After 30 years of intensive research and development, the German scientist and catalyst-specialist Dr. Christian Koch discovered a spectacular breakthrough in energy conversion.
His process is the first to produce economical and environmentally friendly energy production, using a wide variety of waste products and renewable resources as feedstock.
PROCESS BACKGROUND
Depolymerization is a process for the reduction of complex organic materials (usually waste products of various sorts, often known as biomass) into hydrocarbons or mineral diesel fuellight crude oil. It mimics the natural geological processes thought to be involved in the production of fossil fuels. Under pressure and heat, long chain polymers of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon decompose into short-chain petroleum hydrocarbons with a maximum length of around 18 carbons.
The depolymerization process for fuel production from organic materials takes two forms:, thermal and catalytic.
The thermal depolymerization process that does not use a catalyst has a variety of limitations. The process only breaks long molecules into shorter ones. Longer molecules are not created, so short molecules such as carbon dioxide or methane cannot be converted to oil through this process. In addition, since the thermal depolymerization approach requires temperatures much greater than 400o C, there is the risk of producing toxic byproducts such as dioxins and furans in addition to carbon dioxide and methane.
Dr. Christian Koch was focused oin environment-friendly solutions and decided to move in the direction of the catalytic depolymerization.
CATALYTIC DEPOLYMERIZATION
The catalytic depolymerization process (CDP) is a depolymerization process that occurs at a relatively low temperature and low pressure. Due to the low temperature, a catalyst is required to crack the hydrocarbon molecule. The process requires a temperature above around 270o oC and the use of an ion exchange catalyst. However, if the temperature is kept below 400o oC, production of carbon dioxide, dioxins, and furans is avoided.
The catalytic approach is preferable to the thermal approach. The thermal approach latter requires substantial energy input to reach required temperature, a reactor that can withstand high pressures, and further processing to deal with toxic byproducts.
Using the Alphakat catalyst, the catalytic approach requires only a temperature greater than around 270o oC and proper mixing to insure complete reaction of the feedstock with the catalyst.