Copper adsorbents which are resistant to the reduction by the components of the synthesis gas at normal operation conditions. The adsorbents are produced by admixing small amounts of an inorganic halide, such as NaCl, to the basic copper carbonate precursor followed by calcination at a temperature sufficient to decompose the carbonate. The introduction of the halide can be also achieved during the forming stage of adsorbent preparation. These reduction resistant copper oxides can be in the form of composites with alumina and are especially useful for purification of synthesis gas and the removal of mercury, arsine, phosphine, as well as hydrogen sulfide.

A process for the stepwise separation of accompanying gases from a raw synthesis gas stream by a liquid absorbent countercurrently guided through all process steps and circulated via regeneration plants, wherein either the accompanying gases H.sub.2S, COS and CO.sub.2 are separated in a common absorption step or, in one of the selective absorption steps chiefly H.sub.2S and COS are separated and in the next step in flow direction of the gas chiefly CO.sub.2 is separated, and in the last step a separation of accompanying gas residues (fine wash) is effected, wherein before the separation of H.sub.2S and COS an absorption step chiefly for the separation of aromatics and subsequently an absorption step chiefly for the separation of methyl mercaptan is carried out.

The present invention provides a process for producing liquid hydrocarbon products from a solid biomass feedstock, said process comprising the steps of: a) providing in a first hydropyrolysis reactor vessel a first hydropyrolysis catalyst composition; b) contacting the solid biomass feedstock with said first hydropyrolysis catalyst composition and molecular hydrogen in said first hydropyrolysis reactor vessel to produce a product stream comprising partially deoxygenated hydropyrolysis product, H.sub.2O, H.sub.2, CO.sub.2, CO, C.sub.1-C.sub.3 gases, char and catalyst fines; c) removing said char and catalyst fines from said product stream; d) hydroconverting said partially deoxygenated hydropyrolysis product in a hydroconversion reactor vessel in the presence of one or more hydroconversion catalyst and of the H.sub.2O, CO.sub.2, CO, H.sub.2, and C.sub.1-C.sub.3 gas generated in step a), to produce a vapor phase product comprising substantially fully deoxygenated hydrocarbon product, H.sub.2O, CO, CO.sub.2, and C.sub.1-C.sub.3 gases.

A catalytically active filter for use in hot gas filtration to simultaneously remove solid particles and one or more undesirable compounds from a hot gas stream is partly or fully impregnated with a suitable catalyst. The compounds are selected from HCN, arsenic, organic sulfur compounds and carbonyls. The filter is prepared by making an impregnation liquid, which comprises a catalytically effective amount of at least one active metal and an oxide support, impregnating the filter substrate with the impregnation liquid by dipping it in the liquid or spraying it with the liquid to control the amount of liquid and drying and optionally calcining the impregnated filter.

A method for gas separation, purification and clarification by FTrPSA uses the temperature and pressure of different raw gases as well as the differences in adsorption separation coefficients and physicochemical properties among all components in the raw gases at a temperature range of 80-200 C. and a pressure range of 0.03-4.0 Mpa, regulates the adsorption or desorption regeneration operation in the PSA cycle process by coupling various separation methods, and expands the adsorption theory that the PSA or TSA separation process is limited to the cyclic operation of adsorption and desorption regeneration through pressure or temperature changes, thus realizing the gradient utilization of energy in the process of gas separation, purification and clarification as well as the easy-to-match and easy-to-balance cyclic operation of adsorption and desorption regeneration in the process of intercooling & shallow-cooling and medium & high-temperature PSA separation to separate, purify and clarify various raw gases.

