A system and a method for converting Natural Gas (NG) to high energy transportable liquid (such as gasoline) are disclosed. A semiconductor UV-source is used for initiate a photo lytic reaction between methane molecules and photons having energy equal or bigger than the energy of dissociation of the C—H bond in methane. The formed radicles are further react to produce higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, while hydrogen gas is separates from the reaction mixture in order to avoid reverse reactions.

The present invention relates to a shell-and-tube type reactor for reforming natural gas and a method for manufacturing syngas or hydrogen gas by using the same. According to the present invention, a shell-and-tube type reactor for reforming natural gas comprises a reaction catalyst for reforming natural gas, which is filled in a reactor shell; at least one tube for separating hydrogen; and a tube for an exothermic reaction or a tube type heat-exchanger for heating, which is disposed at the center of the reactor so as to have excellent operating efficiency and enable production of high-purity hydrogen and collection of carbon dioxide simultaneously along with a reaction.

A method for producing para-xylene (PX) includes introducing a C.sub.8 aromatic-containing composition to a xylene rerun column to separate the C.sub.8 aromatic-containing composition into a xylene-containing effluent and a heavy effluent and passing the xylene-containing effluent to a PX processing loop that includes a PX recovery unit operable to separate a PX product from the xylene-containing effluent, a membrane isomerization unit operable to convert a portion of the MX, OX, or both from the xylene-containing effluent to PX, an EB dealkylation unit operable to dealkylate EB from the xylene-containing effluent to produce benzene, toluene, and other C.sub.7− compounds, and a membrane separation unit operable to produce a permeate that is PX-rich and a retentate that is PX-lean. The permeate is passed to the PX recovery unit for recovery of PX, which the retentate is bypassed around the PX recovery unit circulated through the xylene processing loop.

Provided herein are processes for carrying out a chemical reaction of a substrate in a diluted reaction mixture. The processes include conducting the reaction mixture having reaction product and solvent to a filtration membrane which is permeable to the solvent but impermeable to the reaction product. Solvent which permeates the filtration membrane for dilution of the substrate feed is recycled.

A hydrogen permeable membrane device is provided that includes a porous ceramic layer having a material that includes zirconia, Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), γ/Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and/or YSZ— γ/Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and a porous Pd film or porous Pd-alloy film deposited on the a mesoporous ceramic layer.

The present invention provides a low pressure generating plasma reactor closed loop process, comprising: feeding a fresh feed gas flow and a fresh feed absorption liquid flow to a plasma reactor closed loop comprising a condenser, a liquid loop, a recycle gas loop, and a plasma generator; converting feed gas to reactive plasma products in the plasma generator; quenching and absorbing the reactive plasma products into an absorption liquid circulating in the liquid loop where the reactive plasma products react to form liquid reaction products, thereby generating low pressure in the closed loop; monitoring the composition and low pressure of the recycle gas loop and, if the pressure increases, adjusting the composition of the fresh feed gas flow and/or fresh feed absorption liquid flow to bring the composition of the feed gas towards stoichiometric ratio with the absorbed reactive plasma products; extracting circulating absorption liquid, containing the liquid reaction products, from the plasma reactor closed loop as a product flow. The present invention also provides a low pressure generating plasma reactor closed loop system, comprising a plasma generator, a condenser, a recycle gas loop, a liquid loop, and a pump.

The present disclosure relates to ruthenium promoter catalyst compositions. The ruthenium promoter catalyst compositions comprise ruthenium metal species, an oxide support material, and a promoter species independently selected from the group consisting of La, Rb, Y, Yb, K, Cs, and Ba, or hydroxides, nitrates or oxides thereof. The present disclosure also relates to various methods, processes, systems, membranes and/or reactors, which can utilise the ruthenium promoter catalyst compositions, for example in ammonia synthesis.

A system and method for producing hydrogen, including providing hydrocarbon and steam into a vessel to a region external to a tubular membrane in the vessel. The method includes steam reforming the hydrocarbon in the vessel via reforming catalyst to generate hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The method includes diffusing the hydrogen through the tubular membrane into a bore of the tubular membrane, wherein the tubular membrane is hydrogen selective.

A system and method of producing hydrogen, including converting hydrocarbon to methane via steam and pre-reforming catalyst in a pre-reformer, converting the methane to hydrogen and carbon dioxide by steam reforming via a reforming catalyst in a membrane reformer, diffusing through hydrogen through a tubular membrane in the membrane reformer.

A system and method for producing hydrogen from hydrocarbon and steam, including a membrane reformer with multiple membrane reactors each having a tubular membrane. The bore of the tubular membrane is the permeate side for the hydrogen. The region external to the tubular membrane is the retentate side for carbon dioxide. A sweep gas flows through the bore to displace hydrogen in a direction countercurrent to flow of hydrocarbon and steam in the region external to the tubular membrane. The method includes discharging hydrogen as permeate with the sweep gas from the bore, and discharging carbon dioxide in the region external to the tubular membrane as retentate from the membrane reactor.