Production of Reducing Gases from Petroleum Products by the Shell Gasification Process

The development of processes for the direct reduction of iron ore with gaseous agents has been stimulated by two main factors, viz. the increasing demand for steel all over the world and the local shortage of suitable coal for the manufacture of metallurgical coke. The economic necessity to switch from coal to another source of carbon monoxide and hydrogen has also been felt in other than metallurgical industries, The rapidly increasing demand for water as as basic material for processes such as the production of town gas, the synthesis of methanol and a ammonia, the hydrogenation and hydrodesulphurization of petroleum fractions, and the hydrogenation of vegetable oils has resulted in an increasingly important call upon oil as a raw material in the production of gas for use in industry