Carbonaceous-containing material including biomass, municipal solid waste, and/or coal and/or contaminated soil, and/or other carbonaceous materials may be gasified at low temperatures utilizing a reactor designed to generate shockwaves in a supersonic gaseous vortex. Preprocessed waste may be introduced into the reactor. A gas stream may be introduced substantially tangentially to an inner surface of a chamber of the reactor to generate a gaseous vortex rotating about a longitudinal axis within the chamber. The gas stream may be introduced using a nozzle that accelerates the gas stream to a supersonic velocity, and may impinge on an impactor positioned within the reactor chamber. A frequency of shockwaves emitted from the nozzle into the gaseous vortex may be controlled. The processed waste discharged from the reactor, which may include a gas component and at least a solid component, can be subjected to separation, and at least some of the gas component and at least one solid component (i.e., tars) may be fed back to the feeding device so that the solids from the processed waste condense on preprocessed waste contained in the feeding device and are reprocessed within the reactor. The gas component from the feeding device may be cleaned after the solids have been condensed out in the feeding device.

A method for converting carbonaceous raw materials and in particular biomass into hydrogen, includes the steps of: gasification of the carbon-containing raw materials in a gasifier, wherein heated water vapour is introduced into the gasifier and used for gasification; and cleaning of the hydrogen-containing synthesis gas produced in the gasification, wherein the gasification is an allothermal gasification and the heated water vapour is used both as gasification agent and as heat carrier for the gasification, wherein energy not used for H2 production is at least partially reused for the production and/or superheating of water vapour.

The present invention provides a process for producing liquid hydrocarbon products from a biomass, biomass containing and/or biomass-derived feedstock, said process comprising the steps of: a) contacting the feedstock with a first hydropyrolysis catalyst composition and molecular hydrogen in a first hydropyrolysis reactor vessel at a temperature in the range of from 350 to 600 C. and a pressure in the range of from 0.50 to 7.50 MPa, to produce a product stream comprising partially deoxygenated hydropyrolysis product, H.sub.2O, H.sub.2, CO.sub.2, CO, C.sub.1-C.sub.3 gases, char and catalyst fines; b) removing said char and catalyst fines from said product stream; c) hydroconverting said partially deoxygenated hydropyrolysis product in a hydroconversion reactor vessel in the presence of one or more hydroconversion catalyst compositions and of the H.sub.2O, CO.sub.2, CO, H.sub.2, and C.sub.1-C.sub.3 gas generated in step a), to produce a vapour phase product comprising substantially fully deoxygenated hydrocarbon product, H.sub.2O, CO, CO.sub.2, and C.sub.1-C.sub.3 gases, wherein one or more of the first hydropyrolysis catalyst composition and the hydroconversion catalyst composition is prepared by a process comprising combining a porous support with one or more catalytically active metals selected from Group VI and Group VIII of the Periodic Table, thereby forming a catalyst precursor having a volatile content, and reducing the volatile content of the catalyst precursor in one or more steps, wherein at least one volatile content reduction step is performed in the presence of one or more sulfur containing compounds; and wherein the catalyst precursor does not reach calcining temperatures prior to said at least one combined volatile content reduction-sulfurizing step.

A device and method for cleaning producer gas includes a filter bed housing and a microwave chamber. The filter bed housing comprises an inlet for carbon-based material and a spent carbon outlet. The microwave chamber comprises a permeable top and wave guides around the perimeter through which microwaves can be introduced into the device using magnetrons. The method comprises using the device by filling the filter bed housing with carbon-based material, introducing microwaves into the microwave chamber using the magnetrons and wave guides, passing the gas through carbon-based material in the filter bed chamber, the microwave chamber, the gas permeable top and the gas outlet.

Copper adsorbents which are resistant to the reduction by the components of the synthesis gas at normal operation conditions. The adsorbents are produced by admixing small amounts of an inorganic halide, such as NaCl, to the basic copper carbonate precursor followed by calcination at a temperature sufficient to decompose the carbonate. The introduction of the halide can be also achieved during the forming stage of adsorbent preparation. These reduction resistant copper oxides can be in the form of composites with alumina and are especially useful for purification of synthesis gas and the removal of mercury, arsine, phosphine, as well as hydrogen sulfide.