A POX on synSeptember 12, 2007Synthesizing gas, making energy A way to convert natural gas into raw materials for the chemical industry and generate power as a by-product could lead to more environmental benign manufacturing processes. Making synthesis gas - a blend of hydrogen and carbon monoxide - is a key step in turning natural gas or biomass into bulk chemicals, such as acetic acid, methanol, oxygenated alcohols, isocyanates, and ammonia, which are the feedstock of the global chemical industry. Synthesis gas can also be converted into synthetic diesel fuel. In the conventional process of synthesis gas production, a catalyst and heat are required, which itself requires energy.
Bogdan Albrecht of Daf Trucks N.V. and his colleagues suggest that an alternative heat generating reaction that uses steam and pure oxygen to convert methane into synthesis gas would be far more efficient. The synthesis gas produced would emerge from a POX (partial oxidation) reactor at high temperature and pressure and could be used to drive a gas turbine for power generation. The researchers have carried out an analysis of the various approaches to producing synthesis gas. The conventional method uses more energy than is released but produces relatively large amounts of synthesis gas. In contrast, two approaches POX, and Autothermal Reforming (ATR) use less energy but produce slightly less synthesis gas. However, the synthesis gas produced by POX is at a much higher temperature and pressure than that from either of the other two methods and so a POX plant can deliver ten times more power and has much lower exergy losses than any other approach. Exergy is the maximum amount of work that can be extracted from a system. The team explains how this excess power can be used to drive a gas separation system for feeding the raw materials into the synthesis gas plant. They also point out that their prototype design is far more compact than steam turbine systems currently used in synthesis gas production. Inderscience Publishers | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Related Synthesis Gas Current Events and Synthesis Gas News Articles More flexible method floated to produce biofuels, electricity Researchers are proposing a new "flexible" approach to producing alternative fuels, hydrogen and electricity from municipal solid wastes, agricultural wastes, forest residues and sewage sludge that could supply up to 20 percent of transportation fuels in the United States annually. Turning Waste Material into Ethanol Say the word "biofuels" and most people think of grain ethanol and biodiesel. But there's another, older technology called gasification that's getting a new look from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University. By combining gasification with high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts, they hope to create ethanol from a wide range of biomass, including distiller's grain left over from ethanol production, corn stover from the field, grass, wood pulp, animal waste, and garbage. Coal and black liquor can produce energy from papermaking Adding a little coal and processing the papermaking industry's black liquor waste into synthesis gas is a better choice than burning it for heat, improves the carbon footprint of coal-to-liquid processes, and can produce a fuel versatile enough to run a cooking stove or a truck, according to a team of Penn state engineers. Ceramic tubes could cut greenhouse gas emissions from power stations Greenhouse gas emissions from power stations could be cut to almost zero by controlling the combustion process with tiny tubes made from an advanced ceramic material. U of M researchers invent 'flashy' new process to turn soy oil, glucose into hydrogen Anyone who's overheated vegetable oil or sweet syrup knows that neither oil nor sugar evaporates-oil smokes and turns brown, sugar turns black, and both leave a nasty film of carbon on the cookware. New Catalysts Developed at Oxford for Fischer-Tropsch and Oxidation Reactions Oxford University researchers have developed an innovative process for preparation of catalysts, termed the Organic Matrix Combustion Method. It produces extremely active, selective and long-lasting catalysts. The catalysts use economical metals such as nickel and cobalt, and have been prepared for applications including the partial oxidation of natural gas, Fischer-Tropsch process, and hydrotreating crude oil. Catalysts are an essential component of certain important reactions, such as the partial oxidation of methane (POM) and the Fischer-Tropsch process, in which hydrocarbons are prepared from a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide (synthesis gas or syngas). Often such reactions would More Synthesis Gas Current Events and Synthesis Gas News Articles |
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