(573af) Biomass to Syngas Catalysis-Renewable Process for Fischer-Tropsch Liquid Fuels

Newly improved valuable biogas to synthesis gas (syngas)process is described and analyzed in detail. Biogas can come from a variety of natural resources including forest and urban biomass mixed with manure and landfill gases.

The final feedstock is a methane rich gas which is reformed catalytically over a bed of low quality recycled nickel particles. The catalyst is regenerated overnight to result high yields of hydrogen rich syngas, and is

co-mixed with earth type metals to avoid the deactivation from carbon deposition. Various feeds of high value biogas are analyzed to yield valuable syngas product for final conversion to liquid fuels in a consecutive Fischer-Tropsch reactor. Related modeling of the catalytic reformer and the Fischer-Tropsch reactor is underway to describe their function, operational range, capacity and yields. The models to be used simulate relevant acquired data and predict the conditions for best multifunctional reactor and process operation by variation of several intrinsic model parameters. Objectives of our research include turnkey systems and process development for the liquid fuels industry. Also, the effective and integrated utilization of biomass and waste type resources for renewable fuels generation under increased processing capacity and overall efficiency.