Enriched Air Gasifier

Abstract

A method may include, but is not limited to: providing a volume of feedstock and a volume of oxygen-enriched air to a thermal reformer; reacting the volume of feedstock and the volume of oxygen-enriched air with the thermal reformer at an operating temperature to produce a raw syngas stream; removing particulate matter from the raw syngas stream with a two-stage cyclone assembly, wherein the two-stage cyclone assembly comprises a first cyclone and a second cyclone; scrubbing the raw syngas stream received from the two-stage cyclone assembly with a quench scrubber to produce an engine gas stream; and providing the engine gas stream to a CHP genset to be used as fuel.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A method for enriched air gasification, comprising:
 providing a volume of feedstock and a volume of oxygen-enriched air to a thermal reformer;   reacting the volume of feedstock and the volume of oxygen-enriched air with the thermal reformer at an operating temperature to produce a raw syngas stream;   removing particulate matter from the raw syngas stream with a two-stage cyclone assembly, wherein the two-stage cyclone assembly comprises a first cyclone and a second cyclone;   scrubbing the raw syngas stream received from the two-stage cyclone assembly with a quench scrubber to produce an engine gas stream; and   providing the engine gas stream to a CHP genset to be used as fuel.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the thermal reformer comprises a thermal reformer with a single bubbling bed gasifier configuration. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the volume of oxygen-enriched air comprises both a fluidization medium and a gasification reactant. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the operating temperature is between 600° C. and 800° C. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reacting the volume of feedstock and the volume of oxygen-enriched air with the thermal reformer to produce a raw syngas stream takes place at substantially atmospheric pressure. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the volume of feedstock comprises a volume of feedstock with a moisture content level between 10 and 30%. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the volume of feedstock comprises a volume of feedstock with an ash content level between 10 and 35%. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first cyclone comprises a high-efficiency cyclone, and the second cyclone comprises a low-efficiency cyclone. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the volume of feedstock comprises volume of at least one of poultry manure, swine manure, cattle manure, biogas plant effluent sludge, woodwaste, plastic, and tires. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the volume of oxygen-enriched air comprises a volume of air with an oxygen content level between 30 and 90 percent. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising heating the engine gas stream with a fuel gas heater prior to providing the engine gas stream to the CHP genset. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising cooling the raw syngas stream received from the two-stage cyclone assembly prior to scrubbing with the quench scrubber. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising scrubbing the engine gas stream with a caustic scrubber to remove carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising combusting a volume of engine gas from the engine gas stream in an internal combustion engine. 
     
     
         15 . An enriched air gasification system, comprising:
 a thermal reformer configured to receive a volume of feedstock and a volume of oxygen-enriched air, wherein the thermal reformer is configured to react the volume of feedstock and the volume of oxygen-enriched air at an operating temperature to produce a raw syngas stream;   a two-stage cyclone assembly including a first cyclone and a second cyclone, wherein the two-stage cyclone assembly is configured to remove particulate matter from the raw syngas stream;   a quench scrubber configured to receive and scrub the raw syngas stream received from the two-stage cyclone assembly to produce an engine gas stream; and   a CHP genset configured to receive the engine gas stream and use the engine gas stream as fuel.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the thermal reformer comprises a thermal reformer with a single bubbling bed gasifier configuration. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the volume of oxygen-enriched air comprises both a fluidization medium and a gasification reactant. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the operating temperature is between 600° C. and 800° C. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the thermal reformer is configured to react the volume of feedstock and the volume of oxygen-enriched air at substantially atmospheric pressure. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the volume of feedstock comprises a volume of feedstock with a moisture content level between 10 and 30%. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the volume of feedstock comprises a volume of feedstock with an ash content level between 10 and 35%. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the first cyclone comprises a high-efficiency cyclone, and the second cyclone comprises a low-efficiency cyclone. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the volume of feedstock comprises volume of at least one of poultry manure, swine manure, cattle manure, biogas plant effluent sludge, woodwaste, plastic, and tires. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the volume of oxygen-enriched air comprises a volume of air with an oxygen content level between 30 and 90 percent. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising a fuel gas heater, wherein the fuel gas heater is configured to heat the engine gas stream and provide a heated engine gas stream to the CHP genset. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising a syngas cooler configured to cool the raw syngas stream received from the two-stage cyclone assembly. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising a caustic scrubber configured to scrub the engine gas stream to remove carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising an internal combustion engine, wherein the internal combustion engine is configured to receive a volume of engine gas from the engine gas stream and combust the volume of engine gas. 
     
     
         29 . An enriched air gasification system, comprising:
 a gasification subsystem, comprising:
 a thermal reformer configured to receive a feedstock stream and an oxygen-enriched air stream, wherein the thermal reformer is configured to react the feedstock stream and the oxygen-enriched air stream at an operating temperature to produce a raw syngas stream; 
 a two-stage cyclone assembly including a first cyclone and a second cyclone, wherein the two-stage cyclone assembly is configured to remove particulate matter from the raw syngas stream; 
 a quench scrubber configured to receive and scrub the raw syngas stream received from the two-stage cyclone assembly with a quench water recirculation loop to produce an engine gas stream; and 
 a CHP genset configured to receive the engine gas stream and use the engine gas stream as fuel; and 
   a controller communicatively coupled to the gasification subsystem, wherein one or more processors of the controller are configured to execute a set of program instructions, the set of program instructions configured to cause the one or more processors to:
 adjust the flowrate of feedstock stream and the flowrate of the oxygen-enriched air stream; 
 adjust the operating temperature of the thermal reformer based on one or more characteristics of the feedstock stream; and 
 adjust a flowrate of the quench water recirculation loop based on a temperature of the engine gas stream.