Liquid Metal Condensate Catalyzed Hydrocarbon Pyrolysis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021170387-A1
Application number	US-202017022435-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 16, 2020
Priority date	Dec 6, 2019
Publication date	Jun 10, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods comprising: evaporating a catalyst source to produce a catalyst gas; condensing the catalyst gas to produce a catalyst vapor comprising catalyst droplets suspended in a gas phase; and contacting the catalyst vapor with a hydrocarbon gas to catalyze a decomposition reaction of the hydrocarbon gas into hydrogen gas and carbon. And, systems comprising: a catalyst source evaporator that provides a first stream to a reactor; a hydrocarbon source that provides a second stream to the reactor; a cooling column coupled to the reactor via a third stream comprising hydrogen, catalyst liquid, solid carbon, optionally catalyst gas, and optionally unreacted hydrocarbon gas such that the cooling column receives the third stream from the reactor; and wherein the cooling column has effluent streams that include (a) a fourth stream that comprises hydrogen and optionally catalyst gas and (b) a fifth stream that comprises catalyst liquid.

First claim

What is claimed:

1 . A method comprising:
evaporating a catalyst source to produce a catalyst gas; condensing the catalyst gas to produce a catalyst vapor comprising catalyst droplets suspended in a gas phase; and contacting the catalyst vapor with a hydrocarbon gas so as to catalyze a decomposition reaction of the hydrocarbon gas into hydrogen gas and carbon.

2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
collecting the catalyst droplets to produce a mixture of the carbon and a catalyst liquid; and separating the carbon from the catalyst liquid.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein separating the carbon from the catalyst liquid comprises: evaporating the catalyst liquid from the carbon.

4 . The method of claim 2 further comprising:
recycling the catalyst liquid to the catalyst source for evaporation.

5 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
condensing the catalyst droplets to produce a mixture of the carbon and a catalyst liquid; recycling the mixture to the catalyst source for evaporation; and separating the carbon from the catalyst source.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst gas before condensation is at a temperature of about 5° C. to about 500° C. greater than a boiling point of the catalyst.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein condensing the catalyst gas comprises: exposing the catalyst gas to the hydrocarbon gas, wherein the hydrocarbon gas is at a temperature below a boiling point of the catalyst.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the temperature of the hydrocarbon gas is about 5° C. to about 500° C. less than a boiling point of the catalyst.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst is a metal.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the metal has a boiling point of 1,500° C. or less.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the metal comprises cesium, selenium, rubidium, potassium, cadmium, sodium, zinc, polonium, tellurium, magnesium, ytterbium, lithium, strontium, thallium, calcium, and any combination thereof.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst is a salt.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the salt comprises a combination of (a) alkali metal cation, alkaline earth metal cation, transition metal cation, or another metal cation and (b) an anion selected from the group consisting of: nitrate, citrate, halide, cyanide, and hydride

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst is an ionic liquid.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst droplets have a diameter of about 5 nm to about 10,000 nm.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst droplets have a diameter of about 5 nm to about 150 nm.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst vapor comprises the catalyst droplets such that about 60 vol % or less of the catalyst vapor is the catalyst droplets.

18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst vapor has a catalytic areal density of about 1,000 m 2 /m 3 to about 30,000 m 2 /m 3 .

19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrocarbon gas comprises one or more selected from the group consisting of: a C1 to C20 alkane, a C1 to C20 alkene, a C1 to C20 alkynes, and a C6 to C20 arene.

20 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the gas phase comprises 0 vol % to about 1 vol % of oxygen-containing compounds that are reactive in the decomposition reaction to produce carbon dioxide.

Assignees

• Palo Alto Res Ct Inc

Inventors

• Rivest Jessica Louis Baker
• Desai Divyaraj
• Boysen Dane Andrew
• Pattekar Ashish V

Classifications

• C01B2203/1235

  Hydrocarbons · CPC title

• C01B2203/10

  Catalysts for performing the hydrogen forming reactions · CPC title

• C01B2203/04

  containing a purification step for the hydrogen or the synthesis gas · CPC title

• C01B2203/0277

  containing a catalytic decomposition step · CPC title

• C01B32/05

  Preparation or purification of carbon not covered by groups C01B32/15, C01B32/20, C01B32/25, C01B32/30 · CPC title