High Efficiency, Low-Cost Reforming to Produce Hydrogen

Current natural gas reforming plants that produce hydrogen are expensive because of the large capital cost associated with the reformers. The heat required to drive the reforming reaction is transferred in a fired-furnace through heat exchanger tubes. These tubes are extraordinarily expensive because they are high nickel alloys, which cost ten times as much as carbon steel, and have thick walls to run at high temperatures (up to 900 °C) and high pressures (400-500 psi). In addition, the efficiency of current reformers is limited by the temperature at which they operate, which is in turn limits the operating temperature of the reformer tubes. This project will develop a steam reforming system for the production of hydrogen, which uses direct combustion to generate heat reforming, instead of using combustion in a fired-furnace reformer. In Phase I, experimental research, system design, and cost analysis studies were used to show that the new hydrogen-generation approach can reduce capital cost, increase methane conversion efficiency, and reduce the cost of hydrogen. In Phase II, a new test apparatus will be built to demonstrate the performance of the entire system. Also, a full system design and an economic analysis for a large-scale plant operation will be conducted. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: The new process should reduce the cost of hydrogen from natural gas, while increasing efficiency and emitting far less carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. U.S. demand for hydrogen is now about nine million tons per year, and growing rapidly.