Apparatus for supercritical water gasification

A supercritical fluid gasification system comprising:

• a reactor including:
• (i) a reactor shell having sidewalls that extend between a top reactor cover and a bottom reactor cover, the sidewalls of the reactor shell, the top cover, and the bottom cover enclosing a reactor shell channel;
• (ii) a thermal shield positioned within the reactor shell channel, the thermal shield having sidewalls that extend between a top thermal shield cover and a bottom thermal shield cover, the sidewalls of the thermal shield, the top thermal shield cover, and the bottom thermal shield cover enclosing a thermal shield channel;
• (iii) a fluid feed supply conduit in fluid communication with the thermal shield channel;
• (iv) a supercritical fluid conduit in fluid communication with the thermal shield channel;
• (v) a product conduit in fluid communication with the thermal shield channel;
• and
• (vi) a reactor cooling circuit including a first cooling conduit in fluid communication with the reactor shell channel, the first cooling conduit including a supercritical cooling stream,
• wherein the thermal shield comprises:
• from 90 wt % to 98 wt % of silica, based on the total weight of the thermal shield;
• and
• from 2 wt % to 10 wt % boron trioxide, based on the total weight of the thermal shield.

A supercritical fluid gasification system comprising:

• a reactor including:
• (i) a reactor shell having sidewalls that extend between a top reactor cover and a bottom reactor cover, the sidewalls, the top cover, and the bottom cover enclosing a reactor shell channel;
• (ii) a thermal shield positioned within the reactor shell channel, the thermal shield having sidewalls that extend between a top thermal shield cover and a bottom thermal shield cover, the sidewalls, the top thermal shield cover, and the bottom thermal shield cover enclosing a thermal shield channel;
• (iii) a fluid feed supply conduit in fluid communication with the thermal shield channel;
• (iv) a supercritical fluid conduit in fluid communication with the thermal shield channel;
• (v) a product conduit in fluid communication with the thermal shield channel;
• and
• (vi) a reactor cooling circuit including:
• a supplemental feedwater conduit in fluid communication with a T-junction that splits the supplemental feedwater conduit into a first cooling conduit and a second cooling conduit,
• wherein the first cooling conduit is in fluid communication with the reactor shell channel, and
• wherein the second cooling conduit is in fluid communication with the thermal shield channel.

A method comprising the steps of:

• (a) feeding a carbonaceous feed material to a reactor through a fluid feed supply conduit;
• and
• (b) feeding a supercritical feedwater to the reactor through a supercritical feed supply conduit, the reactor including:
• (i) a reactor shell having sidewalls that extend between a top reactor cover and a bottom reactor cover, the sidewalls of the reactor shell, the top cover, and the bottom cover enclosing a reactor shell channel;
• (ii) a thermal shield positioned within the reactor shell channel, the thermal shield having sidewalls that extend between a top thermal shield cover and a bottom thermal shield cover, the sidewalls of the thermal shield, the top thermal shield cover, and the bottom thermal shield cover enclosing a thermal shield channel;
• (iii) the fluid feed supply conduit in fluid communication with the thermal shield channel;
• (iv) the supercritical fluid conduit in fluid communication with the thermal shield channel;
• and
• (v) a product conduit in fluid communication with the thermal shield channel, the product conduit dispensing a product stream from the reactor, and
• (c) cooling the reactor with a supercritical cooling stream.