Two-stage syngas production with separate char and product gas inputs into the second stage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11760949-B2
Application number	US-202217957670-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2022
Priority date	Sep 4, 2020
Publication date	Sep 19, 2023
Grant date	Sep 19, 2023

Abstract

A two-stage syngas production method to produce a final product gas from a carbonaceous material includes producing a first product gas in a first reactor, separating char from the first product gas to produce separated char and char-depleted product gas, and separately reacting the separated char and the char-depleted product gas with an oxygen-containing gas in a second reactor to produce a final product gas. The separated char is introduced into the second reactor above the char-depleted product gas. The solids separation device may include serially connected cyclones, and the separated char may be entrained in a motive fluid in an eductor to produce a char and motive fluid mixture prior to being transferred to the second reactor. A biorefinery method produces a purified product from the final product gas.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A two-stage system comprising:
a first reactor configured to generate a first product gas including char;
a solids separation device configured to separate the char from the first product gas to produce separated char and char-depleted product gas, wherein the char-depleted product gas has a reduced amount of char relative to the first product gas; and
a second reactor configured to accept an oxygen-containing gas and configured to accept the separated char and the char-depleted product gas from the solids separation device at different reaction zones within the second reactor, wherein a first reaction zone for the separated char with the oxygen-containing gas is upstream of a second reaction zone for the char-depleted product gas, to produce a final product gas.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second reactor further comprises a vertical axis, wherein a char input for the separated char is located above a product gas input for the char-depleted product gas with respect to the vertical axis, and wherein the char input is upstream of the product gas input.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first product gas further comprises hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons; and/or wherein the final product gas has a reduced amount of char and a reduced amount of hydrocarbons, relative to the char-depleted product gas.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first reactor is configured to steam reform a carbonaceous material to produce the first product gas.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the first reactor further comprises:
an input configured to introduce the carbonaceous material to an interior of the first reactor and
a reactant input configured to provide a reactant to react with the carbonaceous material in the first reactor to produce the first product gas.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first reactor further comprises a particulate heat transfer material contained within an interior of the first reactor and an optional first reactor heat exchanger immersed within the particulate heat transfer material.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the solids separation device comprises serially connected first and second cyclones through which the first product gas passes to remove char.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
an eductor configured to receive and entrain the separated char in a motive fluid, prior to introducing the char into the second reactor.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second reactor further comprises a burner configured to react the oxygen-containing gas with a fuel.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the burner comprises an annulus type burner or a pulse combustor burner.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second reactor further comprises a second reactor heat exchanger in thermal contact with an interior of the second reactor, and optionally wherein the second reactor heat exchanger is configured to remove heat from within the interior of the second reactor by use of a heat transfer medium.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second reactor is further configured to introduce additional oxygen-containing gas between a first char input for the separated char and a product gas input for the char-depleted product gas.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first reactor comprises a steam reformer, and/or wherein the second reactor comprises a char/hydrocarbon reformer.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first reactor comprises an up-flow, catalytic, refractory-lined, steel pressure vessel with a fluidized bed or an up-flow, non-catalytic, refractory-lined, steel pressure vessel with a fluidized bed; and/or wherein the second reactor comprises a cylindrical, down-flow, non-catalytic, lined, steel pressure vessel.

15. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a feedstock delivery system configured to transfer a source of carbonaceous material to the first reactor.

16. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a primary gas clean-up system configured to cool and remove solids and water vapor and some of the contaminants from the final product gas to produce a first cleaned product gas;
a compression system configured to compress the first cleaned product gas to produce a compressed product gas;
a secondary gas clean-up system configured to remove contaminants and carbon dioxide from the compressed product gas to produce a second cleaned product gas;
a production system configured to produce an intermediate product from at least a portion of the second cleaned product gas, wherein the intermediate product includes one or more selected from the group consisting of liquid fuel, a chemical, ethanol, mixed alcohols, methanol, dimethyl ether, Fischer-Tropsch products, and synthetic natural gas; and
a purification system configured to purify the intermediate product to produce a purified product, wherein the purification system optionally includes one or more selected from the group consisting of isomerization, hydrotreating, hydrocracking, distillation, and adsorption.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein:
the secondary gas clean-up system is further configured to produce a recycle gas or a carbon dioxide-rich stream, wherein the recycle gas or the carbon dioxide-rich stream is optionally used in a feed delivery system, used in the first reactor, and/or used as a motive fluid for transferring the separated char to the second reactor; and/or
the production system is further configured to provide a gaseous composition or a tail-gas, wherein the gaseous composition or the tail-gas is optionally routed to a first reactor heat exchanger in the first reactor, routed to a burner in the second reactor, and/or used as a motive fluid for transferring the separated char to the second reactor; and/or
the purification system is further configured to provide a gaseous composition or an off-gas stream, wherein the gaseous composition or the off-gas stream is optionally routed to a first reactor heat exchanger in the first reactor, routed to a burner in the second reactor, and/or used as a motive fluid for transferring the separated char to the second reactor.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein:
the production system comprises a reactor including one or more reactors selected from the group consisting of a multi-tubular reactor, a multi-tubular fixed-bed reactor, an entrained flow reactor, a slurry reactor, a fluid bed reactor, a circulating catalyst reactor, a riser reactor, a can reactor, a microchannel reactor, a fixed bed reactor, a bioreactor, and a moving bed reactor.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein:
the production system comprises a bioreactor including one or more selected from the group consisting of a continuous stirred tank bioreactor, a bubble column bioreactor, a microbubble reactor, an airlift bioreactor, a fluidized bed bioreactor, a packed bed bioreactor, and a photo-bioreactor.

20. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a feedstock preparation system configured to accept a source of carbonaceous material comprising municipal solid waste and to produce sorted municipal solid waste in at least one processing step, including one or more processing steps selected from the group consisting of large objects removal, recyclables removal, ferrous metal removal, size reduction, drying or water removal, biowaste removal, non-ferrous metal removal, polyvinyl chloride removal, glass removal, size reduction, and pathogen removal; and
a feedstock delivery system configured to accept the sorted municipa

Assignees

• Thermochem Recovery Int Inc

Inventors

• Chandran Ravi
• Newport Dave G
• Burciaga Daniel A
• Leo Daniel Michael

Classifications

• C10J3/721 Primary

  Multistage gasification, e.g. plural parallel or serial gasification stages · CPC title

• C10K1/026

  by centrifugal forces (cyclones B04C) · CPC title

• C10J2300/0946

  Waste, e.g. MSW, tires, glass, tar sand, peat, paper, lignite, oil shale · CPC title

• C10J2300/1846

  Partial oxidation, i.e. injection of air or oxygen only · CPC title

• C10J2300/1261

  by pulse burners · CPC title