Catalytic Organic Solid Wastes Upgrading Using Natural Gas for Valuable Commodities Production

随着城市化和工业化进程的加快，城市生活垃圾的产生和积累越来越多，造成了处置成本的增加和环境影响。天然气（NG）是化石燃料中最清洁的能源，是加拿大丰富的自然资源。由于其化学惰性和相对较低的体积能量密度，天然气目前主要用于住宅供暖和烹饪，很少用于运输或化学生产应用。在这样的背景下，所提出的研究计划旨在开发一种新的技术，以同时将上述天然气和城市固体废物（沿着其他低成本碳源，如低级煤和农业，园林和森林废物）转化为有价值的液体商品（如高附加值的液体化学品或燃料）。一种称为运输反应堆天然气转换器（TRNGC）的新型反应堆设计将在本申请供资期内开发。这种创新的反应器由一个反应区和两个连续的气体旋风分离器组成，用于连续进料低成本碳源并连续去除焦炭/灰分。由活性金属和多孔铝硅酸盐载体组成的特殊设计的负载型双功能催化剂将在气化/热解区和循环腿之间循环，以促进传热并在连续天然气流动下催化气化/热解反应。TRNGC生产的合成气经过适当冷凝以收集改质原油后，将经过一系列净化步骤和水煤气变换反应，以达到理想的CO/H2比，然后在另一种新的双-床催化剂系统，其中合成气将首先转化为轻质烃的混合物，然后基于协同效应形成液态烃产物在350 ~ 450 ℃温度范围内，甲烷与高级烃之间存在着一种平衡状态。整个过程在低压（<5 MPa）下操作，从而显著降低资本和运营成本。 这种新方法的成功实施可以在全国范围内转移低成本的碳源流，并有助于天然气的利用，同时提供有价值的液体燃料和/或化学品，显著减少温室气体排放。因此，这项拟议的计划有可能提供显着的经济和环境效益，有助于保持加拿大在有效的可再生能源利用和清洁能源转换的领先地位。

More and more municipal solid wastes have been rapidly generated and accumulated with fast urbanization and industrialization, resulting in increased disposal costs and notable negative environmental impacts. Natural gas (NG), the cleanest energy source among fossil fuels, is an abundant natural resource present in Canada. Due to its chemical inertness and relatively low volumetric energy density, natural gas is currently dominantly used for residential heating and cooking with little use for transportation or chemical production applications. Under such background, the proposed research program aims to develop a novel technology to simultaneously convert both of the aforementioned NG and municipal solid wastes (along with other low cost carbon sources such as low rank coal and agricultural, garden and forest wastes) to valuable liquid commodities (such as high value-added liquid chemicals or fuels). A novel reactor design called Transport Reactor Natural Gas Converter (TRNGC) will be developed in this requested funding period. This innovative reactor is composed of one reaction zone and two consecutive gas cyclones for continuously feeding low cost carbon sources with continuous char/ash removal. A specially designed supported bi-functional catalyst composed of active metal and porous aluminosilicate support will be circulating between gasification/pyrolysis zone and recycle leg to facilitate heat transfer and catalyze gasification/pyrolysis reaction under continuous natural gas flow. After proper condensation for upgraded crude oil collection, the synthetic gas produced from TRNGC will undergo a series of cleanup steps and a water-gas shift reaction to achieve desirable CO to H2 ratio, followed by a liquefaction process under the facilitation of another novel dual-bed catalyst system where syngas will be first converted to a mixture of light hydrocarbons and then form liquid hydrocarbon products based on the synergetic effect existing between methane and higher hydrocarbon at temperature of 350 ~ 450 oC. The whole process is operated under low pressure (<5 MPa), resulting in significant capital and operational cost reductions. The successful implementation of this novel process can divert low cost carbon sources streams nationwide, and contribute to the natural gas utilization, while providing valuable liquid fuels and/or chemicals with significantly reduced greenhouse gas emission. Thus this proposed program has the potential to provide significant economic and environmental benefits, aiding in keeping Canada's leading position in efficient renewable energy utilization and clean energy conversion.