KR-102962838-B1 - Method and apparatus for the recovery and reuse of tail gas and flue gas components

KR102962838B1KR 102962838 B1KR102962838 B1KR 102962838B1KR-102962838-B1

Abstract

A method for producing carbon black comprises converting a portion of at least one hydrocarbon feedstock into carbon black in the presence of combustion gas generated by burning fuel in an oxidizing gas mixture containing a small amount of nitrogen in a carbon black reactor having a combustion zone, a reaction zone, and a feedstock injection zone between them, so that the carbon black forms a product stream carried by a hot gas. The carbon black is separated from the hot gas and subsequently processed to produce flue gas that is high in carbon dioxide and low in nitrogen, at least a portion of which is directed back to at least one of the combustion zone, the reaction zone, and the feedstock injection zone.

Inventors

왕, 다시앙
치, 웨이-밍
크로커, 데이비드 에스.
그린, 마틴 씨.
마테우, 데이비드 엠.
데이비스, 롭

Assignees

캐보트 코포레이션

Dates

Publication Date: 20260511
Application Date: 20220623
Priority Date: 20210624

Claims (20)

As a method for manufacturing carbon black, (a) a step of converting a hydrocarbon feedstock into carbon black in the reaction zone(s) in the presence of a combustion gas generated in the combustion zone by burning a fuel in an oxidizing gas mixture comprising 20-85 volume% carbon dioxide, 15-80 volume% oxygen, 30 volume% or less water vapor, and 35 volume% or less nitrogen, thereby forming a first product stream comprising carbon black, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, water vapor, and hydrogen, wherein the fuel is a part of the hydrocarbon feedstock or a separate fuel source, and wherein at least a part of the hydrocarbon feedstock comes into contact with the combustion gas in at least one feedstock injection zone; (b) adding water to the first product stream to at least partially stop the conversion and form a second product stream comprising carbon black, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and water vapor; (c) a step of removing carbon black from the second product stream to form a tail gas; (d) a step of reducing the carbon monoxide and hydrogen content in at least a portion of the tail gas to produce flue gas containing 40 volume% or less of nitrogen; and (f) A step of guiding at least a first portion of flue gas to at least one of a combustion zone, at least one feedstock injection zone and at least one reaction zone. A method including
A method according to claim 1, wherein the first product stream further comprises a sulfur-containing species, and the method further comprises removing at least a portion of the sulfur-containing species from a first portion of flue gas, a second portion of flue gas, or both.
A method according to claim 1, wherein reducing comprises i) burning the tail gas; ii) separating and recovering at least a portion of hydrogen from the tail gas; or both.
A method according to paragraph 3, wherein i) each of the first product stream and the second product stream contains carbon monoxide, and reducing it further comprises burning the tail gas after separation and recovery, and/or ii) the method further comprises removing water from the tail gas before removing hydrogen, wherein the removed water is optionally guided to be used in step (b), or both.
A method according to claim 1, further comprising: i) guiding at least a portion of the tail gas into a combustion zone; and/or ii) removing water from the tail gas before guiding at least a portion of the tail gas, wherein the removed water is optionally guided to be used in step (b).
The method of claim 1 further comprises combining a first portion of flue gas with an oxidizing agent before guiding, wherein the oxidizing gas mixture comprises the first portion of the combined flue gas and the oxidizing agent, and the portion of the combined flue gas and the oxidizing agent are guided to a combustion zone, a reaction zone, or both, and the method optionally further comprises one or more of i) heating the first portion of the flue gas before guiding, and ii) heating the first portion of the combined flue gas and the oxidizing agent.
A method according to claim 1, further comprising: i) heating a first portion of flue gas before guiding; ii) combining the first portion of flue gas with a hydrocarbon feedstock before guiding, wherein the combined portion of flue gas and the hydrocarbon feedstock are guided to at least one feedstock injection zone; iii) heating the combined first portion of flue gas and the hydrocarbon feedstock; iv) heating the first portion of flue gas to form high-temperature flue gas and combining the high-temperature flue gas with the hydrocarbon feedstock before guiding; and v) heating the first portion of flue gas with an energy source selected from microwaves, plasma, and resistance heating elements.
A method according to claim 1, further comprising removing water from a first portion of flue gas to produce dehydrated flue gas containing 35 volume% or less of water vapor, wherein the removed water is optionally guided to be used in step (b).
A method according to claim 8, wherein i) at least a portion of the carbon black is pelletized by combining a portion of the carbon black with a liquid to form carbon black beads and drying the carbon black beads to reduce the water content to 1 wt% or less, wherein drying comprises heating the dehydrated flue gas and bringing the carbon black beads into contact with the heated dehydrated flue gas, wherein the liquid optionally comprises removed water; ii) diverting a portion of the dehydrated flue gas and removing at least a portion of carbon dioxide from the diverted dehydrated flue gas; iii) condensing and storing the carbon dioxide removed from the diverted dehydrated flue gas, or both; and iv) providing an oxidizing gas by enabling liquid oxygen to evaporate, wherein the method further comprises transferring thermal energy from the dehydrated flue gas to the liquid oxygen.
