Method for recovering oil and/or gas from carbonaceous materials

Claim 1

A method of recovering volatile constituents from carbonaceous materials by pyrolysis and gasification, whereby the material is introduced into a first reactor vessel containing a first melt in which volatile constituents are driven off by thermal treatment, and subsequently recovered, and wherein part of the first melt containing the non-volatile constituents of said carbonaceous material is transferred to a second reactor vessel containing a second melt at a temperature greater than the temperature in the first reactor, the first and the second melts being mutually different melts whose solubility in one another is limited and which can be physically separated, and whereby said first and said second melts are brought together to transfer to and to absorb into said second melt said non-volatile constituents, and wherein one of the members of the group consisting of oxygen, air, and oxides is also introduced into the second melt for gasifying residual quantities of carbonaceous material present in said non-volatile constituents by oxidation; and metal melt from the second reactor vessel is returned to the first reactor vessel in a quantity to substantially maintain the temperature therein and to replace the quantity of the first melt transferred from said first reactor vessel to the second reactor vessel.

Claim 2

A method of recovering volatile constituents from carbonaceous materials by pyrolysis and gasification, whereby the material is introduced into a first reactor vessel containing a first melt in which volatile constituents are driven off by thermal treatment, and subsequently recovered, and wherein part of the first melt containing the non-volatile constituents of said carbonaceous material is transferred to a second reactor vessel containing a second melt at a temperature greater than the temperature in the first reactor, the first and the second melts being mutually different melts whose solubility in one another is limited and which can be physically separated, and whereby said first and said second melts are brought together to transfer to and to absorb into said second melt said non-volatile constituents, and wherein one of the members of the group consisting of oxygen, air, and oxides is also introduced into the second melt for gasifying residual quantities of carbonaceous material present in said non-volatile constituents by oxidation; and metal melt from the second reactor vessel is returned to the first reactor vessel in a quantity to substantially maintain the temperature therein and to replace the quantity of the first melt transferred from said first reactor vessel to the second reactor vessel.

Claim 11

The method according to anyone of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8, wherein said carbonaceous material is introduced into the first reactor vessel with the aid of recirculated first melt, through one or more injector nozzles; and in that said first melt is introduced into said second melt in the second reactor vessel beneath the surface of the bath.