Removal of hydrogen sulfide as ammonium sulfate from hydropyrolysis product vapors
AssigneeGas Technology Institute
InventorsTerry L. Marker, Larry G. Felix, Martin B. Linck, Michael J. Roberts
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Abstract
A system and method for processing biomass into hydrocarbon fuels that includes processing a biomass in a hydropyrolysis reactor resulting in hydrocarbon fuels and a process vapor stream and cooling the process vapor stream to a condensation temperature resulting in an aqueous stream. The aqueous stream is sent to a catalytic reactor where it is oxidized to obtain a product stream containing ammonia and ammonium sulfate. A resulting cooled product vapor stream includes non-condensable process vapors comprising H2, CH4, CO, CO2, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.
Claims25
A hydropyrolysis process comprising:
- introducing biomass and hydrogen into a hydropyrolyzer comprising one or more reactors;
- sufficiently deoxygenating the biomass to provide a vapor product of the hydropyrolyzer comprising, in the gaseous state, deoxygenated condensable hydrocarbons, non-condensable gases, and water;
- cooling the vapor product to condense a liquid organic phase and a liquid aqueous phase comprising at least one species of the vapor product, including ammonia (NH3), that is solubilized in the liquid aqueous phase;
- and
- phase separating the liquid aqueous phase from the liquid organic phase and obtaining a gas phase NH3 product or an aqueous ammonia product from the aqueous phase.
A method for preparing an ammonia product, comprising:
- processing biomass in a hydropyrolyzer to obtain solid char and a heated vapor product comprising hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, deoxygenated condensable hydrocarbons, and water vapor;
- cooling the heated vapor product to condense, as separate liquid phases, an organic phase and an aqueous phase comprising NH4OH that is formed from the dissolution of NH3 from the heated vapor product into the aqueous phase;
- and
- separating the liquid phases and obtaining the ammonia product as a gas phase NH3 product or an aqueous NH4OH product from the aqueous phase.
A hydropyrolysis process comprising:
- introducing a biomass feedstock and hydrogen into a hydropyrolyzer comprising one or more reactors, wherein sulfur is present in the biomass feedstock;
- sufficiently deoxygenating the biomass to provide a vapor product of the hydropyrolyzer comprising, in the gaseous state, deoxygenated condensable hydrocarbons, non-condensable hydrocarbons and H2S, and water;
- cooling the vapor product to obtain a condensed liquid organic phase, a condensed liquid aqueous phase, and a cooled vapor phase comprising at least a portion of the H2S;
- separating the condensed liquid organic phase, the condensed liquid aqueous phase, and the cooled vapor phase;
- treating the cooled vapor phase to substantially remove the H2S and obtain a treated vapor phase comprising at least a portion of the non-condensable hydrocarbons;
- and
- subjecting the treated vapor phase to steam reforming, in order to generate reformer hydrogen from the non-condensable hydrocarbons.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.