Patent ID: 7381230

Claim:
A process for the production of synthesis gas from a feedstream comprising a hydrocarbon-containing gas and an oxygen-containing gas, comprising: (A) providing a reactor system comprising a shell that is housing an outer chamber, a first reaction zone, a second reaction zone, and an inter-bed zone, wherein the inter-bed zone is disposed between said first and second reaction zones, wherein the outer chamber envelops at least a portion of the inter-bed zone, and further wherein an inner reactor wall divides said outer chamber and said enveloped portion of the inter-bed zone, and allows fluid communication and heat transfer between said inter-bed zone and said outer chamber; (B) feeding a combustion feed to the first reaction zone comprising a combustion catalyst, wherein the combustion feed comprises oxygen and a fuel with a fuel-to-oxygen molar ratio equal to or greater than the stoichiometric fuel-to-oxygen molar ratio for combustion of said fuel; (C) contacting the combustion feed with the combustion catalyst under conditions sufficient to combust at least a portion of the fuel with more than 99% of O 2 conversion so as to generate combustion heat and form a combustion effluent which exits said first reaction zone and enters said inter-bed zone while carrying at least some of the combustion heat; (D) feeding a reaction feed comprising a hydrocarbon gas and oxygen to the outer chamber; (E) heating said reaction feed in said outer chamber with some of the combustion heat which is transferred from said inter-bed zone to said outer chamber; (F) passing said heated reaction feed from said outer chamber to said inter-bed zone through said inner reactor wall; (G) mixing the combustion effluent and the heated reaction feed downstream of the first reaction zone in a feed mix region of the inter-bed zone to form a syngas feed comprising said combustion effluent, oxygen, and said hydrocarbon gas; (H) feeding the syngas feed to the second reaction zone comprising a partial oxidation catalyst; and (I) contacting the syngas feed with the partial oxidation catalyst at conditions sufficient to partially oxidize the hydrocarbon gas to form a product stream comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide.