Hydromethanation of a carbonaceous feedstock with vanadium recovery

A process for generating a methane-enriched raw product gas stream and a vanadium product stream from a non-gaseous vanadium-containing carbonaceous material, the process comprising the steps of:

• (a) preparing a catalyzed carbonaceous feedstock from the vanadium-containing carbonaceous material and an alkali metal hydromethanation catalyst, wherein the alkali metal hydromethanation catalyst comprises a recycle catalyst and a makeup catalyst;
• (b) introducing the catalyzed carbonaceous feedstock into a hydromethanation reactor;
• (c) reacting the catalyzed carbonaceous feedstock in the hydromethanation reactor in the presence of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and steam to produce a methane-enriched raw gas and a solid by-product char;
• (d) withdrawing a stream of the methane-enriched raw product gas from the hydromethanation reactor as the methane-enriched raw product gas stream, wherein the methane-enriched raw product gas stream comprises methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, steam and heat energy;
• (e) withdrawing a stream of the solid by-product char from the hydromethanation reactor, wherein the withdrawn solid by-product char comprises carbon and an inorganic ash containing an alkali metal content and a vanadium content;
• (f) treating the withdrawn solid by-product char to generate (1) an alkali metal and vanadium-depleted char stream, and (2) an aqueous alkali metal and vanadium-enriched stream comprising one or more water-soluble alkali metal compounds and one or more water-soluble vanadium compounds, wherein the aqueous stream comprises at least a predominant portion of the alkali metal content and at least a predominant portion of the vanadium content of the withdrawn solid by-product char;
• (g) separating the aqueous stream into a bleed stream and a catalyst recycle stream, wherein the bleed stream comprises a bleed vanadium content;
• (h) recycling at least a portion of the catalyst recycle stream for use as the recycle catalyst;
• (i) treating the bleed stream to generate a vanadium-enriched stream and a vanadium-depleted stream, wherein the vanadium-enriched stream comprises at least a predominant portion of the bleed vanadium content;
• (j) contacting the vanadium-enriched stream with an ammonia stream to generate an ammonium vanadate;
• and
• (k) recovering at least a predominant portion of the ammonium vanadate generated in step (j) as the vanadium product stream.