Patent ID: 8915981

Claim:
A method for producing methane from biomass comprising the steps of: a) hydropyrolyzing biomass in a hydropyrolysis reactor vessel containing molecular hydrogen and a deoxygenating catalyst, producing a hydropyrolysis product comprising char and vapors; b) separating said char from said hydropyrolysis product, producing a reduced char hydropyrolysis product; c) hydroconverting said reduced char hydropyrolysis product in a hydroconversion reactor vessel using a hydroconversion catalyst, producing a hydroconversion product; d) separating from said hydroconversion product condensed liquid water and a gaseous mixture comprising CO 2 , H 2 , and methane, wherein said gaseous mixture is free from char; and e) introducing at least a first portion of said gaseous mixture as a feed to a steam reformer, producing reformer CO 2 and reformer H 2 , and f) introducing at least a second portion of said gaseous mixture to a methanation reactor, forming additional methane, wherein both hydropyrolyzing step a) and hydroconverting step c) are exothermic.