Recovery of chemicals from fuel streams

A fluidized bed reactor configured to react a fuel in a fluidized bed of bed solids, the reactor comprising:

• a container configured to hold the bed of bed solids;
• a wall separating at least a gas phase above the bed in the container into a volatilization stage and a combustion stage, the volatilization stage including:
• a fuel inlet configured to receive the fuel;
• a LowOx gas inlet disposed at a first portion of a bottom of the container;
• a LowOx gas supply configured to supply an inert and/or less-oxidizing gas to the LowOx gas inlet to fluidize the bed of bed solids and volatilize the fuel to yield:
• a volatiles stream comprising a syngas chemical species;
• and
• a char stream;
• a volatiles stream outlet configured to convey the volatiles stream out of the volatilization stage;
• a chemicals outlet coupled to the volatiles stream outlet and configured to extract the chemical species from the reactor;
• and
• a volatiles pressure gauge configured to measure pressure within the volatilization stage;
• the combustion stage including:
• an oxidant inlet disposed at a second portion of the bottom of the container;
• a HiOx gas supply configured to supply the oxidant inlet with a gas that is more oxidizing than that supplied by the LowOx gas supply, the HiOx gas supply and oxidant inlet configured to fluidize the bed of bed solids and combust the char stream to yield an exhaust gas;
• an exhaust gas outlet configured to convey the exhaust gas out of the combustion stage;
• and
• a combustion pressure gauge configured to measure pressure within the combustion stage;
• an opening through and/or below the wall and below a surface of the bed solids, the opening configured to provide for a flow of the char stream and bed solids between the volatilization stage and the combustion stage;
• means to control gas flow into/out of at least one stage;
• and
• a controller (360) coupled to the pressure gauges and the means to control gas flow, the controller configured to control a pressure difference (P1−P2) between the stages;
• wherein:
• the volatilization stage further comprises an internal wall configured to separate at least the gas phases of the fuel inlet and volatiles stream outlet of the volatilization stage to yield an inlet stage and a reforming stage;
• the volatiles pressure gauge and volatiles stream outlet are disposed in the reforming stage;
• the reactor further comprises an inlet pressure gauge coupled to the controller and configured to measure pressure within the inlet stage;
• and
• the controller is configured to independently control the pressures within the inlet stage and the reforming stage.