Patent ID: 7491250

Claim:
A cyclic reforming and re-heating process comprising: (a) reforming a hydrocarbon by introducing at least a portion of said hydrocarbon along with steam and optionally CO 2 , through a first end of a first zone having a first volume containing bed packing materials and catalyst to produce a synthesis gas product; (b) passing at least a portion of the product of step (a) to a second zone having a second volume containing bed packing materials, and transferring sensible heat from the product to the packing materials; (c) removing substantially all of the product from said second zone; (d) introducing an oxygen-containing gas into a first end of said second zone; and (e) contacting said oxygen-containing gas with a fuel and combusting said gas and fuel within said zones, thereby re-heating said first zone to reforming temperatures and creating a fluegas which exits through the first end of said first zone, where each of steps (a) and (b) are done at a space velocity C 1 GHSV of at least 500 hr −1 as calculated using a combined volume of the first and second zones.