Plasma arc furnace and applications

Abstract

A Plasma Arc Reformer for creating a useful fuel, such as Methanol, using any of Methane, Municipal Solid Waste, farm or forest waste, coal orchar rock from oil shale production, petrochemical hydrocarbons, (any carbon containing charge), water, and/or Municipal Sewage, as the source material. A High temperature Plasma Arc de-polymerizes the source material into atoms which, upon partial cooling, creates a gas stream rich in CO and H 2 (syngas). Subsequent molecular filter and catalyst stages in the system remove contaminants and produce the output fuel. The system is closed loop with regard to the syngas production in that it recycles the residual unconverted gas and even the exhaust gases if desired. The large amount of heat produced is captured and converted to electric power using a supercritical CO 2 Rankin cycle resulting in potentially high efficiencies.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of converting a source fuel into an output fuel using a reformer, said method comprising the steps of:
 inputting a source fuel into the reformer;   inputting a feed material into the reformer;   providing one or more heat sources in the reformer for breaking down said source fuel and said feed material into one or more constituent components and/or combinations thereof;   converting at least a portion of said one or more constituent components of the feed material and the source fuel and/or the combinations thereof into said output fuel using one or more catalysts;   extracting excess heat from the conversion process for performing useful work; and   outputting said output fuel from the reformer.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of extracting excess heat includes generating electricity using a Rankin engine. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein said Rankin engine is an oscillating disk piston engine driving a generator. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein said Rankin engine is driven by carbon dioxide. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein said Rankin engine is driven by super critical carbon dioxide. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said output fuel includes methanol. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said input fuel includes methane. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said catalyst includes one or more of Copper Oxide, Zinc Oxide, and/or Nickel. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said heat source is a plasma arc source. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said input fuel includes a carbon-based solid material. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said method provides for the complete recovery of all CO 2  and other exhaust gas products thereby providing for zero emission power generation and recycling of said CO 2 . 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein said method provides for fuel creation via syn gas generation. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of removing contaminants from said converting step using a cyclone separator. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said one or more heat sources raise said methane and water inputs to depolymerization temperatures of 750 degrees Celsius or above. 
     
     
         15 . A method of converting a carbon-based source fuel into a desired output fuel using a reformer, said method comprising the steps of:
 inputting the carbon-based source fuel into a furnace of the reformer, wherein said carbon-based source fuel includes waste material from sewage or solid wastes;   inputting a feed material into the reformer;   providing one or more heat sources in the furnace for breaking down said source fuel and said feed material into one or more constituent components and/or combinations thereof;   compressing said one or more constituent components and/or combinations thereof for inputting to a catalyst subsystem;   converting at least a portion of said one or more constituent components of the feed material and the source fuel and/or the combinations thereof into said output fuel using one or more catalysts;   removing contaminants from said output fuel;   recirculating at least a subset of said contaminants removed from said output fuel back into said catalyst subsystem;   outputting said output fuel from the reformer; and   recovering waste heat from the reformer using a Rankin process utilizing supercritical carbon dioxide as a working fluid to generate torque; and   generating electricity using said torque.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein said feed material includes water. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein said feed material also includes methane. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein said feed material includes methane. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein said Rankin process uses an oscillating disk piston engine. 
     
     
         20 . A reformer for converting a source fuel into an output fuel, comprising:
 an input for receiving the source fuel;   an input for receiving a feed material;   a heat generator configured to provide heat to break down said source fuel and said feed material into one or more constituent components and/or combinations thereof for placing into a flow;   a heat exchanger for extracting waste heat from said flow;   an engine for converting said waste heat into useful energy;   a filter bed for removing catalyst poisoning contaminants from said flow;   one or more catalyst tanks including at least one catalyst for receiving the compressed flow from said compressor for converting at least a portion of said one or more constituent components and/or combinations thereof into an output fuel flow;   a contaminant removal subsystem for removing contaminants from said output fuel flow for recirculating at least a portion of said contaminants back to said catalyst tanks; and   an output interface for outputting said output fuel.   a heat recovery device for generating useful work from the waste heat extracted by said heat exchanger.