DEVELOPMENT OF A CONTINUOUS INDUCTION MELTER FOR DRY ACTIVE WASTE TREATMENT

A continuous melter with inductively heated graphite cylinder-packed bed for dry active wastes treatment was developed for the purposes of treatment facility scale reduction and melting treatment rate increase. The melts flowed down through the packed bed and are continuously discharged from a notch. This paper reports the melting treatment rate of a 10kHz, 100kW pilot melter, refractory wall lifetime extension by lowering its po- rosity and having a waste feeding tube smaller than the melter inner diameter to lower the melts attachment rate to the refractory wall, diameter and composition of dust particle in the exhaust gas and its removal by ce- ramic filter. Carbon Steel (CS) tubes, glass wool, and calcium silicate heat insulating materials were separately added to the melter, to measure melting treatment rates for them. To examine the effect of a low porosity on corrosion low- ering, alumina refractory specimens with different porosity were soaked in a crucible with melts at a tempera- ture of 1600�, and rotated in the melts along their longitudinal axis to accelerate corrosion. To examine the effect of the waste feeding tube on lowering melts attachment amount to the wall, simulated liquid flow ex- periments were done using waste guide tubes with different inner diameters and a packed bed of plastic cylin- ders in a vessel simulating the 100kW pilot melter, at first. Then, to certify the effect of the waste guide tube on lowering the wall corrosion, calcium silicate was melted in the 100kW pilot melter. Exhaust gas from the melter was sampled to analyze the dust particle diameter by Cascade Impacter Method, and its composition by X-ray diffraction. Then, the exhaust gas was also sampled to analyze the dust particle density before and after it passed through the ceramic filter.