Partial oxidation of vanadium-containing heavy liquid hydrocarbonaceous and solid carbonaceous fuels

Claim 1

In a partial oxidation process for the production of gaseous mixtures comprising H 2 +CO in the reaction zone of a down flowing gas generator, the improvement comprising: (1) mixing together the following materials to produce a feed mixture, (i) a vanadium-containing fuel selected from the group consisting of liquid hydrocarbonaceous fuel, a slurry of solid carbonaceous fuel, and mixtures, thereof;. (ii) supplemental iron-containing ash fusion temperature reducing agent containing iron compounds selected from the group consisting of oxides, sulfides, sulfates, carbonates, cyanides, nitrates and mixtures thereof; and (iii) at least a portion of the remainder of the iron-containing slag after separation of the coarse slag fraction in (5); wherein said vanadium-containing liquid hydrocarbonaceous fuel is a petroleum derived liquid fuel selected from the group consisting of whole crude, residua from petroleum distillation and cracking, petroleum distillate, reduced crude, asphalt, shale oil, tar sand oil, and mixtures thereof; and said vanadium containing solid carbonaceous fuel is selected from the group consisting of petroleum coke, asphalt, tarsands, shale, and mixtures thereof; and wherein vanadium is present in the ash in said liquid and solid fuels in a minimum amount of 2.0 weight %; said feed mixture has an Fe/V weight ratio in the range of about 5.0 to 50; and the weight ratio of said remainder of the iron-containing slag after separation of the coarse slag fraction to the sum of said remainder of the iron-containing slag after separation of the coarse slag fraction and said supplemental iron-containing ash fusion temperature reducing agent is in the range of about 0.25 to 0.90; (2) reacting by partial oxidation said feed mixture with a free-oxygen containing gas in the presence of a temperature moderator in a refractory-lined free-flow unpacked reaction zone of said gas generator the vanadium-containing feed mixture from (1) to produce a hot raw effluent gas stream comprising H 2 +CO along with vanadium-containing molten slag and particulate matter; (3) passing the hot raw effluent gas stream from (2) at a temperature in the range of about 2200° F. to 3000° F. and a pressure in the range of about 1 to 300 atmospheres down through a coaxial discharge passage in the bottom of the reaction zone of said gas generator and then into a connecting refractory-lined slag separation chamber that is provided with a bottom outlet; depositing a portion of the slag entrained in said hot raw gas stream on the walls of said separation chamber and building up the thickness of said slag on the walls of said chamber until chunks of slag having a diameter in the range of about 1/4 inch to 10 inches and an Fe/V weight ratio which is less than that of the feed mixture in (1) separate from the wall and fall into quench water contained in a quench tank located below the bottom outlet in said separation chamber; wherein the temperature of the refractory walls of the slag separation chamber is lower than that of the hot raw effluent gas stream, the dwell time in the slag separation chamber is in the range of about 0.05 to 0.5 seconds, and from about 1.0 to 25.0 wt. % of the molten slag entrained in the hot raw gas stream separates out in the slag separation chamber; (4) passing through said quench tank at least a portion of the hot effluent gas stream leaving said slag separation chamber and containing entrained molten slag to produce said gaseous mixture comprising H 2 +CO, and solidifying molten slag and separating out in said quench tank slag and particulate matter that were entrained in said hot raw gas stream; wherein the Fe/V weight ratio of the slag entrained in the effluent gas stream leaving said slag separation chamber is greater than and the particle size is smaller than that of the slag which builds up on the walls of said slag separation chamber and falls into the quench tank; and (5) passing the water and solids from the bottom of said quench tank into a water-solids separation zone; removing a portion of the water from said vessel and recycling said water to the quench tank; and separating a coarse iron-containing slag fraction from the remainder of the slag having a smaller particle size wherein said coarse slag fraction has an Fe/V weight ratio which is about 40% to 70% less than that of the feed mixture in (1), and the remainder of the slag after separation of the coarse slag fraction has an Fe/V weight ratio in a range about equal to that of the feed mixture in (1) to 250% greater than that of the feed mixture in (1).