Partial oxidation process

Claim 1

In a process for the partial oxidation of a hydrocarbonaceous fuel, slurry of carbonaceous fuel, or mixtures thereof, said fuel containing metal impurities, with a free oxygen-containing gas in the reaction zone of a free-flow noncatalytic gas generator at a temperature in the range of about 1700° to 3500° F. and a pressure in the range of about 1 to 300 atmospheres in the presence of a temperature moderator to produce a raw gas stream comprising H 2 , CO, H 2 O and at least one gas from the group CO 2 , N 2 , Ar, H 2 S, CH 4 and COS, and containing entrained soot, particulate carbon and ash; and contacting the raw gas stream with water in quenching and/or scrubbing zones to produce a soot-water dispersion, the improved method for preventing the build-up of ash in the system comprising: (1) simultaneously passing a stream of said soot-water dispersion and a stream of liquid organic extractant through an in-line static mixer thereby providing gentle non-turbulent mixing together of said streams; (2) passing the mixture leaving (1) directly through a mixing valve while simultaneously dropping the pressure across the valve to produce a pressure drop in the range of about 40 to 500 kilo pascals (kpa) thereby providing severe turbulent mixing; (3) introducing the mixture from (2) into a decanter with the simultaneous introduction of a separate stream of liquid organic extractant, and settling in separate layers a grey water-ash dispersion including about 70-85 wt. %, or more of the total ash present in the decanter feed and a particulate carbon-soot-liquid organic extractant dispersion including the remaining ash; (4) separately removing each of said dispersions from the decanter; (5) flashing off gaseous impurities from the grey water-ash dispersion from (4) in a degassing zone; (6) introducing about 80 to 100 wt. % of the degassed grey water-ash dispersion from (5) into a solids-liquid separating zone comprising at least one solids-liquid separator selected from the group consisting of liquid cyclone, centrifuge, gravity thickener or clarifier, filter, and combinations thereof where at least a portion of the water-insoluble ash is removed to produce deashed grey-water; (7) introducing any remaining degassed grey water-ash dispersion from (5) into a waste water treatment facility; and (8) introducing at least a portion of the deashed grey water from (6) directly into the gas quenching and/or scrubbing zones.