Treatment of municipal solid waste by the HYDROCARB process

The HYDROCARB Process addresses the problem of converting municipal solid waste (MSW) to a clean useable fuel for boilers and heat engines. The process consists of hydrogenation of the biomass to produce methane, followed by decomposition of the methane to carbon and hydrogen and combining the CO and H2 to produce methanol and recycling the hydrogen-rich process gas. Using natural gas to make up the mass balance, the economics looks attractive for a 3.000 T/D MSW plant, especially when avoidance costs are taken into account. The process is environmentally attractive since processing is performed in a highly reducing atmosphere and at elevated pressure and temperatures where no toxic gases are expected and CO2 emission is minimized