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  • Thermochemical conversion of biomass ... - Google Patents

    pyro gasification

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    thermochemical pyrolysis on 2008-10-30

    • Patent number: 4497637
      Filing date: Nov 22, 1982
      Issue date: Feb 5, 1985
      Abstract
      Biomass feedstock raw material is converted to synthesis gas by drying and sizing biomass raw material, pyrolyzing the processed biomass in intimate mixture with inert gases such as combustion products, thereby obtaining a product mixture of char, pyrolysis oil, and pyrolysis gas, and gasifying...
      About this patent
    • Patent number: 4497637
      Filing date: Nov 22, 1982
      Issue date: Feb 5, 1985
      Abstract
      Biomass feedstock raw material is converted to synthesis gas by drying and sizing biomass raw material, pyrolyzing the processed biomass in intimate mixture with inert gases such as combustion products, thereby obtaining a product mixture of char, pyrolysis oil, and pyrolysis gas, and gasifying...
      About this patent

  • Scoop: The Methane Economy

    Artists impression of a Solar Tower

    In a CO2 collecting tower an amine solution would be pumped up to the top of the tower and allowed to fall from the top to be collected at the bottom. As the rising air stream passes over the falling amine stream, CO2 is absorbed from the air by the solution which is then collected at the bottom, heated to release the CO2 and then pumped up to the top of tower again. As this process occurs after the air passes through the wind turbines the Solar Tower would generate most of the electricity needed for the integrated plant. As it does not interfere with the power generation capabilities of the tower it is possible that CO2 absorbers could be retro-fitted to existing Power Towers. This could reduce the cost of implementing Solar Methane by using existing structures.

    Currently there are plans to capture CO2 from fossil fuel power station and sequester it underground. If this CO2 is shipped to the Solar Methane plant instead this can supplement the CO2 stream from the Solar Tower. This means that the CO2 from the fossil fuel plant is at least used twice thereby decreasing the net impact of the CO2 released

    Converting Hydrogen to Methane

    I first became of aware of the Sabatier reaction form reading a book “The Case For Mars” by Robert Zubrin. He envisioned that a mission to Mars would make it’s return fuel from the Martian atmosphere, which consists of 99% CO2, and hydrogen carried aboard. This way a small amount of hydrogen could be multiplied to become enough methane and oxygen, from reacting with CO2, to make such a mission viable. The Sabatier reaction is a well known reaction where H2 and CO2 react in the presence of a catalyst to form CH4 and H2O. This is the reaction

    4H2 + CO2 = CH4 + 2H2O

    While this reaction will work there is another called the Reverse Water Gas Shift (RWGS) reaction. Its main product is CO and H2 in this reaction

    CO2 + H2 = CO + H2O

    The product of this reaction is called a synthesis gas and can be fed to a reactor to produce methanol. This would giv

    www.scoop.co.nz/...S00063.htm - Preview

    methane economy on 2008-11-16

    • o Infrastructure Changes Required - At the moment our
      industry uses natural gas in enormous amounts. It is not
      only a fuel for electricity production but as a feedstock
      for many industrial processes. It is also widely used in
      homes for heating and cooking. This represents a massive
      installed base of machines designed to run on methane. You
      might think that it would be easy for these to switch to
      hydrogen however this is not the case. Some seals that are
      used for natural gas are not compatible with hydrogen. The
      orifice size for burners is different as is the feeder pipe
      size. Hydrogen, being less dense than natural gas, needs
      higher pressures to deliver the same amount of gas. The
      present pipes might need replacing as they probably cannot
      handle the higher pressures. All this does not sound too
      bad but when you consider the sheer amount of industrial
      ovens, domestic ovens, domestic and industrial water
      heaters, domestic and industrial air heaters and the
      millions of kilometres of piping and the billions of pumps
      and seals involved then you begin to get an idea of the
      scale of the switch to hydrogen. Converting the hydrogen
      to methane at the point of production totally eliminates
      this conversion pain and can save industry and domestic
      consumers billions of dollars in conversion costs. It also
      makes hydrogen easier to sell as it is in a form that can be
      used by industry with no changes.
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