A novel process for converting coalmine-drained methane gas to syngas over nickel-magnesia solid solution catalysts

A novel process is developed in this paper for utilizing the coalmine-drained methane gas that is usually vented straight into the atmosphere in most coalmines worldwide. It is expected that low-cost syngas can be produced by the combined air partial oxidation and CO2 reforming of methane, because this process utilizes directly the methane, air, and carbon dioxide in the coalmine-drained gas without going through the separation step. For this purpose, a nickel-magnesia solid solution catalyst was prepared and its catalytic performance for the proposed process was investigated. It was found that calcination temperature has significant influence on the catalytic performance due to the different extent of solid solution formation in the catalysts. A uniform nickel-magnesia solid solution catalyst exhibits higher stability than the catalysts in which NiO has not completely formed solid solution with MgO. Its catalytic activity and selectivity remain stable during 120 h of reaction. The product H-2/CO ratio is mainly dependent on the feed gas composition. By changing CO2/air ratio of the feed gases, syngas with a H-2/CO ratio between 1 and 1.9 can be obtained. The influences of reaction temperature and nickel loading on the catalytic performance were also investigated. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Mixed reforming of heptane to syngas in the Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3 membrane reactor

Fuel cells are recognized as the most promising new power generation technology, but hydrogen supply is still a problem. In our previous work, we have developed a LiLaNiO/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst, which is excellent not only for partial oxidation of hydrocarbons, but also for steam reforming and autothermal reforming. However, the reaction needs pure oxygen or air as oxidant. We have developed a dense oxygen permeable membrane Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3 which has an oxygen permeation flux around 11.5 ml/cm(2) min at reaction conditions. Therefore, this work is to combine the oxygen permeable membrane with the catalyst LiLaNiO/gamma-Al2O3 in a membrane reactor for hydrogen production by mixed reforming of heptane. Under optimized reaction conditions, a heptane conversion of 100%, a CO selectivity of 91-93% and a H-2 selectivity of 95-97% have been achieved. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of syngas addition on lower alkene production by the oxidative cracking of hexane

The lower alkene production by the gas-phase oxidative cracking (GOC) or catalytic oxidative cracking (COC) of hexane (C6) with added syngas was investigated. The addition of syngas to the COC process could effectively enhance the selectivity to lower alkenes and decrease the selectivity to COx, because of the preferential reaction between O-2 with H-2 contained in the syngas, whereas it has little effect on the conversion of C6 and product distribution in the GOC process. The high selectivity to lower alkenes of 70% and low selectivity to CO, of 6% at C6 conversion of 66% were achieved over 0.1% Pt/MgAl2O4 catalyst. The COC process of C6 combined with the syngas in the feed could directly produce a gas mixture of lower alkenes, H-2, and CO, which usually is a suitable feedstock for the hydroformylation process.

Design and operation of integrated pilot-scale dimethyl ether synthesis system via pyrolysis/gasification of corncob

The integrated pilot-scale dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis system from corncob was demonstrated for modernizing utilization of biomass residues. The raw bio-syngas was obtained by the pyrolyzer/gasifier at the yield rate of 40-45 Nm(3)/h. The content of tar in the raw bio-syngas was decreased to less than 20 mg/Nm(3) by high temperature gasification of the pyrolysates under O-2-rich air. More than 70% CO2 in the raw bio-syngas was removed by pressure-swing adsorption unit (PSA). The bio-syngas (H-2/CO approximate to 1) was catalytically converted to DME in the fixed-bed tubular reactor directly over Cu/Zn/Al/HZSM-5 catalysts. CO conversion and space-time yield of DME were in the range of 82.0-73.6% and 124.3-203.8 kg/m(cat)(3)/h, respectively, with a similar DME selectivity when gas hourly space velocity (GHSV, volumetric flow rate of syngas at STP divided by the volume of catalyst) increased from 650 h(-1) to 1500 h(-1) at 260 degrees C and 4.3 MPa. And the selectivity to methanol and C-2(+) products was less than 0.65% under typical synthesis condition. The thermal energy conversion efficiency was ca. 32.0% and about 16.4% carbon in dried corncob was essentially converted to DME with the production cost of ca. (sic) 3737/ton DME. Cu (111) was assumed to be the active phase for DME synthesis, confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization.

Gasoline-range hydrocarbon synthesis over cobalt-based Fischer-Tropsch catalysts supported onSiO2/HZSM-5

Two types of SiO2 with different mesopore size and HZSM-5 zeolite were used to prepare hybrid supported cobalt-based catalysts. The textual and structural properties of the catalysts were studied using N-2 physisorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and H-2 temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) techniques. Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) performances of the catalysts were carried out in a fixed-bed reactor. The combination effects of the meso- and micropores of the supports as well as the interaction between supports and cobalt particles on FTS activity are discussed. The results indicate that the catalyst supported on the tailor-made SiO2 and HZSM-5 hybrid maintained both meso- and micropore pores during the preparation process without HZSM-5 particles agglomerating. The mesopores provided quick mass transfer channels, while the micropores contributed to high metal dispersion and accelerated hydrocracking/hydroisomerization reaction rate. High CO conversion of 83.9% and selectivity to gasoline-range hydrocarbons (C-5-C-12) of 55%, including more than 10% isoparaffins, were achieved simultaneously on this type of catalyst.