Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting – deodorizing – preser – Chemical reactor – With means applying electromagnetic wave energy or...
Patent
1997-10-14
2000-04-04
Griffin, Steven P.
Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting, deodorizing, preser
Chemical reactor
With means applying electromagnetic wave energy or...
422173, 422174, 42218621, 42218623, 422198, 422199, 423235, 204164, B01J 1908, F01N 310, F28D 804, C01B 2100, H05F 300
Patent
active
060457619
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the invention
The invention is based on a process and an apparatus for converting a greenhouse gas into a chemically or industrially utilizable substance or into a chemically or industrially utilizable mixture of substances.
2. Discussion of Background
The precharacterizing clauses of the claims of the invention relate to a prior art as is disclosed by DE 4 220 865 A1. There carbon dioxide, CO.sub.2, admixed with a substance containing hydrogen atoms, such as e.g. hydrogen gas, H.sub.2, water, H.sub.2 O, or hydrogen sulphide, H.sub.2 S, is subjected in a reactor to silent electric discharges which produce the fuels methane, CH.sub.4, and/or methanol, CH.sub.3 OH. The reactor contains a reaction accelerator in the form of a catalyst which contains copper and, if required, one or more of the metals Zn, Al, Mn, Cr, Ag, Mo, Ni or V. The catalyst may have been applied to a dielectric, to an electrode, to glass wool, quartz wool or rock wool, to ZrO.sub.2, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, zeolite, silica gel or granular materials.
DE 4 332 790 A1 discloses a process for producing methanol from carbon dioxide and hydrogen in a thermal reactor which, in its bottom region, contains a copper-based catalyst. The temperature in the reaction chamber is between 220 and 250.degree. C., the pressure between 100 kPa and 2 MPa, the reaction mixture having a molar ratio of hydrogen to carbon dioxide in the range of from 1:1 to 1:10, preferably of 1:3. The residence time of the reaction mixture in the reaction chamber is between 0.1 s and 10 s, preferably 1 s.
These processes are not sufficiently efficient and, if hydrogen is used as the starting reactant, are still relatively expensive.
N. Boukhalfa et al., Conversion du CO.sub.2 en CO par decharge couronne dans des melanges air-CO.sub.2, Rev. Int. Hautes Temper. Refract. 26 (1990), pp. 39-48, disclose the acceleration of the conversion of CO.sub.2 into CO in a corona discharge by the catalytic action of nitrogen which is admixed to the reaction mixture as a constituent of air. A drawback of this process is that systems comprising a corona discharge are relatively bulky, expensive and consequently virtually unusable on a large industrial scale.
With respect to the relevant prior art reference is additionally made to a publication by B. Eliasson and U. Kogelschatz, Modeling and Application of Silent Discharge Plasmas, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 19, No. 2, April 1991, pp. 309-323, which discloses a plurality of reactors arranged next to one another and above one another, involving silent electric discharge via a dielectric to generate ozone, which reactors can be employed in the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention as defined in the claims achieves the object of developing a process and an apparatus for converting a greenhouse gas, of the type mentioned at the outset, in such a way that more efficient production of fuels from an undesirable greenhouse gas becomes possible.
Advantageous refinements of the invention are defined in the dependent claims.
An advantage of the invention is that these fuels can be produced on a large industrial scale while requiring less energy input.
According to an advantageous refinement of the invention, CO and H.sub.2 can be produced from a greenhouse gas in a 1st process stage and can be converted, in a 2nd process stage, into the desirable fuels. Consequently the use of hydrogen as a starting material can be dispensed with.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention is explained below with reference to illustrative embodiments. In the figures,
FIG. 1 shows a hybrid reactor comprising an electric and a downstream thermal reactor,
FIG. 2 schematically shows a cellular structure of a hybrid reactor combined in one container, and
FIG. 3 schematically shows the cellular structure of the hybrid reactor according to FIG. 2 comprising a.c. electrodes.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
In the figures, identical components are designated by identical reference symbols.
As
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Henely et al., Equilibrium-Stage Separation Operations in Chemical Engineering, Wiley & Sons, p. 7-8, 1981.
"Conversion du CO.sub.2 en CO par decharge couronne dans des melanges air-CO.sub.2 ", Boukhalfa, et al., Rev. Int. Hautes Temper. Refract., 1990, 26, 39-48.
"Direct Conversion from Methane to Methanol by a Pulsed Silent Discharge Plasma", Okazaki, et al., 12th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry, vol. 11, 1995, pp. 581-586.
"Modeling and Applications of Silent Discharges Plasmas", Eliasson, et al., IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, vol. 19, No. 2, Apr. 1991, pp. 309-323.
Bill Alain
Eliasson Baldur
Killer Eric
Kogelschatz Ulrich
ABB Research Ltd.
Griffin Steven P.
Medina Maribel
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