A hydrogen gas producing apparatus includes a porous body (100) and a mixed gas source (300). The porous body (100) is permeable to hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide gas, and has a property of being more permeable to hydrogen gas than carbon dioxide gas. The mixed gas source (300) causes a mixed gas including carbon dioxide gas and hydrogen gas to flow into the porous body (100) under a condition that a pressure gradient represented by (P.sub.1P.sub.2)/L is below 50 MPa/m, where L represents the length of the porous body (100) in a direction in which the mixed gas permeates; P.sub.1 represents an inflow pressure of the mixed gas into the porous body (100); and P.sub.2 represents an outflow pressure thereof from the porous body (100).

The invention provides a process for preparing liquid fuels and chemicals, which process comprises feeding carbon monoxide and hydrogen to a hydrogenation reactor, wherein the molar ratio CO:H.sub.2 is in the range of 1:0.5 to 1:0.9, catalytically hydrogenating said carbon monoxide in said hydrogenation reactor, condensing the effluent of said hydrogenation reactor to recover one or more organic liquid(s) and an aqueous solution, feeding a non-condensable component of said effluent into an oligomerization reactor; condensing an effluent discharged from the oligomerization reactor to obtain an additional organic liquid and an additional gaseous stream, separating said additional organic liquid, and either combusting said additional gaseous stream to produce heat and electricity, or processing same to obtain recyclable gaseous streams utilizable in said process.

Provided are a hydrogen purification device and a hydrogen purification method whereby hydrogen having a high purity can be purified at a high yield from a starting gas. The hydrogen purification device comprises: a starting gas source that supplies a starting gas, said starting gas containing hydrogen molecules and/or a hydride, to a discharge space; a plasma reactor that defines at least a part of the discharge space; a hydrogen flow channel that is connected to the discharge space; and leads out purified hydrogen from the starting gas source; a hydrogen separation membrane that partitions the discharge space from the hydrogen flow channel defines at least a part of the discharge space by one surface thereof and defines at least a part of the hydrogen flow channel by the other surface thereof; an electrode that is positioned outside the discharge space; and an adsorbent that is filled in the discharge space and adsorbs the starting gas. In the hydrogen purification method according to the present invention, the starting gas is adsorbed by the adsorbent in the discharge space. Hydrogen molecules, which have been desorbed from the adsorbent by discharge, are allowed to penetrate through the hydrogen separation membrane 4 and led out into the hydrogen flow channel.

This hydrogen-oxygen reaction device includes a reaction vessel including a reaction region filled with a reaction catalyst which promotes a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, an introduction portion which introduces an hydrogen-oxygen mixed gas having hydrogen or oxygen as a main component into the reaction vessel, a water vapor pipe of which one end portion is inserted into the reaction vessel and which includes a region in contact with the reaction region with at least a part of the region in contact with the reaction region being formed of a water vapor permeable membrane, a discharge portion through which a gas in the reaction vessel is discharged to an outside, and a cooling portion which cools the water vapor pipe outside the reaction vessel.

The invention relates to a process for the combined production of hydrogen and carbon dioxide from a hydrocarbon mixture, in which the residual gas of a PSA H.sub.2 (12) is separated by permeation in order to reduce the hydrocarbon content thereof and the hydrocarbon-purified gas is separated at a low temperature to produce a carbon dioxide-rich liquid (22).

A membrane unit is able to recover hydrogen from a resid waste gas stream. Two membrane units provide even greater hydrogen recovery. The membrane separation is performed at conditions that allow the pressure of the recovered hydrogen to enter into a second stage of compression, saving the expense of the first stage of compression.

Synthesis gas containing nitrogen as the majority component is processed to increase the hydrogen to carbon dioxide ratio. Nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and other contaminants are subsequently removed by a purification unit to produce a purified hydrogen gas stream. A recycle stream within the purification unit helps achieve a hydrogen purity greater than 99.9 percent, and hydrogen recovery greater than 99 percent.

The invention includes a gas processing system for transforming a hydrocarbon-containing inflow gas into outflow gas products, where the system includes a gas delivery subsystem, a plasma reaction chamber, and a microwave subsystem, with the gas delivery subsystem in fluid communication with the plasma reaction chamber, so that the gas delivery subsystem directs the hydrocarbon-containing inflow gas into the plasma reaction chamber, and the microwave subsystem directs microwave energy into the plasma reaction chamber to energize the hydrocarbon-containing inflow gas, thereby forming a plasma in the plasma reaction chamber, which plasma effects the transformation of a hydrocarbon in the hydrocarbon-containing inflow gas into the outflow gas products, which comprise acetylene and hydrogen. The invention also includes methods for the use of the gas processing system.

This hydrogen-oxygen reaction device includes a reaction vessel including a reaction region filled with a reaction catalyst which promotes a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, an introduction portion which introduces an hydrogen-oxygen mixed gas having hydrogen or oxygen as a main component into the reaction vessel, a water vapor pipe of which one end portion is inserted into the reaction vessel and which includes a region in contact with the reaction region with at least a part of the region in contact with the reaction region being formed of a water vapor permeable membrane, a discharge portion through which a gas in the reaction vessel is discharged to an outside, and a cooling portion which cools the water vapor pipe outside the reaction vessel.

Described herein is an electrolysis cell apparatus (2000) comprising an outer enclosure (100) for containing an electrolyte solution, the outer enclosure (100) has a first end (100A), a second end (100B) and an intermediate enclosure section (100M) located between the first and second end (100A), (100B) a plurality of electrolysis cell plates (80) forming at least one electrolysis region in which electrolysis occurs, housed within the outer enclosure (100) and at least partially immersed in an electrolyte solution; and a cell plate enclosure (8000) disposed within the outer enclosure (100) that at least partially encloses the plurality of electrolysis cell plates (80), wherein the cell plate enclosure (8000) is adapted to concentrate electrolyte ions in close proximity to the plurality of electrolysis cell plates (80) in use.