Methods are provided to prepare a low sulfur fuel from hydrocarbon sources, such as light tight oil and high sulfur fuel oil, often less desired by conventional refiners, who split crude into a wide range of differing products and may prefer presence of wide ranges (C3 or C5 to C20 or higher) of hydrocarbons. These fuels can be produced by separating feeds into untreated and treated streams, and then recombining them. Such fuels can also be formulated by combinations of light, middle and heavy range constituents in a selected manner as claimed. Not only low in sulfur, the fuels of this invention are also low in nitrogen and essentially metals free. Fuel use applications include on-board large marine transport vessels but also on-shore for large land based combustion gas turbines, boilers, fired heaters and transport vehicles and trains.

This invention relates to a power recovery process in waste steam/CO.sub.2 reformers in which a waste stream can be made to release energy without having to burn the waste or the syngas. This invention in some embodiments does not make use of fuel cells as a component but makes use of exothermic chemical reactors using syngas to produce heat, such as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. It also relates to control or elimination of the emissions of greenhouse gases in the power recovery process of this invention with the goal of producing energy in the future carbonless world economy.

Provided is a powder fuel supply apparatus comprising a distributor (84) that branches supplied powder fuel to a plurality of branch tubes (82), a plurality of burners (126a) connected to downstream ends (82a) of the plurality of branch tubes (82), respectively, to supply char into a gasification furnace that gasifies the powder fuel, a flow nozzle (85) provided in each of the plurality of branch tubes (82), to apply pressure loss to char flow in the branch tube (82), a differential pressure gauge (86) that measures a differential pressure generated by the flow nozzle (85), and a control unit that determines decrease in flow velocity of the char flow based on the differential pressure obtained by the differential pressure gauge (86).

An object is to curb damage localized in a slag capturing portion caused when slag passes therethrough. A slag discharge device includes: a screen mesh (6) that is a porous member including a plurality of through-holes (6a) formed therein; and a crushing device (7) that crushes water-granulated slag (S2) captured by the screen mesh (6). The crushing device has a crusher head (12) that breaks, with a pressure, and thus crushes the water-granulated slag (S2), a hydraulic cylinder (13) that reciprocates the crusher head in a predetermined direction, a guide plate (14) that restricts movement of the crusher head caused by the hydraulic cylinder, and a plurality of crushing spaces (15) in which the water-granulated slag (S2) is crushed. A communication opening that causes the crushing spaces (15) to communicate with each other is formed in a partitioning wall guide plate (14a) of the guide plate.

Methods are provided to prepare a low sulfur fuel from hydrocarbon sources, such as light tight oil and high sulfur fuel oil, often less desired by conventional refiners, who split crude into a wide range of differing products and may prefer presence of wide ranges (C3 or C5 to C20 or higher) of hydrocarbons. These fuels can be produced by separating feeds into untreated and treated streams, and then recombining them. Such fuels can also be formulated by combinations of light, middle and heavy range constituents in a selected manner as claimed. Not only low in sulfur, the fuels of this invention are also low in nitrogen and essentially metals free. Fuel use applications include on-board large marine transport vessels but also on-shore for large land based combustion gas turbines, boilers, fired heaters and transport vehicles and trains.

Processes for producing high biogenic concentration Fischer-Tropsch liquids derived from the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (MSW) feedstock that contains a relatively high concentration of biogenic carbon (derived from plants) and a relatively low concentration of non-biogenic carbon (derived from fossil sources) wherein the biogenic content of the Fischer-Tropsch liquids is the same as the biogenic content of the feedstock.

A powder supply hopper pressurizing apparatus including a first buffer tank in which pressurizing gas to be supplied to a powder supply hopper is accumulated at a predetermined pressure, a second buffer tank, a lower part pressure adjustment nitrogen system connected to the powder supply hopper, to supply the gas toward powder fuel stored in the powder supply hopper when supplying the powder fuel to a burner, and a control unit that controls the first buffer tank to pressurize the powder supply hopper to a first pressure and then controls the second buffer tank to pressurize the powder supply hopper to a second pressure, and where the control unit determines that one of the first buffer tank or the second buffer tank is non-usable, the control unit pressurizes the powder supply hopper by use of the first or second buffer tank that is operable, and the gas supply system.

A process for the generation of energy and/or hydrocarbons and other products utilizing carbonaceous materials. In a first process stage (P1) the carbonaceous materials are supplied and are pyrolysed, wherein pyrolysis coke (M21) and pyrolysis gas (M22) are formed. In a second process stage (P2), the pyrolysis coke (M21) from the first process stage (P1) is gasified, wherein synthesis gas (M24) is formed, and slag and other residues (M91, M92, M93, M94) are removed. In a third process stage (P3), the synthesis gas (M24) from the second process stage (P2) is converted into hydrocarbons and/or other solid, liquid, and/or gaseous products (M60), which are discharged. The three process stages (P1, P2, P3) form a closed cycle. Surplus gas (M25) from the third process stage (P3) is passed as recycle gas into the first process stage (P1), and/or the second process stage (P2), and pyrolysis gas (M22) from the first process stage (P1) is passed into the second process stage (P2), and/or the third process stage (P3).

A pulverized-fuel supply unit includes a hopper, first nozzles, second nozzles, a pressurizing-gas supply device, a fluidization-gas supply device, and a pulverized-fuel supply line. The hopper has a hollow to store therein pulverized fuel. The first nozzles are provided to the hopper. The second nozzles are provided to a vertically lower part of the hopper below the plurality of first nozzles. The pressurizing-gas supply device is configured to supply pressurizing gas to increase internal pressure of the hopper. The fluidization-gas supply device is configured to supply fluidization gas to fluidize the pulverized fuel in the hopper. The pulverized-fuel supply line is provided to a vertically lower part of the hopper. The pressurizing-gas supply device supplies pressurizing gas to the first nozzles and the second nozzles. The fluidization-gas supply device supplies fluidization gas to the second nozzles.

Processes for producing high biogenic concentration Fischer-Tropsch liquids derived from the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (MSW) feedstock that contains a relatively high concentration of biogenic carbon (derived from plants) and a relatively low concentration of non-biogenic carbon (derived from fossil sources) wherein the biogenic content of the Fischer-Tropsch liquids is the same as the biogenic content of the feedstock.