A solar thermochemical processing system is disclosed. The system includes a first unit operation for receiving concentrated solar energy. Heat from the solar energy is used to drive the first unit operation. The first unit operation also receives a first set of reactants and produces a first set of products. A second unit operation receives the first set of products from the first unit operation and produces a second set of products. A third unit operation receives heat from the second unit operation to produce a portion of the first set of reactants.

Sequential and once-through (single pass) process for the co-production of methanol and ammonia and conversion of at least a part of ammonia to urea by reaction of the ammonia with carbon dioxide collected from a primary reformer flue gas together with carbon dioxide separated from reformed gas in a carbon dioxide removal stage.

An energy storage system includes: a reformer configured to receive natural gas and steam and to output reformed natural gas; a combustion turbine configured to output heated sweep gas; and a molten carbonate electrolyzer cell (“MCEC”) including: an MCEC anode, and an MCEC cathode configured to receive the heated sweep gas from the combustion turbine. The energy storage system is configured such that: when no excess power is available, the combustion turbine receives the reformed natural gas from the reformer, and when excess power is available, the MCEC operates in a hydrogen-generation mode in which the MCEC anode receives the reformed natural gas from the reformer, and outputs MCEC anode exhaust that contains hydrogen.

A plant, such as a hydrocarbon plant, is provided, which consists of a syngas stage for syngas generation and a synthesis stage where said syngas is synthesized to produce syngas derived product, such as hydrocarbon product. The plant makes effective use of various streams; in particular CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2. The plant does not comprise an external feed of hydrocarbons. A method for producing a product stream, such as a hydrocarbon product stream is also provided.

A novel process for synthesis gas generation comprises treating a hydrocarbon feed in a primary reformer (PR), compressing at least part of the flue gas from the primary reformer in a compressor (C1), and feeding the compressed flue gas to a secondary reformer (SR) together with the primary reformer effluent. In the process, enriched air (EA) is added either to the primary reformer, to the secondary reformer or both. The process is especially suited for co-production of ammonia and methanol or for production of either ammonia or methanol. The total CO.sub.2 emission is lowered considerably by using the process of the invention.

Process for manufacturing a hydrogen-containing synthesis gas from a natural gas feedstock, comprising the conversion of said natural gas into a raw product gas and purification of said product gas, the process having a heat input provided by combustion of a fuel; said process comprises a step of conversion of a carbonaceous feedstock, and at least a portion of said fuel is a gaseous fuel obtained by said step of conversion of said carbonaceous feedstock.

A process and/or system for producing fuel that includes providing biogas, removing carbon dioxide from the biogas, transporting the upgraded biogas to a hydrogen plant; providing the transported upgraded biogas and fossil-based natural gas as feedstock for hydrogen production. The carbon intensity of the fuel is less than 11 gCO.sub.2-eq/MJ, at least in part because carbon dioxide removed from the biogas and carbon dioxide from hydrogen production is captured and stored.

An energy storage system includes: a combustion turbine configured to output heated sweep gas; a reformer configured to receive natural gas and steam and to output reformed natural gas; a molten carbonate electrolyzer cell (“MCEC”) comprising an MCEC anode and an MCEC cathode, wherein the MCEC is configured to operate in a hydrogen-generation mode in which: the MCEC anode receives the reformed natural gas from the reformer, and outputs MCEC anode exhaust that contains hydrogen, and the MCEC cathode is configured to receive heated sweep gas from the combustion turbine, and to output MCEC cathode exhaust; and a storage tank configured to receive the MCEC anode exhaust that contains hydrogen.

Parallel co-production process for the production of methanol and urea product from a hydrocarbon containing feed-stock by means of autothermal reforming, intermediary methanol and ammonia formation and conversion of the ammonia to urea product and catalytic oxidation of the methanol to formaldehyde.

Parallel co-production process for the production of methanol and urea product from a hydrocarbon containing feed-stock by means of primary and secondary reforming, intermediary methanol and ammonia formation and conversion of the ammonia to urea product and catalytic oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde.