The description describes the integration of a gas fermentation process with a gasification process whereby effluent from the gas fermentation process is recycled to the gasification process. The one or more effluents which can be recycled include a stream comprising microbial biomass, a product stream comprising at least a portion of the at least one fermentation product, a by-product stream comprising fusel oil, and a waste water stream comprising microbial biomass. The stream comprising biomass can be dried before it is passed to the gasification zone. At least a portion of the waste water stream can be passed to the gasification process where one use is to replace at least a portion of the process water. The waste water stream can be further processed to produce a clarified water stream and a biogas stream comprising methane either or both of which can be passed to the gasification process.

A reactor for producing a synthesis gas from a fuel, with a housing (2) with a combustion part accommodating a first fluidized bed in operation, a riser (3) extending along a longitudinal direction of the reactor (1) and accommodating a second fluidized bed in operation, a down-comer (4) positioned parallel to the riser and extending into the first fluidized bed, and one or more feed channels (33) for providing the fuel to the reactor (1). The reactor (1) further has a riser air chamber section (B) connected to a lower part of the riser (3), the riser air chamber section (B) comprising a cylindrical wall (28) with a plurality of circumferentially located holes (24, 25).

A gasifier for organic solid waste by injection into molten iron and slag bath includes a gasification furnace, a liquid level adjusting furnace and a slag discharge and heat exchange shaft furnace. The liquid level adjusting furnace, in communication with the bottom of the gasification furnace, contains 1200-1700° C. molten iron-based alloy liquid, which is covered with molten liquid slag layer. When gas pressure above or liquid volume in the liquid level adjusting furnace increases, liquid level of the molten liquid in the gasification furnace rises simultaneously. A particle material injection lance is immersed, through which organic particles to be gasified are blown into molten bath, and oxygen gas or oxygen-enriched air as gasifying agent is blown into the melt at the same time. Organic substance is gasified into CO-rich and H.sub.2-rich syngas, and most of inorganic substance enters molten slag and is discharged termly.

The invention provides a carbonaceous feed pyrolysis apparatus including two or more hot particle fluidised beds, and material transfer means for the transfer of hot catalyst particles between two or more of the beds, wherein one or more of the 5 fluidised beds is a gasifier which contains a gasification zone and one or more of the fluidised beds is a pyrolysis reactor which contains a pyrolysis zone, so that the particles are recirculated and serve as an energy carrier to drive pyrolysis in the pyrolysis zone. The invention extends to a carbonaceous feed pyrolysis process using said apparatus.

A system and process for the resultant gas constituent-controlled gasification of a carbonaceous feedstock uses feedback loop-controlled pyrolysis to produce a stable and predictable gas product from a variable or unknown feedstock, such as MSW, that may include methane, ethane, and other desirable hydrocarbon gases, and a solid product, that includes activated Carbon or Carbon.

The disclosure relates to a rotary kiln catalytically enhanced oxy-fuel gasification and oxy-fuel combustion system—power plant including an air separation unit arranged to separate oxygen from air and produce a stream of substantially pure liquid oxygen; rotary kiln gasifiers to convert municipal solid waste, biomass, alternate wastes, coal, or hydrocarbon fuels into a synthesis gas in the presence of oxygen, carbon dioxide, high temperature steam and lime catalysts; an oxy-fuel fired boiler arranged to combust synthesis gas, in the presence of substantially pure oxygen gas, to produce an exhaust gas comprised of water and carbon dioxide; and a carbon dioxide removal unit arranged to recover carbon dioxide gas from the exhaust gas, recycle a portion of the recovered carbon dioxide gas for use in the rotary kiln gasifier, and liquefy the remainder of the recovered carbon dioxide gas for removal from the plant. In this new plant, the carbon dioxide removal unit is thermally integrated with the air separation unit or alternately the liquid oxygen storage and supply system by directing a stream of liquid oxygen to the carbon dioxide removal unit to liquefy the recovered carbon dioxide gas, the liquid oxygen thereby evaporating and forming cold oxygen gas which is heated prior to consumption in the rotary kiln and oxy-fuel fired boiler.

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.

Herein disclosed are apparatus and associated methods related to producing an enhanced surface area biochar product with a desired activation level based on receiving biochar into a processing vessel configured with multiple independently temperature-controlled chambers and counter-flow steam injection, controlling activation levels of the biochar by moving the biochar through the processing vessel and adjusting the temperature of the biochar by injecting steam into at least one temperature-controlled chamber of the processing vessel, recovering volatiles driven off through dehydration using a thermal oxidizer, cooling the biochar to a desired discharge temperature using steam and retention time, and discharging the activated biochar product. The processing vessel may be a calciner, a rotary calciner, or a kiln. Biochar may be heated or cooled to a desired thermochemical processing temperature depending on the temperature of the received biochar. Counter-flow saturated steam may sweep volatile gases to a thermal oxidizer using a vacuum system.

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.

Disclosed is a gasification unit (1) for producing a product gas. The gasification unit (1) comprises a co-current or counterflow pyrolysis unit (2) including a pyrolysis gas outlet (3) arranged at an upper part (4) of the pyrolysis unit (2) and a pyrolysis gas inlet (5) arranged at a lower part (6) of the pyrolysis unit (2). The gasification unit (1) further comprises a co-current or counterflow gasifier (7) including a product gas outlet (8) arranged at an upper part (9) of the gasifier (7) and a gasifier inlet (10) arranged at a lower part of the gasifier (7) and coke moving means (12) for allowing pyrolyzed coke (13) to move from the pyrolysis unit (2) to the gasifier (7). The gasification unit (1) also comprises recycling means (14) arranged to guide at least a part of the pyrolysis gas produced in the pyrolysis unit (2) from the pyrolysis gas outlet (3) and back to the pyrolysis gas inlet (5) and heating device (15) comprising an input conduit (16) arranged to guide pyrolysis gas from the pyrolysis gas outlet (3) to a combustion unit (17) in the heating device (15), wherein the combustion unit (17) is arranged to least a partially oxidize the pyrolysis gas from the pyrolysis unit (2), and wherein the heating device (15) comprises an output conduit (18) arranged to guide heating gas generated by the partial oxidization in the combustion unit (17) to the gasifier inlet (10), where in the heating device (15) is arranged external to the pyrolysis unit (2) and the gasifier (7) and wherein said gasification unit (1) further comprises heat exchange means (19) arranged for heating at least a portion of the pyrolysis gas before it enters the pyrolysis unit (2) through said pyrolysis gas inlet (5) by means of at least a part of the product gas exiting said gasifier (7) through said product gas outlet (8). Furthermore, a method for producing a product gas in a gasification unit (1) and use of such a method is disclosed.