Identification of Optimum Air Feed Locations on Medical Waste Incineration Rotary Kiln by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Twenty-four tons of medical waste is combusted everyday in Istanbul. The plant is operated by ISTAÇ AŞ and combustor type is rotary kiln. Air was being fed manually along with the waste being introduced to the kiln. This case caused some problems regarding the combustion efficiency. The administration staff decided to open holes to supply air to the combustor. In this study, CFD was utilized in order to determine the optimum places for air inlets. Flow geometry of the air was prepared and then meshed for calculations. k-? turbulence model was utilized in the calculations. Four air inlet pipes were placed on the edges of the circular inlet area. Different locations were tested. When the air was fed from the top, waste could not completely contact with the air. Additionally different inlet angles were tested from zero degrees to thirty degrees. Degree of the inlet did not much changed the combustion characteristics inside the kiln. Piping holes were burrowed from the bottom at zero angle, which is perpendicular to inlet surface.