Electric-powered, closed-loop, continuous-feed, endothermic energy conversion systems and methods

1. A system for converting energy comprising:

a controller;

a reactor having inner walls operated by the controller;

a shaftless auger in the reactor, the shaftless auger adapted to rotate in contact with the inner walls of the reactor; and

a heater surrounding the reactor and the shaftless auger.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the heater is a multi-zone heater that provides plural individually controlled heating zones within the reactor.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the heater is a catalytic heater.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reactor is formed of carbon steel, stainless steel, or a specialized alloy.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the specialized alloy is Inconel.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the shaftless auger is a single penetration auger.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a scale;

a mixer;

a feedstock hopper metering stage;

an infeed sensor; and

an airlock, wherein the scale, the mixer, the feedstock hopper metering stage, and the infeed senor form a closed loop with the reactor.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the feedstock hopper metering stage includes a dryer.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the dryer is a bed dryer adapted for conduction drying.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the dryer is a bed dryer adapted for convection drying in combination with the conduction drying.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein said feedstock hopper metering stage includes metered sorbents and reagents adapted to pretreat feedstock prior to the feedstock being advanced to the reactor.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein said metered sorbents and reagents include finely milled lime, trona, bentonite, sodium bentonite, sodium, or sodium bicarbonate.

13. The system of claim 7 , wherein the infeed sensor is adapted to control feedstock bed depth and rate prior to feedstock being advanced to the reactor.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the infeed sensor includes a positive flow advancement sensor.

15. The system of claim 7 , wherein the airlock includes a conical auger adapted to remove air from feedstock prior to the feedstock advancing to the reactor.

16. The system of claim 7 , wherein the closed loop further comprises the components of:

a vapor pre-heating stage;

a ceramic hot gas filter;

a first quench stage;

a multi-tube plunging condenser;

a second quench stage;

a primary compensator with an associated primary recirculator;

a secondary compensator with an associated secondary recirculator;

a vacuum buffer tank;

a regulator;

a vacuum pump;

a syngas buffer tank; and

a catalytic scrub.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the primary and secondary compensators, the vacuum buffer tank, the vacuum pump, and the syngas buffer tank are adapted to maintain a pressure within the reactor.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the vacuum pump includes a liquid ring compressor adapted to cool vapor advancing from the reactor as it is being compressed.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the reactor includes an automated plunging system having multi-vapor discharge nozzles.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the multi-vapor discharge nozzles are integrated with the ceramic hot gas filter, the primary and secondary quenching stages, the multi-tube plunging condenser, or any combination thereof.

21. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a pressure transition component adapted to allow continuous flow transition of vapor advancing from the reactor from positive to negative pressure.