How is heat generated to start combustion in an incinerator?
Figure 1. Biomass burners use ceramic heating elements to heat the airstream to over 1000°C to ignite the fuel. Image source: Ecofit Technology.
It's only necessary to get the fire going in a small spot and then crank up the air supply.




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What's missing is the apparatus to start the combustion. Typically, it could be natural gas or fossil fuels in the same way a campfire or barbecue pit.
Or a hot air supply.


Is it possible that electricity alone can be used to generate heat that would cause the incinerated materials to start combustion and provide the fuel for more incoming materials?
Certainly. My wood pellet boiler works in that manner.


For example, if I had a three-phase existing oven, could the heating element be used as part of the incinerator component?
Unlikely. You need the air stream. Once fire has started you switch off the element and keeping it out of the fire will prolong its life.


If electricity is solely used as the fuel source without a combination of other fuels to start the first combustion, how effective would it be to generate back the electricity / heat energy from subsequent combustion?
It will be a tiny loss in the overall system. My boiler's starter will draw maybe 0.5 kW for, say, five minutes (= 0.5 × 5 / 60 = 0.04 kWh) and outputs 20 kW so the starter uses 0.2% of the energy the boiler gives out in the first hour.