Patent ID: 8771387

Claim:
A chemical reactor driven by radiant heat with an exit temperature of product gases greater than 900 degrees C., comprising: a radiant heat-driven chemical reactor having multiple reactor tubes located inside a cavity of a thermal receiver configured to gasify particles of biomass in a presence of steam (H2O) to produce a low CO2 synthesis gas that includes hydrogen, carbon monoxide gas, and less than 7% CO2 by total volume generated in a gasification reaction of the particles of biomass using thermal energy from the radiant heat, where the chemical reactor is in fluid communication with a source of the steam, wherein the multiple reactor tubes and the thermal receiver are configured to cooperate such that heat is radiantly transferred to the particles of biomass in order to provide enough energy required for the gasification reaction of the particles of biomass to drive the gasification reaction primarily with radiant heat to produce the low CO2 synthesis gas; a steam reformer in fluid communication with a source of methane-based gas, where the steam reformer is configured to produce reformate that includes hydrogen and carbon monoxide gas; a mixer in fluid communication with the chemical reactor and steam reformer that is configured for mixing of the reformate and biomass gasification products to produce a combined low CO2 synthesis gas having a molar H2:CO ratio of between 2.0-3.0, as well as eliminates any need for a component downstream of the chemical reactor to perform a water-gas-shift reaction; an on-site fuel synthesis reactor in fluid communication with an outlet of the mixer; a lock hopper containing the particles of biomass; and a splitting device configured to supply the particles of biomass from the lock hopper to two or more feed lines in an entrained-flow biomass feed system, wherein the entrained-flow biomass feed system is configured to use an entrainment carrier gas to move the particles of biomass into the radiant heat driven chemical reactor, where the two or more feed lines are configured to supply the particles of biomass having an average smallest dimension the particles of equal to or less than 2000 um to the chemical reactor.