Patent ID: 8669013

Claim:
A process for generating electrical power from a non-gaseous carbonaceous material, the process comprising the steps of: (a) introducing into a hydromethanation reactor (1) a carbonaceous feedstock derived from the non-gaseous carbonaceous material, (2) a hydromethanation catalyst, and (3) a superheated hydromethanation gas feed stream comprising steam, hydrogen and carbon monoxide; (b) reacting the carbonaceous feedstock in the hydromethanation reactor in the presence of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, steam and hydromethanation catalyst to produce a methane-enriched raw product; (c) withdrawing a methane-enriched product stream from the hydromethanation reactor, wherein the methane-enriched raw product stream comprises methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, steam and heat energy, and wherein the methane-enriched raw product stream comprises at least 50 mol % methane plus carbon dioxide (based on the moles of methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the methane-enriched raw product stream); (d) recovering a portion of the heat energy from the methane-enriched raw product stream; (e) removing a substantial portion of the hydrogen sulfide and, optionally, at least a predominant portion of the carbon dioxide, from the methane-enriched raw product stream to produce a sulfur-depleted raw product stream; (f) introducing into a fuel cell (1) an oxygen-containing gas stream and (2) a fuel mixture, the fuel cell comprising an anode section and a cathode section separated by an electrolyte section, the oxygen-containing gas stream being introduced into the cathode section and the fuel mixture being introduced into the anode section, the fuel mixture comprising at least methane and hydrogen from the sulfur-depleted raw product stream; (g) electrochemically reacting in the fuel cell oxygen from the oxygen-containing gas stream with the fuel mixture to generate electrical power and heat energy; (h) withdrawing from the fuel cell (1) an oxygen-depleted cathode exhaust stream and (2) an anode exhaust stream, wherein both the oxygen-depleted cathode exhaust stream and the anode exhaust stream comprise heat energy, and wherein the anode exhaust stream further comprises methane, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and steam; (i) recovering a portion of the heat energy from the anode exhaust stream to produce a cooled anode exhaust stream; (j) removing at least a substantial portion of the carbon dioxide from the cooled anode exhaust stream to generate a carbon dioxide-depleted anode exhaust stream; and (k) optionally generating carbon monoxide and hydrogen from at least a portion of the methane in the carbon-dioxide depleted anode exhaust stream; wherein the hydrogen and carbon monoxide in the superheated hydromethanation gas feed stream substantially comprises (1) hydrogen and carbon monoxide from the carbon dioxide-depleted anode exhaust stream, and (2) hydrogen and carbon monoxide generated from methane in the carbon dioxide-depleted anode exhaust stream.