The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 02, 2018
Filed:
Mar. 01, 2017
Systems and methods for manufacture of dimethyl ether (dme) from natural gas and flare gas feedstock
Pioneer Energy Inc., Lakewood, CO (US);
Robert M Zubrin, Golden, CO (US);
Boris Nizamov, Highlands Ranch, CO (US);
Thomas L Henshaw, Monument, CO (US);
Adam M Kortan, Arvada, CO (US);
James Siebarth, Lakewood, CO (US);
Colin Apke, Castle Rock, CO (US);
Mark Berggren, Golden, CO (US);
Pioneer Energy, Inc., Lakewood, CO (US);
Abstract
Disclosed is a method that reforms flare gas or other raw natural gas source, using air without steam, to directly produce dimethyl ether (DME), a direct diesel substitute. The method first reforms an air-natural gas mixture at ambient atmospheric pressures, and then compresses the resulting CO-hydrogen-nitrogen gas mixture to 100-2,000 psi, and feeds it through a combined reactor which reacts the gas mixture directly into DME. The nitrogen is returned to the atmosphere. DME is an excellent diesel fuel, and can be used to displace significantly costlier and dirtier petroleum-based diesel fuel, while solving a critical problem with flaring or other wasted natural gas. For example, the roughly 120 billion cubic feet per year that was flared in North Dakota in 2014 could be converted into over 3 million tons of DME using the disclosed method.