University of Kentucky Research Foundation

Other

Chevron U.s.a. Inc.

Gerald P Huffman

Naresh Shah

Stephen Joseph Miller

Devadas Panjala

Zhen Feng

Jianmin Zhao

This invention relates to the production of liquid fuels from coal and natural gas and, more specifically, to a new process that combines Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) with catalytic dehydrogenation (CDH) and methane injection (MI) into the CDH reactor (FTS-CDH-MI) to eliminate all carbon dioxide emissions during the production of liquid fuels. The additional methane for the FTS-CDH-MI process can be derived from natural gas produced by hydro-fracking. The addition of methane in the CDH process eliminates the need for the standard water-gas shift (WGS) reaction to the syngas, which is used to increase the hydrogen (H) of the syngas in FTS. This eliminates the use of water in the process and eliminates entirely the production of CO. In addition to producing the Hneeded for FTS, this process (FTS-CDH) converts the C in these gases into multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT).

Method to eliminate all carbon dioxide emissions during the production of liquid fuels from coal and natural gas

A new method of producing liquid transportation fuels from coal and other hydrocarbons that significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions by combining Fischer-Tropsch synthesis with catalytic dehydrogenation is claimed. Catalytic dehydrogenation (CDH) of the gaseous products (C1-C4) of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) can produce large quantities of hydrogen while converting the carbon to multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT). Incorporation of CDH into a FTS-CDH plant converting coal to liquid fuels can eliminate all or most of the COemissions from the water-gas shift (WGS) reaction that is currently used to elevate the Hlevel of coal-derived syngas for FTS. Additionally, the FTS-CDH process saves large amounts of water used by the WGS reaction and produces a valuable by-product, MWCNT.

Incorporation of catalytic dehydrogenation into fischer-tropsch synthesis to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions

A method for producing liquid fuels includes the steps of gasifying a starting material selected from a group consisting of coal, biomass, carbon nanotubes and mixtures thereof to produce a syngas, subjecting that syngas to Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) to produce a hyrdrocarbon product stream, separating that hydrocarbon product stream into C1-C4 hydrocarbons and C5+ hydrocarbons to be used as liquid fuels and subjecting the C1-C4 hydrocarbons to catalytic dehydrogenation (CDH) to produce hydrogen and carbon nanotubes. The hydrogen produced by CDH is recycled to be mixed with the syngas incident to the FTS reactor in order to raise the hydrogen to carbon monoxide ratio of the syngas to values of 2 or higher, which is required to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels. This is accomplished with little or no production of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. The carbon is captured in the form of a potentially valuable by-product, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT), while huge emissions of carbon dioxide are avoided and very large quantities of water employed for the water-gas shift in traditional FTS systems are saved.

Incorporation of catalytic dehydrogenation into Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to lower carbon dioxide emissions

The present invention provides novel catalysts for accomplishing catalytic decomposition of undiluted light hydrocarbons to a hydrogen product, and methods for preparing such catalysts. In one aspect, a method is provided for preparing a catalyst by admixing an aqueous solution of an iron salt, at least one additional catalyst metal salt, and a suitable oxide substrate support, and precipitating metal oxyhydroxides onto the substrate support. An incipient wetness method, comprising addition of aqueous solutions of metal salts to a dry oxide substrate support, extruding the resulting paste to pellet form, and calcining the pellets in air is also discloses. In yet another aspect, a process is provided for producing hydrogen from an undiluted light hydrocarbon reactant, comprising contacting the hydrocarbon reactant with a catalyst as described above in a reactor, and recovering a substantially carbon monoxide-free hydrogen product stream. In still yet another aspect, a process is provided for catalytic decomposition of an undiluted light hydrocarbon reactant to obtain hydrogen and a valuable multi-walled carbon nanotube coproduct.

Catalytic conversion of hydrocarbons to hydrogen and high-value carbon

The invention includes a process of making a lubricating oil composition including: a process for making a high VI lubricating oil composition including the steps of (1) contacting a waste plastics feed including mainly polyethylene in a pyrolysis zone at pyrolysis conditions, whereby at least a portion of the waste plastics feed is cracked, thereby forming a pyrolysis zone effluent including 1-olefins and n-paraffins; (2) passing the pyrolysis zone effluent, including a heavy fraction and a middle fraction, the pyrolysis effluent middle fraction including 1-olefins, to a separations zone; where the pyrolysis effluent heavy fraction portion is separated from the pyrolysis effluent middle fraction; (3) passing the pyrolysis effluent middle fraction to a dimerization zone, where at least a portion of the pyrolysis effluent middle fraction is converted to a lube oil range material; and (4) passing at least a portion of the lube oil range material to a catalytic isomerization dewaxing zone, where at least a portion of the lube oil range material is contacted with a isomerization dewaxing catalyst at isomerization dewaxing conditions thereby forming a high VI lubricating oil composition.

Process for making a lubricating composition

The invention includes a process of making a lubricating oil composition including: a process for making a high VI lubricating oil composition including the steps of (1) contacting a waste plastics feed including mainly polyethylene in a pyrolysis zone at pyrolysis conditions, whereby at least a portion of the waste plastics feed is cracked, thereby forming a pyrolysis zone effluent including 1-olefins and n-paraffins; (2) passing the pyrolysis zone effluent, including a heavy fraction and a middle fraction, the pyrolysis effluent middle fraction including 1-olefins, to a separations zone; where the pyrolysis effluent heavy fraction portion is separated from the pyrolysis effluent middle fraction; (3) passing the pyrolysis effluent heavy fraction to a hydrogenation zone; and (4) passing at least a portion of the hydrogenation zone effluent to a catalytic isomerization dewaxing zone, where at least a portion of the hydrogenation zone effluent is contacted with a isomerization dewaxing catalyst at isomerization dewaxing conditions thereby forming a high VI lubricating oil composition.

Method for conversion of waste plastics to lube oil

The invention includes a process of making a wax composition including: a process for making a heavy wax composition including the steps of (1) contacting a waste plastics feed containing primarily polyethylene in a pyrolysis zone at sub-atmospheric pressure, whereby at least a portion of the waste plastics feed is cracked, thereby forming a pyrolysis zone effluent including 1-olefins and n-paraffins; and (2) passing the pyrolysis zone effluent to a hydrotreating zone, for contacting with a hydrotreating catalyst at catalytic conditions.

Method for making a heavy wax composition

A method of preparing a catalyst precursor comprises dissolving an iron salt and a salt of an oxoanion forming agent, in water so that a solution of the iron salt and oxoanion forming agent salt has a ratio of oxoanion/Fe of between 0.0001:1 to 0.5:1. Next is increasing the pH of the solution to 10 by adding a strong base followed by collecting of precipitate having a binary ferrihydrite structure. A binary ferrihydrite catalyst precursor is also prepared by dissolving an iron salt in water. The solution is brought to a pH of substantially 10 to obtain ferrihydrite precipitate. The precipitate is then filtered and washed with distilled water and subsequently admixed with a hydroxy carboxylic acid solution. The admixture is mixed/agitated and the binary ferrihydrite precipitate is then filtered and recovered.

Growing community of inventors

Lexington, KY, United States of America

Gerald P Huffman