A method according to claim 8, wherein removing carbon black comprises i) passing the second product stream through a filter that separates the second product stream into carbon black and tail gas—wherein the method further comprises purging solid particulates from the filter using dehydrated flue gas—; or ii) passing the second product stream through a cyclone separator—wherein the method further comprises separating the tail gas and carbon black in the cyclone separator using a portion of the dehydrated flue gas.
A method according to claim 8, further comprising compressing at least a portion of the dehydrated flue gas, wherein i) removing carbon black optionally comprises passing a second product stream through a filter, wherein the method further comprises cleaning the filter using the compressed dehydrated flue gas, or ii) reducing comprises burning the tail gas in a burner, wherein the method further comprises cleaning the burner using the compressed dehydrated flue gas.
A method according to claim 1, wherein adding water further comprises adding at least a portion of a first portion of flue gas to a first product stream to stop the conversion.
Carbon black formed by the method of any one of claims 1 to 12.
As a device for manufacturing carbon black, A carbon black reactor comprising: a combustion zone for generating a heated gas stream by burning an oxidizing gas mixture and fuel; a first feedstock injection zone for forming a product stream by injecting a hydrocarbon feedstock into the heated gas stream; a first reaction zone in which carbon black is formed in the product stream; a first quenching injector; and a first quenching zone in which the carbon black is at least partially quenched with a quenching fluid injected into the product stream from the first quenching injector; A separator fluidly communicating with a first quenching zone, where carbon black is separated from the product stream to form tail gas; A thermal oxidizer configured to combust tail gas with additional oxidizing gas to form high-temperature flue gas; A first flue gas heat exchanger having an outlet for removing thermal energy from high-temperature flue gas and discharging cooled flue gas Includes; Here, the outlet is fluidly connected to at least one device element selected from the combustion zone and the first reaction zone and is located upstream thereof. device.
The apparatus of claim 14 further comprises a scrubber cooler including a sulfur-containing species scrubber and a water condenser, wherein the scrubber cooler is configured to remove sulfur-containing species and water from at least a portion of the cooled flue gas to produce dehydrated flue gas, and comprises a discharge outlet through which the dehydrated flue gas is discharged, wherein the discharge outlet is in fluid communication with at least one device element.
In paragraph 15, the apparatus comprises: i) a heater fluidly communicating with the discharge outlet of a scrubber cooler, and a carbon black pelletizer configured to receive at least a portion of the dehydrated flue gas heated from the heater—wherein the heated dehydrated flue gas dries carbon black pellets formed in the pelletizer—; and ii) further comprising one or more carbon capture systems operable to remove at least a portion of carbon dioxide present in the dehydrated flue gas, optionally wherein the separator comprises a bag filter, and the apparatus operable to guide at least a portion of the dehydrated flue gas to periodically purge particulate solids from the bag filter.
An apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising: i) a compressor configured to receive at least a portion of flue gas from an outlet and discharge compressed flue gas; ii) a second quenching zone in which carbon black that has been at least partially quenched is further quenched by a second quenching injector and a quenching fluid injected into a product stream from the second quenching injector; iii) a heater disposed between an outlet and at least one device element to heat at least a portion of flue gas, comprising a microwave source, a plasma source, or a resistance heating element; and iv) a heat exchanger receiving a product stream from the first quenching zone, comprising one or more of a heat exchanger operable to heat at least a portion of the cooled flue gas to a temperature of 400 to 950°C by exchanging heat of the product stream with at least a portion of the cooled flue gas.
In paragraph 14, a device configured to guide at least a portion of the tail gas into the combustion zone.
A device according to paragraph 18, further comprising one or more of i) a condenser upstream of the combustion zone configured to remove water from a portion of the tail gas, and ii) a hydrogen removal device upstream of the combustion zone configured to remove hydrogen from a portion of the tail gas.
An apparatus according to claim 14, further characterized in that i) the apparatus is configured to combine at least a portion of the cooled flue gas with an additional oxidizing gas and to guide the combined portion of the cooled flue gas and the additional oxidizing gas to a thermal oxidizer; ii) at least one of a combustion zone, a first reaction zone, and a first feedstock injection zone is configured to receive an oxidizing gas mixture, wherein the oxidizing gas mixture comprises at least a portion of the mass of the cooled flue gas and an oxidizing agent; and iii) the heat exchanger is a boiler through which thermal energy from the high-temperature flue gas is transferred to water.

