Renewable Blended Natural Gas and Rock Wool Production from a Plasma-Based System

Abstract

A method and system for cost effectively converting a feedstock using thermal plasma or other styles of gassifiers, into an energy transfer medium using a blended gaseous fuel. The feedstock can be any organic material or inorganic combination to generate a syngas. The syngas is blended with any fuel of a higher thermal content (BTU) than the syngas. The resulting blended high thermal content fuel is used on site or reinjected into the fuel supply pipe line. Rock wool and accessory heat are produced to increase the efficiency of the plant.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of extracting energy from a gassifier and delivering the energy to an energy transfer medium, the method comprising the steps of:
 extracting syngas from a gas product issued by the gassifier;   delivering the extracted syngas to a fuel blending system; and   producing a blended fuel by mixing the syngas with a gaseous fuel, the gaseous fuel having a higher thermal (BTU) content than the syngas.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the gassifier is a plasma gassifier. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the gassifier is an inductively heated gassifier. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the gassifier is an inductively heated and plasma assisted gassifier. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein there is provided the further step of re-injecting the gas product into a gas main supply. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein there is provided the further step of delivering the gas product to a pre-gassifier to increase system efficiency. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein there is provided the further step of delivering reclaimed heat to the pre-gassifier. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the gaseous fuel includes any combination of natural gas, butane, propane, pentane, ethane, and any other suitable gaseous fuel. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein there is further provided the step of controlling the thermal content of the blended fuel. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein said step of controlling the thermal content of the blended fuel comprises the further step of employing a sensor in a feedback loop. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the sensor is a flame ionization detector. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the sensor is a calorimeter 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the sensor is a spectrometer. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein there is further provided the step of producing rock wool. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein there is provided the further step of producing accessory heat. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein prior to performing said step of extracting syngas from a gas product issued by the plasma gassifier there are provided the further steps of:
 oxidizing a feedstock fuel to produce oxidized feedstock fuel; and   delivering the oxidized feedstock fuel to the plasma gassifier,   whereby a work load of a primary heat source of the plasma gassifier is reduced.   
     
     
         17 . A method of extracting energy from a plasma gassifier and delivering the chemical and heat energy to an energy transfer medium, the method comprising the steps of:
 extracting syngas from a fuel product issued by the plasma gassifier; and   delivering the extracted syngas to a fuel blending system for forming a blended fuel having a thermal content that is greater than the thermal content of the extracted syngas.