Syngas generation for gas-to-liquid fuel conversion
AssigneeGreenway Innovative Energy, Inc.
InventorRaymond Wright
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A syngas generator is disclosed as an exothermic gas generator that can accommodate high combustion temperatures of a natural gas/oxygen flame. The generator includes four sections: a heavily insulated combustion chamber, a catalyst chamber, a spray chamber, and a heat exchanger. These four sections may be arranged in series and tightly bolted together to form a gas-tight system. Natural gas, oxygen and steam are supplied to a burner at the inlet end of the combustion chamber. This mixture is ignited and the resulting hot process gas is then fed into a catalyst bed where it reacts with the steam and is converted to carbon monoxide and hydrogen (syngas). The syngas is fed to a Fischer-Tropsch unit to create liquid fuel.
Claims12
An apparatus, comprising:
- a combustion section having inputs for methane, oxygen, and steam and having a burner configured to ignite input gases, the combustion section generating an output comprising carbon monoxide, unreacted methane, and steam;
- a catalyst chamber coupled to the combustion section and configured to receive the carbon monoxide, unreacted methane, and steam from the combustion section, the catalyst chamber comprising a catalyst selected to support the reaction of methane and steam to generate syngas;
- a spray chamber coupled to the output of the catalyst chamber, the spray chamber comprising a water spray to cool the syngas,
- wherein the combustion section, the catalyst chamber, and the spray chamber all form portions of a single reaction vessel;
- a relief valve set to control the pressure inside the reaction vessel at a pressure no higher than 5 psig;
- and
- a Fischer-Tropsch reactor coupled to the reaction vessel, wherein the Fischer-Tropsch reactor creates long chain hydrocarbons from the syngas.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.