PROCESS OF PRODUCING A REDUCING GAS

摘要

A reducing gas containing essentially carbon monoxide and hydrogen and only small amounts of water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane is produced by reacting a normally liquid, volatile hydrocarbon with water vapor in two stages under superatmospheric pressure in the presence of nickel-containing catalysts. The improvement of the invention involves adding from 0.02 to 0.1 standard cubic meter of hydrogen per kilogram hydrocarbon to the hydrocarbons to be gasified, subjecting the resulting mixture to a hydrogenation desulfurization and, after adding up to 1.6 kilogram water vapor per kilogram hydrocarbon, reacting said mixture in a one-part first gasification stage at temperatures of 350 DEG -550 DEG C. in the presence of a catalyst containing from 35-70% by weight nickel on a magnesium-containing support thereby producing a high-methane gas which is reacted further in a second stage at temperatures above 850 DEG C. in contact with an indirectly heated heat resistant nickel catalyst.