Aluminum Company of America

R Lee Byers

David W Rierson

Herman J Hittner

John N Lees, Jr

Ludmila Dinter-Brown

An industrial waste management facility (IWMF) for disposing of spent potlining includes a co-current gas-fired rotary kiln for containing a molten pool of spent potlining throughout the entire length of the rotary kiln from the inlet to the outlet, an ash quencher and cooler for receiving molten residue from the discharge end of the rotary kiln, a secondary combustion chamber, and a down-draft transition chamber for channeling discharge gases from the rotary kiln to the secondary combustion chamber. Pneumatic injection slingers feed and distribute spent potlining into the inlet end of the rotary kiln. A discharge dam provides a predetermined average depth of molten bath material in the rotary kiln over its entire length. A blended ratio of comminuted materials injected through the pneumatic injection slinger feeder is adjusted and controlled in response to signals received from a radiative optical kiln bath temperature measurement system. The IWMF recovers fluorides from discharge gases exiting the secondary combustion chamber, recycles the fluorides to the molten bath or pool of the rotary kiln, and collects and withdraws glass frit residue from the ash quencher and cooler.

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Upper St. Clair, PA, United States of America

R Lee Byers