Control of H2 and CO produced in partial oxidation process
AssigneeRegents of the University of Minnesota
InventorsLanny D. Schmidt, Paul M. Witt
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Abstract
A process for enhancing H2 or CO production in a partial oxidation reaction by feeding H2O or CO2 with the feed hydrocarbon and oxygen over a transition metal monolith catalyst such as unsupported Ni monolith or alternatively contacting the hydrocarbon/oxygen first with a noble metal then with a transition metal with the H2O or CO2 being added before or after the noble metal catalyst. The addition of H2O suppresses CO and enhances H2 production and the addition of CO2 suppresses H2 and enhances CO production. Little steam or CO2 reforming occurs with the addition of up to 32% H2O or CO2 respectively. Thus, the ratio of H2:CO which is about 2 in a conventional partial oxidation is manipulated by the addition of either water or CO2 to the partial oxidation.
Claims8
A process for controlling the H2 and CO concentrations produced in a hydrocarbon partial oxidation process comprising:
- feeding a stream comprising a hydrocarbon and oxygen through a first catalyst zone comprising at least one noble metal monolith catalyst and a second catalyst zone comprising a nickel metal monolith catalyst, wherein the noble metal is selected from the group consisting of Ru, Rh, Pd, Ir, and Pt;
- and
- feeding H2O to the stream to control the amounts of H2 and CO produced;
- wherein the overall process occurs in the substantial absence of reforming and under autothermal partial oxidation conditions comprising a gas hourly space velocity of at least 60,000 hr−1.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.