Patent ID: 7048772

Claim:
Process for secondary reforming comprising the steps of: feeding a gas flow comprising oxygen in a combustion chamber through a feeding duct of a burner; feeding a gas flow comprising hydrocarbons in said combustion chamber through a substantially annular passage defined externally to said feeding duct along a predetermined direction; mixing and reacting said gas flow comprising oxygen with said gas flow comprising hydrocarbons inside said combustion chamber, obtaining a gas flow comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide; feeding said gas flow comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide to a catalytic bed which lies below said combustion chamber for carrying out a steam reforming reaction; wherein the process comprises the steps of: feeding said gas flow comprising oxygen in said combustion chamber in the form of a plurality of jets generated by corresponding parallel streamtubes having equal velocity within the gas flow comprising hydrocarbons, the jets being spaced from each other; and mixing in said combustion chamber the gas flow comprising oxygen with amounts of gas flow comprising hydrocarbons at local constant ratio.