Hot gas recycle for starved-air combustor

Claim 1

A starved-air combustor comprising: a combustion chamber having an inlet end for receiving fuel, said combustion chamber for combusting said received fuel to produce hot combustion gases and combustion residue, said combustion chamber further including an outlet end for discharging said combustion gases; means in said combustion chamber for conveying received fuel from said inlet end toward said outlet end; a plenum adjacent to said combustion chamber and communicating with said chamber through at least one aperture located beneath said fuel in said combustion chamber; means for receiving said hot combustion gases from said combustion chamber and for further combusting any combustible material entrained in said combustion gases to produce a hot non-combustible gas; means for selectively mixing a portion of said non-combustible gas with selected amounts of air to heat said air and for supplying said mixture to said plenum for injection into said combustion chamber through said aperture to heat and to dry said fuel in said chamber, said mixing means comprising: a mixing chamber having an inlet end for receiving said hot non-combustible gas and an outlet end; a ring actuator at said inlet end of said mixing chamber, said ring actuator including a plurality of rotatable vanes positionable to permit selected amounts of air into said chamber and to impart a swirling motion to said admitted air; means for supplying said hot non-combustible gases to the center of said ring actuator to enable the mixing of said gases with said swirling air; and a plurality of fixed vanes in said mixing chamber downstream of said ring actuator, said fixed vanes for imparting a swirling motion to said mixture of gases and said swirling air to prevent the formation of hot spots along the surface of said mixing chamber; and a conduit for applying said mixture of air and non-combustible gases to said plenum; and means for sensing the temperature of said swirling mixture of air and non-combustible gases to be supplied to said plenum and for controlling the amount of air mixed with said non-combustible gas to maintain a preselected temperature range for said mixture, said sensing means for controlling said ring actuator to rotate said rotatable vanes in a closing direction to decrease the amount of air admitted into said chamber responsive to the sensed temperature of said mixture of air and non-combustible gases being below said preselected temperature range and to rotate said rotatable vanes in an opening direction responsive to said sensed temperature of said mixture of air and non-combustible gases being above said preselected temperature range.