Methods are provided for generating or recovering gaseous materials such as hydrogen and solids such as metals through the smoldering combustion of an organic material. The methods include admixing a porous matrix material with an organic material, and, in some embodiments a catalyst, to produce a porous mixture. The mixture is exposed to an oxidant, initiating a self-sustaining smoldering combustion of the mixture, and collecting the vapors and combustion products or processing the porous matrix following combustion to physically separate the porous matrix material from ash containing inorganic materials of value. Additional embodiments aggregate the organic material or catalyst or porous matrix material or mixture thereof in an impoundment such as a reaction vessel, lagoon or matrix pile. Further embodiments utilize at least one heater to initiate combustion and at least one air supply port to supply oxidant to initiate and maintain combustion.

Provided is a thermal decomposition method that allows efficient thermal decomposition of an organic substance such as a plastic to produce gas and oil with high heating value and with which a large amount of the organic substance can be processed. The method includes mixing the organic substance with an organic substance decomposition catalyst, forming the mixture to produce a composite agglomerated material, and thermally decomposing the organic substance by placing the composite agglomerated material in a thermal decomposition furnace. The maximum catalytic effect can be obtained since the organic substance and the catalyst are close to each other in the composite agglomerated material. Since the catalyst has thermal conductivity higher than that of the organic substance, the temperature rising rate of the organic substance can be increased. As a result, the efficiency of thermal decomposition of the organic substance by the catalyst can be improved, and the rate of thermal decomposition of the organic substance can be effectively increased.

The present disclosure relates to a power production system that is adapted to achieve high efficiency power production with carbon capture when using a solid or liquid hydrocarbon or carbonaceous fuel. More particularly, the solid or liquid fuel first is partially oxidized in a partial oxidation reactor that is configured to provide an output stream that is enriched in methane content. The resulting partially oxidized stream can be cooled, filtered, additionally cooled, and then directed to a combustor of a power production system as the combustion fuel. The partially oxidized stream is combined with a compressed recycle CO.sub.2 stream and oxygen. The combustion stream is expanded across a turbine to produce power and passed through a recuperator heat exchanger. The recycle CO.sub.2 stream is compressed and passed through the recuperator heat exchanger and optionally the POX heat exchanger in a manner useful to provide increased efficiency to the combined systems.

Combining multiple subsystems involving biomass processing, biomass gasification of the processed biomass where a synthesis gas is produced then converted to hydrogen fuels or other transportation fuels for use in coupled transportation systems sized to consume all the transportation fuel produced. Carbon in the biomass is converted to CO.sub.2 in the conversion process and a portion of that CO.sub.2 is captured and sequestrated for long term storage.

Processes, systems, and methods for producing combustible gas from wet biomass are provided. In one aspect, for example, a process for generating a combustible gas from a wet biomass in a closed system is provided. Such a process may include growing a wet biomass in a growth chamber, moving at least a portion of the wet biomass to a reactor, heating the portion of the wet biomass under high pressure in the reactor to gasify the wet biomass into a total gas component, separating the gasified component into a liquid component, a non-combustible gas component, and a combustible gas component, and introducing the liquid component and non-combustible gas component containing carbon dioxide into the growth chamber to stimulate new wet biomass growth.

The invention relates to a catalyst regeneration process for a tar reforming catalyst within a catalyst bed in a tar reformer. The process comprises the steps of:—Admitting a main gas stream with controlled temperature and oxygen content to an inlet into the tar reformer;—Passing the main gas stream through the catalyst bed to form an oxygen depleted gas stream;—Exiting the oxygen depleted gas stream from the tar reformer; and—Recycling at least a part of the oxygen depleted gas stream exiting from the tar reformer back into said main gas stream upstream said tar reformer. The temperature of said main gas stream at the inlet is controlled to be within the range from about 500° C. to about 1000° C.

The present disclosure relates to a power production system that is adapted to achieve high efficiency power production with carbon capture when using a solid or liquid hydrocarbon or carbonaceous fuel. More particularly, the solid or liquid fuel first is partially oxidized in a partial oxidation reactor that is configured to provide an output stream that is enriched in methane content. The resulting partially oxidized stream can be cooled, filtered, additionally cooled, and then directed to a combustor of a power production system as the combustion fuel. The partially oxidized stream is combined with a compressed recycle CO.sub.2 stream and oxygen. The combustion stream is expanded across a turbine to produce power and passed through a recuperator heat exchanger. The recycle CO.sub.2 stream is compressed and passed through the recuperator heat exchanger and optionally the POX heat exchanger in a manner useful to provide increased efficiency to the combined systems.

Disclosed are a pulverized coal preprocessing method and a pulverized coal gasifying method. The pulverized coal preprocessing method comprises the following steps: (1) performing pore broadening on pulverized coal to obtain preprocessed pulverized coal; (2) loading alkali metal ions into the preprocessed pulverized coal under an ion exchange condition to obtain alkali metal loaded pulverized coal. The method further comprises loading a chrome complex into the alkali metal loaded pulverized coal obtained in described step (2). In gasification, the pulverized coal loaded with alkali metal potassium and chrome catalysts obtained by the method has the advantages of high sulphur removal rate, high carbon conversion rate, short gasifying reaction time and high methane production.

The present disclosure provides a method and an apparatus for integrating pressurized hydrocracking of heavy oil and coke gasification. A coupled reactor having a cracking section and a gasification section is used in the method: a heavy oil feedstock and a hydrogenation catalyst are fed into a cracking section, to generate light oil-gas and coke; the coke is carried by the coke powder into the gasification section, to generate syngas; a regenerated coke powder is returned to the cracking section; the syngas enters the cracking section and merges with light oil-gas, and enters a gas-solid separator, to separate out first-stage solid particles and second-stage particles in sequence, and a purified oil-gas product is collected; oil-gas fractionation of the purified oil-gas product is performed, and a light oil product and a syngas product are collected. Yield and quality of the light oil can be improved by the method.

A device and process for the conversion of aromatic compounds, includes/uses: a unit for the separation of the xylenes suitable for treating a cut comprising xylenes and ethylbenzene and producing an extract comprising para-xylene and a raffinate; an isomerization unit suitable for treating the raffinate and producing an isomerate enriched in para-xylene which is sent to a fractionation train; a pyrolysis unit suitable for treating biomass, producing a pyrolysis effluent feeding, at least partially, the feedstock, and producing a pyrolysis gas comprising CO and H.sub.2; a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction section suitable for treating, at least in part, the pyrolysis gas, producing a synthesis effluent sent, at least in part, to the pyrolysis unit.