NONCATALYTIC PARTIAL OXIDATION OF SOUR NATURAL-GAS

There is a need to convert the natural gas reserves available in Saudi Arabia to value-added products preferably transportable products (fue ls) and/or chemicals. The proposed method makes use of what is known a s non-catalytic partial oxidation of sour natural gas. The method offe rs a promising alternative in utilizing surplus natural gas inexpressi bly by eliminating the costly gas sweetening process needed for conven tional steam-reforming. The work presented in this paper is carried ou t to validate the technical feasibility of the proposed process. Preli minary results are reported using computer-aided process simulation so ftware. (C) 1998 International Association for Hydrogen Energy.