Gas: heating and illuminating – Methane -containing product – or treatment or recovery process
Patent
1996-01-03
1998-03-10
McMahon, Timothy
Gas: heating and illuminating
Methane -containing product, or treatment or recovery process
481271, 481275, 48199M, 423458, C01B 332
Patent
active
057256160
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns a method for reducing the carbon content in a feed flow of natural gas or other hydrocarbon gases for a combustion process or a chemical process in order thereby to eliminate to the desired degree or at least to reduce the discharge of carbon dioxides in the combustion of the gas, e.g. in connection with a gas-fired power station.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
During the combustion of fossil fuels, coal, natural gas and other hydrocarbons, both water in the form of vapour and carbon dioxide will be found in the waste gases. The proportional incidence between these two gases will be dependent on the quantitive ratio of carbon to hydrogen in the fuel concerned. Coal will produce almost only carbon dioxide, methane will produce water and carbon dioxide in the ratio of 2:1, while hydrogen will only produce water. In the efforts to reduce the greenhouse effect, the discharges of carbon dioxide are becoming ever less acceptable. Thus it is vitally important to limit these discharges, the best best solution being to eliminate them entirely.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to improve this situation by providing a method for reducing the carbon content of natural gas and hydrocarbon gas. This reduction should be capable of being implemented in such a manner that a desired degree of reduction of the CO.sub.2 content can be achieved after a combustion or a chemical process. The reduction can extend all the way through to the use of pure hydrogen as a fuel, thus completely avoiding the discharges of CO.sub.2.
Thus a further object of the invention is also to make it possible for natural gas to be used as a fuel with a greatly reduced production of carbon dioxide, e.g. in a gas turbine.
These objects are achieved by a method which according to the invention is characterized by the features in the claims presented.
The invention is based on the fact that it is possible to decompose hydrocarbons pyrolitically into carbon and hydrogen. By using pure hydrogen as a fuel the discharge of carbon dioxide will be eliminated. If carbon is removed from the natural gas or the hydrocarbon gas which is used as a fuel, the discharge of carbon dioxide will be reduced before the combustion.
A reduction of this kind can be carried out by performing a complete or partial conversion of natural gas or hydrocarbon gases in a feed stream to a combustion process or a chemical process. The feed stream is decomposed to the desired degree into carbon and hydrogen, whereof the natural gas with the reduced carbon content goes to combustion or a chemical process and the carbon constituent is removed from the process for separate application. Such a reduction can also be performed by converting a partial stream of the natural gas or the hydrocarbon gas.
In both cases the decomposition into carbon and hydrogen will require energy. The energy content in the gases with reduced carbon content is lower than in pure natural gas or hydrocarbon gas since the liberated carbon represents the lost energy. The result will be that more gas in total has to be supplied to the process in order to achieve the same net effect as from pure natural gas or hydrocarbon gas. The extent of this additional amount will be dependent on the degree to which the carbon content has to be reduced, i.e. the extent to which a conversion has to be performed, and also on the efficiency of the combustion process concerned.
The object is to be able to use pure hydrogen as a combustion gas in order thereby to be able to completely eliminate the CO.sub.2 discharges.
At existing plants, however, there will be operating conditions which prevent the use of pure hydrogen, thus making it necessary to add a certain amount of hydrocarbons.
The process is therefore designed so as to offer the possibility of adding a certain amount of natural gas or hydrocarbon gas to the hydrogen stream and the amount can be adjusted according to the operating conditions.
After a combustion process, the waste gases are purified by
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Haugsten Kjell
Hox Ketil
Hugdahl Jan
Lynum Steinar
Myklebust Nils
Kvaerner Engineering A.S.
McMahon Timothy
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