Syngas



See also: Wood gas
Energy Portal

Syngas (from synthesis gas) is the name given to a gas mixture that contains varying amounts of carbon monoxide and hydrogen generated by the gasification of a carbon containing fuel to a gaseous product with a heating value. Examples include Mobil methanol to gasoline process.

Syngas consists primarily of hydrogen, and has less than half the energy density of natural gas. Syngas is combustible and often used as a fuel source or as an intermediate for the production of other chemicals. Syngas for use as a fuel is most often produced by gasification of coal or municipal waste mainly by the following paths:

H2
CO2
CO

When used as an intermediate in the large-scale, industrial synthesis of hydrogen and ammonia, it is also produced from natural gas (via the steam reforming reaction) as follows:

CH4 + H2O → H2

The syngas produced in large waste-to-energy gasification facilities is used as fuel to generate electricity.[3]

Coal gasification processes are reasonably efficient and were used for many years to manufacture illuminating gas (coal gas) for gas lighting, before electric lighting became widely available.

When syngas contains a significant amount of Fischer-Tropsch diesel etc. However, the total energy efficiency is not very high, if the gas is used to make fuel, meaning that the purification processes are very energy intensive.

See also

References

  1. ^ Beychok, M.R., Coal gasification and the Phenosolvan process, American Chemical Society 168th National Meeting, Atlantic City, September 1974
  2. ^ Beychok, M.R., Process and environmental technology for producing SNG and liquid fuels, U.S. EPA report EPA-660/2-75-011, May 1975
  3. ^ Waste-to-energy plants
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Syngas". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.