Hydrogen Production (SMR)

General process description overview

The hydrogen generating plant is designed to produce a high purity hydrogen stream from natural gas. Hydrogen is produceed by catalytically reforming natural gas and superheated steam at elevated temperatures in the vertical cylindrical reformer furnace. More hydrogen is produced by reaction of carbon monoxide and steam in the shift converter. Impurities such as carbon monoxide, methane, carbon dioxide and water vappor are removed by the unique adsorption system, thus producing ultra pure hydrogen.
The design feed stock and fuel for the SMR is natural gas which is composed of methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, ethane, propane, n-Buthane, n-penthane and hexane. The feed stock is provided from off site source and enters the process at 8.0 Bar.
The natural gas supply presure is to low and therefore hat to be increased by using the compressor. After compression the pressure is increased to 18.0 Bar. A side stream of this natural gas is reduced again in pressure to supply a portion of fuel for the reformer burners.
The feed gas flows first through the hydrotreater catalyst bed of the hydrodesulfurizer, where in the presence of a catalyst and at the correct temperature the organic sulfur compounds and olefins will be converted.
The feed gas the flows through the desulfurizer catalyst bed hydrodesulfurizer, where in the presence of a catalyst and temperature removed all of the H2S. The feed gas is then mixed with superheated steam before entering the reformer catalyst tubes.
In the redformer catalyst tubes, the hydrocarbon and steam are heated further and reacted in the presence of a catalyst to produce a mixture of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, watter and methane. The hot process gasses exiting the reformer flow to the Reformer Effluent Steam Generator Waste Heater, where steam is produced and the outlet process gas temperature is controlled by the inlet operating temperature of the Shift Converter Vessel.
From the Reformer Effluent Steam Generator, the process gas flows through the Shift Converter where steam and carbon monoxide react in the presence of a catalyst to form more hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
From the Shift Converter the process gas flows to the Feed Heat Exchanger where the process is cooled down while heating up the feed gas.
After exiting the Feed heat Exchanger the process gas flows to the Shift Effluent Waste Heat Boiler where the process gas is cooled down while producing steam.
From the Shift Effluent Waste Heat Boiler the process gas passes through the Boiler Feed Water Heater. The Purpose of this heater is to heat up teh boiler feed water and continue cooling down the Process gas.
From the Boiler Feed Water Exchenger the process gas flows through the Deaerator Water Heater where the process gas cooled down while heating the return condensate and the make-up water to the Deaerator Vessel.
The Process Gas flows from the Deaerator Water Heater through the Process Gas Cooler where the process gas is cooled and the water vapor is condensed and then into the Cold Condensate Separator where the condensate is removed before the process gas enters the Pressure Swing Adsorption system.
The purification system uses the adsorption process to prodeuce a high purity hydrogen product. In an adsorption process, the impure hydrogen is purified as it flows through an adsorbed filled with adsorbent. The adsorbent is granular material which attracts and traps the impurities from the crude hhydrogen. The Hydrogenpurification system uses alumina, activated carbon and molecular sieve to selectively adsord all the impurities present in the hydrogen rich gas.