Chemical looping removal of ventilation air methane

Abstract

Methane is removed from ventilation air by cycling metal or metal oxide particles in a chemical looping process in one or more reactors where the metal particles are alternately reduced and oxidised, and passing ventilation air through one or more of said reactors to convert the air plus methane into reduced air plus water plus carbon dioxide. In one variation, ventilation air methane (VAM) is removed from ventilation air in coal mines using a chemical looping process to move metal or metal oxide particles between reactors such as a hydrogen generator (5) and a regenerator (7) to alternatively reduce and oxidise the particles such that VAM introduced into a combustor (6) provided with hydrogen from the hydrogen generator (5) can be processed in the regenerator (7) to produce air plus water plus carbon dioxide. Other variations involve the use of three reactors in the chemical looping process, or the use of an array of parallel inclined plates forming lamellas between upper and lower reactors to keep lighter particles in the upper oxidiser reactor and heavier particles in the lower reducer reactor.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.