Improvement of carbon efficiencies in hydrocarbon production

Abstract

This invention relates to a method of producing liquid hydrocarbons, preferably internal combustion engine fuels, using feedstocks of coal or methane. Depending on the nature of the feedstock it is subjected to a gasification and / or reforming process and / or water gas shift process which produces a syngas that is rich in carbon dioxide and hydrogen rather than carbon monoxide and hydrogen as in the conventional process. The carbon dioxide and hydrogen are combined in a Fischer Tropsch process to produce desired hydrocarbons and water. The energy requirements of the gasification / reforming process to produce a syngas that is rich in carbon dioxide and hydrogen is considerably less than the energy requirements for gasification / reforming process for producing the conventional carbon monoxide rich syngas. This reduction in energy consumption reduces considerably the quantities of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere compared to conventional processes that are based on carbon monoxide rich syngas. Unreacted CO2-rich syngas can be recirculated or can also be used, in molten carbonate fuel cells, or to generate energy or steam in turbine processes such as IGCC.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to increasing carbon efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide emissions in hydrocarbon production by the Fischer-Tropsch process. Background technique [0002] The Fischer-Tropsch process is primarily used to convert carbon monoxide and hydrogen (also known as "syngas") into liquid hydrocarbons that are used as fuel. [0003] A typical process flow diagram for the synthesis of hydrocarbons using the Fischer-Tropsch process is as follows: [0004] [0005] In the above process, the feedstock to the gasifier is usually coal or methane gas. In this figure, Q 1 Represents the energy input to the gasification section (in the case of coal feedstock) or the reforming section (in the case of methane gas), Q 2 Represents the energy output from the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis process. [0006] In the case of coal as feedstock, initially, the coal is converted into carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H 2 ): [0007] C+H 2 O→CO+H...

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Problems solved by technology

On the other hand, dwindling and increasingly expensive crude oil reserves, combined with significantly larger natural gas resources and low-grade coal, adversely affect the establishment and operation of such plants

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