Patent ID: 8669294

Claim:
A process for producing Syngas in a plasma reactor from a natural gas stream containing a significant quantity of CO 2 , which process comprises: providing a natural gas stream that contains CH 4 and between about 2 and 40% CO 2 and treating such stream in a semipermeable membrane device to provide a first permeate stream that contains CO 2 and CH 4 in an about 50/50 molar ratio and a methane-rich concentrate stream which is at least about 90% methane, combusting a substream from said methane-rich concentrate stream with air in a cogeneration apparatus to produce electrical power, delivering an exhaust gas stream from said cogeneration apparatus to another semipermeable membrane device and separating a predominantly CO 2 permeate stream, blending said predominantly CO 2 permeate stream with another substream of said methane-rich concentrate stream to create a blended feedstream containing CO 2 and CH 4 in an about 50/50 molar ratio, delivering a composite feedstream made up of said first permeate stream and said blended feedstream, containing CO 2 and CH 4 alone in a 1:1 mole ratio with no more than a 2% excess of CO 2 , to a microwave plasma reactor which converts such composite feedstream to a stream of Syngas, whereby Syngas of a composition suitable as a feedstock for a Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) reactor is produced in an environmentally friendly process from natural gas containing up to about 40% CO 2 , the overall process being controlled to generate sufficient electric power to operate said membrane separation devices and said microwave plasma reactor, and delivering said stream of Syngas as a feedstock directly to a F-T reactor which is operated to create liquid hydrocarbons, heat and tail gases.