Production of methane-rich gas

Patent · Tue Nov 25 04:00:00 EST 1975

OSTI ID:6476968

Child, E T

Texaco Development Corp.'s new process gasifies hydrocarbonaceous feeds (such as distillate, residual, gas oil, crude, asphalt, coal tar, coal oil, shale oil, and tar sand oil) to produce a clean, soot-free, 600-1000 Btu/scf gas and valuable by-product superheated steam. The feed is noncatalytically partially oxidized with pure oxygen and steam at 1200 to 2200/sup 0/F and 25 to 250 atm to produce a gaseous mixture of hydrogen, CO, methane, CO/sub 2/, and H/sub 2/O, in which the H/sub 2//CO mole ratio is above 2.6 (preferably 2.6 to 4.0) and the mole % of methane is 10 to 30 on a dry, CO/sub 2/-free basis. This gas mixture then proceeds through one to three catalytic methanation stages which increase the methane content of the final product gas up to 40 to 99 mole % (dry basis) as desired. The three stages all operate at pressures of 25 to 250 atm, with a H/sub 2//CO mole ratio of 2.6 or more. Temperature ranges are 1420 to 1570/sup 0/F in the first stage, 1060 to 1210/sup 0/F in the second, and 700 to 850/sup 0/F in the third.

• Assignee: Texaco Development Corp.
• Patent Number(s): US 3922148
• OSTI ID: 6476968
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010404 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Gasification
02 PETROLEUM
020400 -- Petroleum-- Processing
04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040402 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Surface Methods
090121* -- Hydrocarbon Fuels-- Chemical Synthesis-- (1976-1989)
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
GASIFICATION
HIGH BTU GAS
PETROLEUM
PRODUCTION
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE