start of each feeding campaign, or at the end of an operating shift, the plasma reactor may contain some non-organic residues. The transferred arc torch is operated initially, which pre-heats the plasma reactor and helps to vitrify any leftover residue. After all the residue has been vitrified, it is removed via a simple tapping process. The entire vitrification/tapping process takes approximately 45 to 60 minutes. The replacement electrode sections for the plasma generation system are approximately 300 mm (approximately 12”) in length and can be continuously attached to the back of the existing electrode from the outside of the reactor. There is no need to remove system components during electrode replacement activities, thus there is little down-time.
The electrode located at the bottom of the plasma reactor is also easily replaced. The bottom section of the plasma reactor can be lowered quickly using a hydraulic-powered system. Once lowered, the replacement electrode plate, 100mm x 100mm (approximately 4” x 4”), is designed to be placed easily in the graphite-lined bottom of the reactor. However since this electrode plate is used sparingly, replacement is likely needed on a once-a-month basis. Alternatively, the replacement sections of the bottom electrode would be continuously attached to the already installed sections penetrating through the plasma reactor bottom and connected from the outside. A motor would periodically raise the electrode into the plasma reactor as the electrode is consumed.
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