The Disposal of By-Product Gas-Producer Tar by Burning Under Boilers

The sheet mill of the Aluminum Company of America at Alcoa, Tennessee maintains a gas-producer plant for the purpose of furnishing fuel to their various gas fired annealing and preheating furnaces. The conditions are such that a gas which has been cleaned is essential. This cleaning process leaves by-product tar to be disposed of.

Past experience has proven that the amount of tar produced would not justify its sale commercially without the use of storage facilities which were not available, and which it was not deemed justifiable to install. The tar was disposed of, therefore, by pumping it into a nearby sinkhole and burning it there at regular intervals as it accumulated. This method of disposal was not only a waste of a valuable product, high in heat value, but also caused considerable trouble and expense, and created an objectionable nuisance in the form of a heavy black smoke which did much damage to the appearance of property.

After a thorough study of the problem it was decided that the only local method by which the tar could be disposed of advantageously and economically was to burn it under the boilers. It was the purpose of this thesis, therefore, to determine whether or not it were possible to burn the tar in this manner, and, if possible, the methods and conditions essential to the most efficient and satisfactory combustion.