Patent ID: 7691182

Claim:
A method for producing hydrogen and carbon dioxide by the integrated closed-loop processing of landfill gas and biomass feedstocks, comprising the steps of: a) selecting a first input for landfill gas feedstock containing moisture; b) selecting a second input for biomass feedstock; c) directing the landfill gas from the first input into a vessel to remove moisture therefrom before the reduced-moisture landfill gas is directed to a scrubber with a first inlet and second inlet, a first outlet and a second outlet with a carbon product as a purifying agent; d) transporting biomass material from the second input to a gasifier that reduces the biomass to a producer gas and a carbon product; e) directing the producer gas of step d) to a stream containing the reduced-moisture landfill gas so that the producer gas and reduced-moisture landfill gas travel together to the first inlet of the scrubber and simultaneously directing the carbon product of step d) to the second inlet of the scrubber for use as the gas purifying agent; f) scrubbing the producer gas of step d) and the reduced-moisture landfill gas of step c) in the scrubber until the producer gas and reduced-moisture landfill gas are free of a plurality of undesirable impurities and produce an outgoing stream of a purified mixture containing predominantly hydrogen (H 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ); g) directing the outgoing stream of the purified mixture of hydrogen (H 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to a reformer where the outgoing stream is processed to synthesis gas which is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide (H 2 and CO) in the presence of steam; h) cooling the synthesis gas of step g) and directing the cooled synthesis gas to a water gas shift reactor where the carbon monoxide is converted to a mixture of carbon dioxide and additional hydrogen (H 2 ); i) directing the mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen of step h) to a pressure swing adsorption unit with a first outlet and a second outlet for a final gas separation and purification stage; and j) collecting a high purity hydrogen gas from a first outlet and a stream of an offgas from a second outlet for use as a fuel in the reformer burner.