Patent ID: 6872379

Claim:
A method for continuously reforming a liquid fuel as part of an ongoing production process comprising: providing the liquid fuel and a gas containing an inert component and an O 2 component; forming a fuel/gas mixture with the liquid fuel and the gas by dispersing the liquid fuel in a flow of the gas; discharging the liquid fuel/gas mixture through a nozzle and creating a relatively lower pressure in the liquid fuel/gas mixture at a discharge side of the nozzle; vaporizing the liquid fuel in the fuel/gas mixture to thereby form a vaporized fuel/gas mixture; subjecting the vaporized fuel/gas mixture to partial oxidation and a reformation process by heterogeneous catalysis in a catalyst support to thereby generate a heated synthesized gas containing an O 2 component; dividing the synthesized gas into a product flow and a return flow; cooling the return flow to lower the temperature of the synthesized gas therein; and using the relatively low pressure at the discharge side of the nozzle for flowing the return flow towards the discharge side of the nozzle to thereby mix the return flow with and cause a heating of the liquid fuel/gas mixture and facilitate vaporization of the liquid fuel.