This invention relates to an incinerator, and more particularly to an incinerator which provides safe operation and efficient disposal of hazardous, explosive or illicit materials and which can withstand internal shocks.
Disposal of hazardous, explosive or illicit materials requires a unit which can be displaced in order to burn the material at a site or near a site where the material is stacked. This alleviates hazards and costs related to transporting the material off site.
In the past, it was common to dig a pit, place the contraband in the pit, pour accelerant over the material and burn it. This method has been deemed totally unacceptable as it generates unrestrained noise and pollution from known pollutants, such as lead, antimony, potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate and sulfur. There is also a threat of various unknown pollutants due to the diversity of material that can be processed, including various heavy metals and organic chemicals, such as nitrocellulose, nitroglycerine and DBP (plasticizer).
Another known method of burning ammunition makes use of an open drum that contains two trays with fissures. In the bottom tray, fuel in the form of fuel oil and wood shavings are added, and the ammunition is added to the top tray. During the burning process, part of the low boiling metals are melted and fall through the tray fissures and into the drum bottom. Due to the explosive nature of the material, pollutants are emitted into the air and eventually fall to the ground.
An ammunition incinerator, known as the xe2x80x9cHurdxe2x80x9d burner from the Hurd""s Custom Machinery Inc. has a reinforced body, defining a single combustion chamber, in the shape of a fuel tank. The burner fires directly in the combustion chamber and there is no reburn system. This unit generates a lot of smoke, which contains noxious gases from the ammunition. Also the manual ignition of this device leaves too much room for error, causing structural damage at the door and being hazardous for the operator.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,481, issued on Mar. 17, 1998 discloses a mobile armored incinerator for similar uses, which provides pressure release hatches and a reburn system, but the latter is not integrally built in the body. The burners fire directly in the primary chamber and there are air intakes in direct communication with the primary chamber. This leaves many exposed parts which may be hit by projectiles, or gaps from which projectiles can escape. Also, the loading cart does not provide material separation.
In general, incinerators are designed to be used with regular refuse material. Typically, their internal walls are made of refractory material, and they do not include armored panels nor overpressure hatches to cushion possible sudden blows.
Therefore there is a need for an incinerator which alleviates some of the disadvantages of the prior art.
This invention relates to an incinerator capable of withstanding internal shocks resulting from the combustion of the material to be burned.
Thus, according to one aspect, the invention provides an incinerator capable of withstanding internal shocks resulting from combustion of material to be burned, the incinerator comprising a body including a primary combustion chamber for burning the material, a heating chamber for providing heat to the combustion chamber, and a bullet proof separation plate providing separation between the primary combustion chamber and the heating chamber to prevent projectiles from escaping, and providing sufficient heat exchange between the primary combustion chamber and the heating chamber.
There are many advantages in using an incinerator according to the invention. First, by containing projectiles emitted during the combustion process, and therefore various pollutants, that are propelled into the air, contact of the pollutants with the ground is eliminated, which in turn controls the environmental impact on soil, water and air. Also, by burning at high temperatures, combustion efficiency is improved and the levels of emitted pollutants to the air may be decreased.
Other aspects and advantages of embodiments of the invention will be readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon a review of the following description.