Steam methane reforming membrane

Steam methane reforming with polymeric membrane for hydrogen production. 

Adhs. A.M., 1994, A Fluidized Bed Membrane Reactor for Steam Methane Reforming Experimental Verification and Model Validation, Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. 

In the conceptual design, the nuclear plant is a type of SFR, mixed oxide fuel, sodium cooled with power output of 240 MWt for producing 200 000 Nm /h. The schematic diagram of nuclear-heated recirculation-type membrane reformer is shown in Figure 15. The hydrogen production cost of this process is assessed to be competitive with those of the conventional, natural gas burning, steam methane reformer plants. 

In recent years, new concepts to produce hydrogen by methane SR have been proposed to improve the performance in terms of capital costs reducing with respect to the conventional process. In particular, different forms of in situ hydrogen separation, coupled to reaction system, have been studied to improve reactant conversion and/or product selectivity by shifting of thermodynamic positions of reversible reactions towards a more favourable equilibrium of the overall reaction under conventional conditions, even at lower temperatures. Several membrane reactors have been investigated for methane SR in particular based on thin palladium membranes [14]. More recently, the sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming (Se-SMR) has been proposed as innovative method able to separate CO2 in situ by addition of selective sorbents and simultaneously enhance the reforming reaction [15]. 

A. M. Adris, C. J. Urn, J. R. Grace, The fluidized bed membrane reactor for steam methane reforming Model verification and parametric study, Chem. Eng. Sci. 1997, 52, 1609-1622. 

I. A. Abba, J. R. Grace and H. T. Bi, Application of the generic fluidized-bed reactor model to the fluidized-bed membrane reactor process for steam methane reforming with oxygen input, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2003, 42, 2736-2745. 

A membrane reformer equipped with palladium membrane modules for in situ hydrogen separation is a compact, simple and highly efficient hydrogen production system, and an improvement in these respects on the conventional steam methane reformer. In addition, CO2 in the off-gas of a membrane reformer can be easily separated and captured by direct liquefaction, owing to the high concentration of COj. 

A selective membrane device can be integrated into a reaction environment in two different ways directly inside the reaction environment, or assembled in a series of reaction units according to an open architecture. In the following sections, these two configurations are described and evaluated with a steam methane reforming reaction used as an example to elucidate benefits and drawbacks. 

Li A, Lim C J and Grace J R (2008), Staged-separation membrane reactor for steam methane reforming , Chem EngJ, 138,452-459. 

Andres, M. B., Chen, Z., Grace, J. R., Elnashaie, S. S. E. H., Jim Lim, C., Rakib, M., et al. (2009). Comparison of fluidized bed flow regimes for steam methane reforming in membrane reactors a simulation study. Chemical Engineering Science, 64, 3598—3613. Ayturk, M. E., Kazantzis, N. K., Ma, Y. H. (2009). Modeling and performance assessment of Pd- and Pd/Au-based catalytic membrane reactors for hydrogen production. Energy Environmental Science, 2, 430—438. 

Roses, L., Gallucci, F., Manzolini, G., van Sint Annaland, M. (2013). Experimental study of steam methane reforming in a Pd-based fluidized bed membrane reactor. Chemical Engineering Journal, 222, 307—320. Scopus Exact. 

Ye, G., Xie, D., Qiao, W., Grace, J. R., Lim, C. J. (2009). Modeling of fluidized bed membrane reactors for hydrogen production from steam methane reforming with Aspen Plus. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 34, 4755—4762. 

Figure 3.3 Schematic representation of hydrogen permeation through dense proton-conducting membrane obtained from steam methane reforming (Kniep et al., 2011).

Fig. 24. Operating principle of a membrane reactor for steam methane reforming.

Chen ZX, Po F, Grace JR, et al Sorbent-enhanced/membrane-assisted steam-methane reforming, Chem Eng Sd 63 170-182, 2008. 

Barelli, L., G. Bidini, R Gallorini, and S. Servili. 2008. Hydrogen production through sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming and membrane technology A review. Energy 33 554 70. 

Mahecha-Botero, A., Chen, Z., Grace, J.R. et al. (2009) Comparison of fluidized bed flow regimes for steam methane reforming in membrane reactors A simulation study. Chemical Engineering Science, 64, 3598-3613. 

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