The present invention relates to a gasification reactor; more particularly, to applying inter-connected fluidized beds in gasification, where connecting vessels between first and second gasification areas are separately replaced with dense beds to be integrated for forming a single reactor.
Regarding existing prior arts, United States patent 2015361362 discloses a process for the catalytic gasification of carbonaceous raw material. The patent separates reactions into two comprising one in a gasification area and another in a combustion area with piping connecting the two areas. Yet, there are design and safety issues along with the issue of the follow-up maintenance of the piping. Not only the system is complex and the cost is high, but also the difficulty of system operation is increased. Another prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 9,644,152, discloses a method and apparatus of supplying hydrogen to catalytic hydrogenation. A pretreatment reaction zone is added at bottom of a gasifier, where the material fed is decomposed below 500 Celsius degrees (° C.) at first to enhance the performance of the upper-end gasification. Although the reactor has two separated reaction zones, reactions processed are sequential and products are not separable.
In addition, another prior art is an indirect gasification system from the Gussing area, Austria. The whole process of reactions is realized by using a fast circulating fluidized bed and a bubble fluidized bed to be connected through upper and lower seals 1011,1021 (as shown in
Although some studies on fluidized beds are conducted, commercial biomass gasification reactor is not found. However, a pulverized-coal-fired boiler can be added with a biomass gasification reactor to make the coal boiler obtain the capacity of processing biomass material/waste. Biomass resources can be fully used to be converted into usable energy for enhancing the use of renewable energy. Therefore, as earth greenhouse effect becomes more serious and environmental-protection consciousness for carbon reduction is awakened, the technologies based on replacing fossil fuels with fuels obtained through biomass gasification will be a novel way to improve and develop green energies.
Hence, technical requirements of carbon reduction, waste recycling and recycling economy have great market potentials with reduction targets being set and green energy ratio being actively increased. Yet, as shown in the above techniques, although the development of current international energy-saving and carbon-reducing technologies are a few together with related fluidized-bed gasification technologies, related applications and ideas are not found the same as the present invention in the sub-field of interconnected fluidized beds. Hence, the prior arts do not fulfill all users' requests on actual use.
The main purpose of the present invention is to apply interconnected fluidized beds in gasification, where connecting vessels between first and second gasification areas are separately replaced with dense beds to be integrated for forming a single reactor; the system is simplified, the cost is saved and the operation difficulty is reduced; by applying the connection characteristic of interconnected cavity areas, an additional gasification area can connect to a combustion area at the other end and, thereby, two or more separated source materials is simultaneous processed; and the design of the shared combustion area saves operating cost and further cuts down the occupation of land and space to benefit in industrial development.
Another purpose of the present invention is to use interconnected fluidized beds as a carrier of the art to realize indirect gasification, where, as compared to prior arts, by the design of dense beds, required piping connections and easily-blocked seals are replaced so that the geometry of the reactor is simplified and the operation of the reactor is more convenient; and, because the seals are replaced by reactor cavities and the conveyance of bed material and airtightness are realized by the design of weir egresses and orifices, the scalability and flexibility for expanding system are achieved.
To achieve the above purposes, the present invention is a gasification reactor with shared partial reactor vessels, being applied with interconnected fluidized beds to process gasification by replacing connecting piping between two reaction areas to obtain an integrated single reactor distributed with bed material and comprising a first gasification area, a second gasification area and a shared combustion area, where the first gasification area comprises a first gasification zone and a first dense bed; a first weir egress is set at a top end of a side wall of the first gasification zone; a first orifice is set on at a bottom end of a side wall of the first dense bed to connect to the first gasification zone; the second gasification area comprises a second gasification zone and a second dense bed; a second weir egress is set at a top end of a side wall of the second gasification zone; a second orifice is set on at a bottom end of a side wall of the second dense bed to connect to the second gasification zone; the shared combustion area is set between and communicated with the first and second gasification areas; the shared combustion area comprises a combustion zone and a third dense bed; the third dense bed isolates gases of the combustion zone from the first and second gasification areas; a third orifice is set on at a bottom end of a side wall of the third dense bed to connect to the combustion zone; the third dense bed communicates with the first and second gasification zones through the first and second weir egresses at upper ends of two side walls of the third dense bed, respectively; and the combustion zone communicates with each of the first and second dense beds through a third weir egress at a top end of a corresponding one of side walls of the combustion zone, respectively. Accordingly, a novel gasification reactor with shared partial reactor vessels is obtained.
