Technologies

Disposal of organic, including medical, and other dangerous wastes by their gasification using steam-plasma process

The point of the plasma technology as an alternative to the incineration processes lies in decomposition of complex molecules into simple ones under conditions of extremely high temperatures and absence of free oxygen.

This technology possesses a number of advantages. Temperature of the plasma jet is capable of fully destroying any organic and biological materials, and assuring absolute destruction of the most toxic poisons, remelting and evaporating of the most refractory inorganic compounds, and substantially reducing the amount of wastes as a whole. The process of steam-plasma gasification provides environmentally clean processing of wastes without formation of resins, dioxins, fumes, etc., the degree of cleaning being up to 99.9999 %.

The product of steam-plasma gasification is a high-energy fuel synthesis gas (H2 + CO mixture) and neutral solid residue in the form of vitrified slag. The gas can be employed as an efficient electric power generation source or as a raw material to produce synthetic motor fuel, etc. The slag can be granulated and used in construction industry, while the metal melt can be applied for production of alloys, master alloys, for refining, etc.

Supersonic thermal spraying of alumino-zinc-ceramic corrosion-resistant coating

The coating is composite, consisting of the alumino-zinc matrix with ceramic and intermetallic particles uniformly distributed in it and metallurgically bound. It was produced by plasma (electric-arc) supersonic spraying. The coating is protective and passivating, designed for corrosion protection of ferrous metal structures operating in strongly and slightly aggressive environments. The coating is versatile and can be applied in environments with pH = 2-12 at a temperature of up to 300 oC, requiring no cathode protection.

Application:pipelines, oil platforms, bridges

Technology for steam-plasma processing of coal

The purpose of the technology is to minimize plasma energy input and radically increase power of burning of the pulverized-coal flame. This purpose is achieved owing to optimal utilization of the steam-plasma effects, leading to a substantial increase in rates of gasification and combustion (10 and more times) of coal particles. Dramatic decrease in the required electric power (by an order of magnitude) provides real technical and economical preconditions for efficient and wide-scale application of this technology in power generation.

Application: power generation, construction industry

High-rate plasma hardening of heavy-loaded parts

High-rate surface hardening of wheelset flanges provides increase in contact-fatigue strength of metal, thus leading to extension of service life of the flanges and improvement of their reliability. The intensity of wear of the flanges decreases 2.5 to 3.0 times, crack resistance increases by 40 %, and lateral wear of rails slows down because of a 30 % decrease in the friction coefficient. The technology has two distinctive features: (1) local (within the maximal wear zone) hardening of the wheel flanges to a depth of 2.5-3.0 mm and width of 35 mm for hardness of 450 HB, and (2) transformation of structure from the ferritic-pearlitic mixture to fine-acicular martensite with rosette troostite. The high-productivity process of hardening of the flanges (15 minutes per wheel) provides a 3 times increase in life of a wheelset, improvement of its reliability and rail contact conditions, and can be implemented under typical depot conditions. It assures absolute reproduction of the best quality indicators.

Application:railway transport, machine building

Repair and hardening of heavy-loaded crankshafts, high-capacity diesel cylinder bushings and journal necks of wheelset axles

Breakthrough in improvement of quality and operational reliability of the heavy-loaded parts repaired by spraying has been achieved owing to utilization of (1) a supersonic flow of hot methane and air combustion products as a spraying gas, and (2) specialized flux-cored wire. The kinetic energy of spraying particles increases 4-5 times, the degree of burning out of carbon and master alloy decreases 5-10 times, strength of adhesion of coatings to the substrate increases 2-3 times, and porosity of the coatings decreases 5 times. All the quality indicators of electric-metallizing coatings are fundamentally improved. Service life and operational reliability of heavy-loaded crankshafts of high-capacity diesel cylinder bushings and journal necks of wheelset axles are increased two times. The entire repair process equipment can be paid back for over three-six months.

Application: Repair of worn-out parts of the body of revolution type and all internal combustion engines