Description

Method and apparatus for the recovery and reuse of tail gas and flue gas components 1. Field of Invention. The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for recovering and reusing components of tail gas and flue gas generated in a carbon black manufacturing and tail gas combustion process. 2. Description of related technical fields. Carbonaceous fuels and other organic materials are burned in a wide variety of industrial processes. Furnace reactors, combustion engines, combustion chambers, boilers, furnaces, heaters, high-temperature gas generators, burners, and waste incinerators are used to burn carbonaceous fuels. These combustion facilities may be used to generate energy, incinerate waste and byproduct materials, or both. For example, during a typical combustion process within a furnace or boiler, hydrocarbon feedstocks or fuels are burned in the presence of oxygen or other oxidizing gases, and a stream of combustion exhaust gases is generated. In some industries, such as carbon black manufacturing, refinery operations, or petrochemical operations, exhaust gases generated from primary process units are transferred to heaters or boilers for energy generation or heat recovery. These operations may generate emissions, which may be subject to any applicable air quality control or requirements. For example, the furnace carbon black manufacturing process generally utilizes a furnace reactor having a reactor following a burner or combustion chamber. A combustion fuel feed stream, typically a hydrocarbon gas stream such as natural gas, is combusted in the burner section along with an oxidizer feed gas stream such as air, oxygen, or oxygen-enriched air to produce high-temperature combustion gases, which are then transferred to the reactor section of the furnace. In the reactor, the hydrocarbon feed is exposed to the high-temperature combustion gases. A portion of the feed is combusted, while the remainder is decomposed to form carbon black, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and other gaseous products. The reaction products are typically quenched with water, and the resulting product stream—a mixture of carbon black and tail gases—is cooled and transported to a bag collector or other filter system, whereby the carbon black contents are separated from the tail gases. The recovered carbon black is typically finished into a marketable product by, for instance, grinding and wet pelletizing. Water from pelletization is generally removed by a dryer that can use process gases, such as gas, oil, tail gas, or a combination thereof, as fuel. Subsequently, the dried pellets can be transported from the dryer to a bulk storage facility or other handling station. The dryer may also generate gas emissions. In the carbon black furnace process, the primary source of emissions is generally tail gas. In addition to direct aeration, tail gas emissions were vented using a flare. Tail gas may contain combustible gas components. Such tail gas can be advantageously combusted to generate heat for the dryer or for other uses as described above. After combustion, the resulting flue gas may generally contain carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, oxygen, and other species. Carbon dioxide can be separated from the flue gas and sequestered to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is desirable to utilize the various gas species present in the tail gas and flue gas more efficiently. In addition, it is desirable to increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the flue gas to improve the efficiency of the greenhouse gas separation process before any emission of the flue gas. Summary of the Invention In one aspect, a method for producing carbon black comprises the step of converting a hydrocarbon feedstock into carbon black in the reaction zone(s) in the presence of combustion gases generated in the combustion zone by burning a fuel in an oxidizing gas mixture comprising 20-85 volume% carbon dioxide, 15-80 volume% oxygen, 30 volume% or less water vapor, and 35 volume% or less nitrogen, thereby forming a first product stream comprising carbon black, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, water vapor, and hydrogen, wherein the fuel is a part of the hydrocarbon feedstock or a separate fuel source, and wherein at least a part of the hydrocarbon feedstock comes into contact with the combustion gases in at least one feedstock injection zone. The method further comprises the steps of: adding water to a first product stream to at least partially stop the conversion and forming a second product stream comprising carbon black, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and water vapor; removing carbon black from the second product stream to form a tail gas; reducing the carbon monoxide and hydrogen content in at least a portion of the tail gas to produce flue gas; reducing the carbon monoxide and hydrogen content in at least a portion of the tail gas to produce flue gas comprising 40 volume% or less of nitrogen; and guiding at least a first portion of the