Process and device for manufacturing synthesis gas and application

A process for producing synthesis gas in a single reactor comprising the steps of:

• providing a single reactor having a single housing, a non-catalytic combustion chamber located within said single housing and equipped with at least one injecting means for injecting fuel and at least one injecting means for injecting an oxidizer to achieve partial combustion of the fuel within said chamber, and at least one catalytic bed, separate from the combustion chamber, located within said housing into which gases from the combustion chamber discharge, said at least one catalytic bed being equipped with at least one injector means for injecting additional oxidizer into said bed, the combustion chamber having a volume which satisfies the following inequality:
• ##EQU4## wherein V is the inner volume of said chamber, expressed in m.sup.3, D is the overall weight flow rate of materials entering the chamber, expressed in kg/s, and P is the pressure, expressed in megapascals, prevailing inside the chamber;
• effecting partial combustion of fuel in the non-catalytic combustion chamber under a lack of oxidizer to reduce the formation of soot, the fuel being introduced separately from the oxidizer into said chamber;
• introducing steam into the combustion chamber through the means for injecting fuel and/or through the means for introducing oxidizer into the combustion chamber, the supply of steam defined as the number of moles of water to the number of moles of carbon in the fuel, being less than 1.5, said materials entering said chamber consisting of the fuel, the oxidizer and the steam injected into said chamber;
• and introducing additional oxidizer at a level of the catalytic bed located downstream from a flow of gases discharged from the combustion chamber into said catalytic bed;
• the oxidizer supply, defined as being the number of moles of oxygen contained in the oxidizer injected into the reactor to the number of moles of carbon contained in the injected fuel ranging between 0.3 to 0.65 and the same supply relative to the introduction of oxidizer in said combustion chamber ranging between 0.15 and 0.5.