The present invention will be better understood from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment according to the present invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which
The following description of the preferred embodiment is provided to understand the features and the structures of the present invention.
The major difference between gasification and combustion lies on that combustion burns all matters to obtain energy, where carbon completely becomes carbon dioxide (CO2); yet, gasification is an oxygen-depleted reaction, where source materials produce combustible gases, like carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), etc., of value for further burning and other utilization. Hence, after being fed into a gasification reactor according to the present invention, solid, liquid or gas source materials are converted into valuable gases (generally referred to as synthesis gases), like CO and H2.
Please refer to
The first gasification area 1 comprises a first gasification zone 11 and a first dense bed 12. A first weir egress 111 is set at a top end of a side wall of the first gasification zone 11. A first orifice 121 is set on at a bottom end of a side wall of the first dense bed 12 to connect to the first gasification zone 11. The first gasification area 1 introduces a fluidizing gas 5 to the first dense bed 12. The bed material 4 enters the first gasification zone 11 through the first orifice 121 at a bottom end of the first dense bed 12. A first source material 61 and a gasifying agent 7 are added into the first gasification zone 11 to process gasification to obtain a combustible gas 81. Unreacted part of the first source material 61 and the bed material 4 in the first gasification zone 11 are carried by the fluidizing gas 5 to flow across the first weir egress 111.
The second gasification area 2 comprises a second gasification zone 21 and a second dense bed 22. A second weir egress 211 is set at a top end of a side wall of the second gasification zone 21. A second orifice 221 is set on at a bottom end of a side wall of the second dense bed 22 to connect to the second gasification zone 21. The second gasification area 2 introduces a fluidizing gas 5 to the second dense bed 22. The bed material 4 enters the second gasification zone 21 through the second orifice 221 at a bottom end of the second dense bed 22. A second source material 62 and a gasifying agent 7 are added into the second gasification zone 21 to process gasification to generate a combustible gas 82. Unreacted part of the second source material 62 and the bed material 4 in the second gasification zone 21 are carried by the fluidizing gas 5 to flow across the second weir egress 211.
The shared combustion area 3 is set between the first and second gasification areas 1, 2, comprising a combustion zone 3 and a third dense bed 32. A third orifice 321 is set on at a bottom end of a side wall of the third dense bed 32 to connect to the combustion zone 31. The third dense bed 32 communicates with the first and second gasification zones 11, 12 through the first and second weir egresses 111, 211 at top ends of two side walls of the third dense bed 32, respectively. The combustion zone 31 communicates with each of the first and second dense beds 11, 21 through a third weir egress 311 at a top end of a corresponding one of side walls of the combustion zone 31, respectively. The shared combustion area 3 introduces a fluidizing gas 5 to the third dense bed 32. After entering into the third dense bed 32 through the first or second weir egress 111, 211 to be accumulated at a bottom end, the bed material 4 conveys unreacted part of the first or second source material 61, 62 to the combustion zone 31 through the third orifice 321, respectively. Therein, unreacted part of the first or second source material 61, 62 is reacted in the shared combustion area 3 to heat up the bed material 4 and generate CO2 83 after complete combustion is finished. The bed material 4 heated-up enters into the first or second dense bed 12, 22 through the third weir egress 311 at a top end; and, then, is conveyed back to the first or second gasification zone 11, 21 through the first or second orifices 121, 221, respectively. Consequently, a whole cycle as described above is formed to be processed repeatedly. Thus, a novel gasification reactor with shared partial reactor vessels is obtained.
The gasification reactor according to the present invention is connected with at least one feeding module (not shown in the figures) to feed the first and second source materials 61, 62. The first and second source materials 61, 62 are each a solid material, a liquid material or a gas material; but are different materials containing carbon.
