A method of producing liquid fuel and/or chemicals from a carbonaceous material entails combusting a conditioned syngas in pulse combustion heat exchangers of a steam reformer to help convert carbonaceous material into first reactor product gas which includes carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and other gases. A portion of the first reactor product gas is transferred to a hydrogen reformer into which additional conditioned syngas is added and a reaction carried out to produce an improved syngas. The improved syngas is then subject to one or more gas clean-up steps to form a new conditioned syngas. A portion of the new conditioned syngas is recycled to be used as the conditioned syngas in the pulse combustion heat exchangers and in the hydrocarbon reformer. A system for carrying out the method include, a steam reformer, a hydrocarbon reformer, first and second gas-cleanup systems, a synthesis system and an upgrading system.

A method for starting a slurry bubble column reactor that includes a reactor vessel holding a settled or slumped bed of particles and a liquid phase from which the particles have settled includes introducing a flow of a re-suspension liquid into the settled or slumped bed to loosen the settled or slumped bed. The introduction of the re-suspension liquid takes place before the introduction of any gas into the settled or slumped bed, or together with feeding of gas into the settled or slumped bed, provided that, if gas is fed together with the re-suspension liquid into the settled or slumped bed before the settled or slumped bed has been loosened, the gas has a superficial gas velocity in the reactor below 10 cm/s. Once the settled or slumped bed has been loosened by at least the re-suspension liquid, gas is passed at a superficial gas velocity above 10 cm/s through the liquid phase.

A system for producing a hydrocarbon by high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is described. The system includes a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis unit, a reaction water separation unit, and a catalyst reduction unit. The catalyst reduction unit uses a gas containing the tail gas of the synthesis unit as a reducing gas and a small amount of synthesis gas for adjusting the hydrogen to carbon ratio, to react with the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis catalyst. After the reduction reaction, the reacted gas is cooled to room temperature, and enters a gas-liquid separator to obtain a gas phase and a liquid phase. The gas phase flows to a cryogenic separation unit to recover gaseous hydrocarbons. The liquid phase is separated into reaction water and Fischer-Tropsch oil products. The reduced catalyst is sent to the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis unit.

A method of producing liquid fuel and/or chemicals from a carbonaceous material entails combusting a conditioned syngas in pulse combustion heat exchangers of a steam reformer to help convert carbonaceous material into first reactor product gas which includes carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and other gases. A portion of the first reactor product gas is transferred to a hydrogen reformer into which additional conditioned syngas is added and a reaction carried out to produce an improved syngas. The improved syngas is then subject to one or more gas clean-up steps to form a new conditioned syngas. A portion of the new conditioned syngas is recycled to be used as the conditioned syngas in the pulse combustion heat exchangers and in the hydrocarbon reformer. A system for carrying out the method include, a steam reformer, a hydrocarbon reformer, first and second gas-cleanup systems, a synthesis system and an upgrading system.

Systems and methods for direct crude oil upgrading to hydrogen and chemicals including separating an inlet hydrocarbon stream into a light fraction and a heavy fraction comprising diesel boiling point temperature range material; producing from the light fraction syngas comprising H.sub.2 and CO; reacting the CO produced; producing from the heavy fraction and separating CO.sub.2, polymer grade ethylene, polymer grade propylene, C.sub.4 compounds, cracking products, light cycle oils, and heavy cycle oils; collecting and purifying the CO.sub.2 produced from the heavy fraction; processing the C.sub.4 compounds to produce olefinic oligomerate and paraffinic raffinate; separating the cracking products; oligomerizing a light cut naphtha stream; hydrotreating an aromatic stream; hydrocracking the light cycle oils to produce a monoaromatics product stream; gasifying the heavy cycle oils; reacting the CO produced from gasifying the heavy cycle oils; collecting and purifying the CO.sub.2; and processing and separating produced aromatic compounds into benzene and paraxylene.

A system for producing a hydrocarbon by high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is described. The system includes a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis unit, a reaction water separation unit, and a catalyst reduction unit. The catalyst reduction unit uses a gas containing the tail gas of the synthesis unit as a reducing gas and a small amount of synthesis gas for adjusting the hydrogen to carbon ratio, to react with the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis catalyst. After the reduction reaction, the reacted gas is cooled to room temperature, and enters a gas-liquid separator to obtain a gas phase and a liquid phase. The gas phase flows to a cryogenic separation unit to recover gaseous hydrocarbons. The liquid phase is separated into reaction water and Fischer-Tropsch oil products. The reduced catalyst is sent to the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis unit. The catalyst reduction unit achieves high energy efficiency, product diversity, and risk resistance.

Processes and catalyst systems are disclosed for performing Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis to produce C.sub.4.sup.+ hydrocarbons, such as gasoline boiling-range hydrocarbons and/or diesel boiling-range hydrocarbons. Advantageously, catalyst systems described herein have additional activity (beyond FT activity) for in situ hydroisomerization and/or hydrocracking of wax that is generated according to the distribution of hydrocarbons obtained from the FT synthesis reaction. This not only improves the yield of hydrocarbons (e.g., C.sub.4-19 hydrocarbons) that are useful for transportation fuels, but also allows for alternative reactor types, such as a fluidized bed reactor.

A process and system that use the heat produced in the generation of Syngas to provide heat to an endothermic reaction zone are disclosed. A method for providing heat to an endothermic reaction may comprise producing Syngas in a reforming reactor. The method may further comprise recovering heat from the producing the Syngas to heat an endothermic reaction stream in a heat transfer zone. The method may further comprise allowing reactants in the endothermic reaction stream to react to form an endothermic reaction product stream. The method may further comprise withdrawing the endothermic reaction product stream from the heat transfer zone.

A method of producing liquid fuel and/or chemicals from a carbonaceous material entails combusting a conditioned syngas in pulse combustion heat exchangers of a steam reformer to help convert carbonaceous material into first reactor product gas which includes carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and other gases. A portion of the first reactor product gas is transferred to a hydrogen reformer into which additional conditioned syngas is added and a reaction carried out to produce an improved syngas. The improved syngas is then subject to one or more gas clean-up steps to form a new conditioned syngas. A portion of the new conditioned syngas is recycled to be used as the conditioned syngas in the pulse combustion heat exchangers and in the hydrocarbon reformer. A system for carrying out the method include, a steam reformer, a hydrocarbon reformer, first and second gas-cleanup systems, a synthesis system and an upgrading system.

Systems and methods for direct crude oil upgrading to hydrogen and chemicals including separating an inlet hydrocarbon stream into a light fraction and a heavy fraction comprising diesel boiling point temperature range material; producing from the light fraction syngas comprising H.sub.2 and CO; reacting the CO produced; producing from the heavy fraction and separating CO.sub.2, polymer grade ethylene, polymer grade propylene, C.sub.4 compounds, cracking products, light cycle oils, and heavy cycle oils; collecting and purifying the CO.sub.2 produced from the heavy fraction; processing the C.sub.4 compounds to produce olefinic oligomerate and paraffinic raffinate; separating the cracking products; oligomerizing a light cut naphtha stream; hydrotreating an aromatic stream; hydrocracking the light cycle oils to produce a monoaromatics product stream; gasifying the heavy cycle oils; reacting the CO produced from gasifying the heavy cycle oils; collecting and purifying the CO.sub.2; and processing and separating produced aromatic compounds into benzene and para-xylene.