(108c) Conversion of Landfill Gas to Liquid Fuels through Tri-FTS Process

Tri-reforming of methane is a combination of steam reforming, dry reforming and partial oxygen reforming, where steam and oxygen can tune the syngas product and decrease the carbon deposition on the catalyst. Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) is a traditional pathway to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels. A novel technology of combining tri-reforming and FTS (TriFTS) is proposed and utilized to convert real biogas (landfill gas) to liquid hydrocarbon fuels. In the tri-reforming section, NiMg/Ce_0.6Zr_0.4O₂ pellets have been developed and tested in an integrated process. The conversions of CH₄ and CO₂ were 95% and 39%, respectively. The H₂/CO molar ratio was 1.8. The NiMg/Ce_0.6Zr_0.4O₂ pellet catalysts contained Ce_0.6Zr_0.4O₂ and (Mg,Ni)O phases, and possessed the BET surface area of around 20 m²g^-1 through the characterization of XRD, BET, etc. In the FTS section, different eggshell catalysts (e.g. Co/SiO₂ and Co-Fe/SiO₂) have been developed and utilized. Using appropriate gas cleanup, the performance of the TriFTS process matched that of using the surrogate biogas. The CO conversion in FTS was 71% and the liquid hydrocarbon product matched that of low sulfur diesel. Overall, ~ 50% of the carbon in the biogas was converted to hydrocarbon products. The TriFTS process is promising for commercial scale applications. Authors affiliated with T2C-Energy, LLC disclose an interest in the technology.