Natural gas steam reforming

From these considerations it can be concluded that, at the actual membrane state-of-the-art, SMR is the leading architecture for membrane safety, for the possibility of increasing reaction temperature up to value equal to 650 °C for natural gas steam reforming and for its maintenance easiness. Surely, a future improvement of membrane performance, mainly for stability, would promote the applications of IMRs. 

In the next paragraph some applications of both configurations are reported and evaluated for the main hydrogen production processes. 

The milder condition makes it possible to locate membrane assisted reformer downstream of a gas turbine with a consequent reduction in energy saving. An interesting application of membrane steam reforming reactor to co-generative systems was reported by laquaniello et The process layout is shown in 

In this application, the high pressure retentate is directly routed to a gas turbine and its exhausts can be used to supply the reforming duty, preheat other process services and raise steam with minimum post-combustion firing. 

A two step reformer and membrane modules (RMM) test plant having the capacity of 20 N m h has been designed and constructed to investigate at an industrial scale level the potentialities of this kind of architecture. At a reaction temperature of 620 °C, steam to carbon ratio of 4.8 and a membrane temperature of 430 °C, an overall yield of 59% is achieved. By properly 

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Spath, P. and M. Mann, Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrogen Production via Natural Gas Steam Reforming, Technical Report, NREL, NREL/TP-570-27637,2000. 

Hydrogen availability is an important issue and refiners must be persuaded that gasification will prove to be as reliable a technology in the future as natural gas steam reforming is today. Many refineries produce sufficient pet coke to more than satisfy refinery hydrogen requirements. This would allow co-production of hydrogen and power or F-T liquids. 

In addition to natural gas, steam reformers can be used on light hydrocarbons such as butane and propane and on naphtha with a special catalyst. Steam reforming reactions are highly endothermic and need a significant heat source. Often the residual fuel exiting the fuel cell is burned to supply this requirement. Fuels are typically reformed at temperatures of 760 to 980°C (1,400 to 1,800°F). 

Mini Electricity Generation with SOFC. Development of 1 to 2 kW SOFC for application in distributed generation. The process for hydrogen production is natural gas steam reforming. 

In evaluation of the potential objects which are to define respective options to be taken into a consideration there are 99 objects. In this exercise we will focus our attention on the following hydrogen energy systems Fossil-Reforming-Intemal Combustion Engine System, Natural Gas Steam Reforming-Fuel Cell System, Nuclear Power-Electrolysis-Fuel Cell System, Solar Power-Electrolysis-Fuel Cell System, Wind Power-Electrolysis-Fuel Cell System, Biomass-Reforming-Gas Turbine System. 

The major units of the Aspen-HYSYS simulation for natural gas steam reforming based fuel cell system are presented in Figure 3. 

Fortunately, efforts in addition to those of DOE are being implemented. The Tennessee Valley Authority is sponsoring the construction of an entrained flow gasifier to operate at elevated pressure and to provide synthesis gas to their small Ammonia Plant at Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Ironically, this ammonia plant was originally built using coke-fed water gas sets for synthesis gas production. It was converted to use natural gas steam reforming when cheap natural gas became available. The use of coal will provide valuable data on MBG production and purification. 

Natural gas steam reforming (with optional carbon capture and storage) ... 

Figure 3.3. Schematic representation of natural gas steam reforming...

This paper analyzes the sources of hydrogen for ammonia production, presents the feed and fuel requirements of the natural gas steam reforming process, estimates the relative economics of alternate feedstocks and briefly discusses the outlook for the ammonia industry. 

Natural Gas Steam Reforming Residuum Partial Oxidation Coal K-T Gasification New... 

By far the most widespread method of producing synthesis gas for methanol production today is via steam reforming of naphtha and lighter hydrocarbons. The process routes for both natural gas steam reforming and naphtha reforming are virtually identical, so we shall consider only natural gas reforming. Since the ICI LP methanol process was... 

Feedstock (process) Natural gas (steam reforming) Vacuum residue (partial oxidation) Coal (partial oxidation)... 

Spath, P., Mann, M. (2001). Life cycle assesment of hydrogen production via natural gas steam reforming. Revised USDoE contract report NREL/TP-570-27637, National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO. 

M. Oertel, J. Schmitz. W. Weinrich. D. Jendryssek-Neuman, and R. Schulten. Hydrogen preparation by natural gas steam reforming with integrated hydrogen separation, Chem. Eng. Technol. 70 248 (1987). 

Derivation (1) Reaction of steam with natural gas (steam reforming) and subsequent purification (2) partial oxidation of hydrocarbons to carbon monoxide and interaction of carbon monoxide and steam (3) gasification of coal (see Note 1) (4) dissociation of ammonia (5) thermal or catalytic decomposition of hydrocarbon gases (6) catalytic reforming of naphtha (7) reaction of iron and steam (8) catalytic reaction of methanol and steam (9) electrolysis of water (see Note 2). In view of the importance of hydrogen as a major energy source of the future, development of the most promising of these methods may be expected. 

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