The gasification reactor according to the present invention is connected with at least one gas supply module (not shown in the figures) to provide the gasifying agent 7 (e.g. air, vapor or an oxygen-rich gas) to the first or second gasification zone 11, 21 for gasifying the first or second source material 61, 62 to be converted into a combustible gas 81, 82, respectively; and provide the gasifying agent 7 (e.g. air or an oxygen-rich gas) into the combustion zone 31 to heat up the bed material 4 and generate a flue gas or a high-purity gas of CO2 83. Therein, by processing the whole cycle, the bed material 4 provides energy required during gasification in the first or second gasification zone 11, 21; or helps maintaining a reaction temperature (usually 700˜900° C.).
On using the present invention, in the preferred embodiment as shown in
The gasification reactor according to the present invention uses an interconnected design. The interconnected fluidized beds are applied in gasification. The connecting piping between the two gasification areas are separately replaced with dense beds to be integrated for forming a single reactor. Thus, the present invention simplifies the system, saves the cost and reduces the operation difficulty.
The whole cycle has two key points:
(1) The separation has the following reason: After the two parts of gasification and combustion of the present invention are separated, the corresponding gases are separated too. In another word, if pure oxygen along with CO2 is used in the combustion zone, the gas outputted from the combustion zone has the possibility of being a high purity gas of CO2, which saves the purification cost of CO2 obtained for sequestration or utilization. If general air is used, a high proportion of nitrogen exists so that the gas generated from the combustion zone is a flue gas to be treated in a general way.
(2) During the gasification in the gasification zones, the combustible gas generated in the present invention is a synthesis gas, comprising CO, H2 and, sometimes, a small amount of CO2. If subsequent application exists, nitrogen is not favorable no matter for separation nor chemical conversion for nitrogen will make the apparatus large. In addition, another utility is required for nitrogen separation.
The benefits for separating the two parts include:
1. At first, the gas in the combustion zone can be processed randomly with adjustment according to the operation and waste needs. Secondly, the gases in the gasification zones are not affected by nitrogen so that gas volume is reduced. Not only the space for subsequent apparatus is saved, but also the cost of nitrogen separation is reduced. For example, the gasifying agent 7 conveyed into the first or second gasification zone 11, 21 in
2. For the convenience of applications, as the two parts are divided in the present invention, air can also be used to process treatment in the combustion zone for saving the cost, which applies the concept of indirect gasification. The present invention realizes the concept in the form of using interconnected fluidized beds. Regarding handling different source materials (e.g. corrosive source material), if independent handling is required owing to different operating point, a complete gasification will be required. Then, by applying the connection characteristic of the interconnected cavity areas, an additional gasification area can be connected with the combustion area at the other end, where a case is formed with the gasification areas 1, 2 at two sides of the combustion area 3 shared at center as shown in
As is described above, the present invention uses interconnected fluidized beds as a carrier of the art to realize indirect gasification. As compared to prior arts, by the design of dense beds, required piping connections and easily-blocked seals are replaced so that the geometry of the reactor is simplified and the operation of the reactor is more convenient. Besides, because the seals are replaced by reactor cavities and the conveyance of bed material and airtightness are realized by the design of weir egresses and orifices, the scalability and flexibility for expanding system are achieved.
To sum up, the present invention is a gasification reactor with shared partial reactor vessels, where interconnected fluidized beds is applied in gasification to separately replace connecting vessels between first and second gasification areas with dense beds to be integrated for forming a single reactor; the system is simplified, the cost is saved and the operation difficulty is reduced; by applying the connection characteristic of interconnected cavity areas, an additional gasification area is connected with a combustion area at a contrast end to achieve simultaneous processing of two or more separated source materials; and the design of the shared combustion area saves operating cost and further cuts down the occupation of land and space to benefit in industrial development.
The preferred embodiment herein disclosed is not intended to unnecessarily limit the scope of the invention. Therefore, simple modifications or variations belonging to the equivalent of the scope of the claims and the instructions disclosed herein for a patent are all within the scope of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10714484.3 | Dec 2018 | TW | national |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20200191384 A1 | Jun 2020 | US |