The filtration combustion of a mixture of charcoal with an inert component in a tilted rotating reactor has been studied. The effects of the tilt and rotation rate of the reactor on the width of the luminous zone were studied experimentally. The width of the luminous zone depends not only on the reaction rate and heat and mass exchange, but also on the motion of the solid.

A novel meso-scale 3-channel 5-turn Swiss-roll type combustor was designed and tested. The non-catalytic combustion of lean ethanol–air mixtures was experimentally investigated in relation to the oxygen excess ratio (α), which varied from 1.5 to 7. Depending on the control parameters used, two distinct regimes of combustion were experimentally observed: one with a combustion zone within the central chamber and another with a combustion zone in the inflow channel. The combustion temperature was virtually independent of stoichiometry. For richer mixtures and lower flow rates, the combustion zone is established in the inflow channel, thus limiting the combustion temperature. A qualitative model was proposed for the process and solved analytically; it described how the combustion regime self-adjusted, with the reaction zone moving into the inflow channel from the central chamber. This study confirmed the possibility of the sustainable combustion of ultra-lean fuel mixtures in a Swiss-roll combustor.

An experimental investigation into the conversion of ethanol to syngas by partial oxidation in a non-premixed counterflow moving bed filtration combustion reactor was carried out. Regimes of conversion depending on the mass flow rates of fuel and air (separate feeding), as well as a granular solid heat carrier, were studied. Depending on the mass flow rate of the heat carrier, two combustion modes were realized—reaction trailing and intermediate—with different temperature patterns in the gas preheating, combustion, and cooling zones along the reactor. The product gas composition is far from the predictions of the equilibrium model; it contains substation fractions of methane and ethylene. Combustion temperature and conversion are limited by the relatively high level of heat loss from the laboratory-scale reactor. The effect of the heat loss can be reduced by enhancing the absolute flow rate of the reactants.

A new method of combustion/conversion of liquid combustible wastes is proposed in the filtration mode when one of the reagents (liquid fuel or oxidizer gas) is supplied from the end of the reactor filled with a porous incombustible backfill (inert) and the other into the middle part. In this case, the inert, charged to the upper part of the reactor at room temperature, is heated in countercurrent combustion products. At discharging of inert from the lower part of the reactor (and the equal volume is simultaneously added to the upper part, so that the bed in the reactor is kept constant), the inert heated in the upper part enters the lower part, where it gives heat to the gaseous reagent supplied from below. This method can be carried out both with an excess of the oxidant with the combustion of combustible liquids to CO2 and H2O, and with a lack of oxidizer, when the conversion of the initial fuel to the synthesis of a gas predominantly containing CO and H2 takes place. On the example of a model fuel (isopropyl alcohol), the regularities of filtration combustion at different oxidant to fuel ratios have been experimentally studied.

The gasification of medical waste (MW) in a counterflow updraft gasifier with a partial recycle of the generator gas to the combustion zone is considered as applied for MW disposal with a heat generation. The temperature regimes and material flows are assessed for a typical model MW composition with a humidity varied from 0 to 40 wt.%. A procedure for control of the process for varied MW composition is proposed. For a given MW composition and flowrate, the combustion temperature can be controlled to prescribed value 900°C via control of the flowrates of air and and recycled generator gas. Throughout the studied humidity range the generator gas is combustible and can provide heat generation on the aftercombustion stage. The method promises an efficient and energy sustainable MW disposal.