Flexible pyrolysis system and method
AssigneeTerraPower, LLC
InventorsBenjamin L. Goodrich, Joshua C. Walter
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Examples of a flexible pyrolysis system are provided that include at least one reaction chamber capable of pyrolyzing a combination of coal in a supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) atmosphere. The system includes a recuperating and condensing circuit that removes dissolved pyrolysis products from the supercritical CO2 atmosphere and then recovers CO2 for reuse in the reaction chamber. The recuperating and condensing circuit includes multiple stages of recuperators and collectors that can be independently controlled in order to selectively fractionate the pyrolysis products. In addition, the pyrolysis reaction may be controlled to alter the pyrolysis products generated.
Claims11
A system for pyrolyzing coal comprising:
- at least one reaction chamber capable of pyrolyzing a combination of coal in a supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) atmosphere;
- and
- a recuperating and condensing circuit that removes at least some dissolved pyrolysis products from the supercritical CO2 atmosphere and then recovers CO2 for reuse in the reaction chamber;
- wherein the recuperating and condensing circuit includes one or more recuperator/collector stages, each recuperator/collector stage having a heat exchanger and condensate collector connected to receive CO2 atmosphere from the reaction chamber as a CO2 process stream, transfer heat from the CO2 process stream to a CO2 return stream to obtain a cooled CO2 process stream, and condense and collect pyrolysis products from the cooled CO2 process stream.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.