KTI's innovative reformer design for Hydrogen and Syngas Plant

Abstract

The hydrogen and syngas market is in a continuous grow due to the increasing demand by the chemical, petrochemical, metallurgical and the electronic industries and by the petroleum refineries. More recently there has been a surge of interest in the conversion of natural gas to high value liquid products ranging from heavy lubes and waxes to premium transportation fuels. The technologies available for hydrogen and syngas production are steam reforming of hydrocarbons, non catalytic partial oxidation, and catalytic partial oxidation or autothermal reforming. Partial oxidation and autothermal reforming are based on the use of oxygen which could be replaced by the air in future when the ceramic membrane reactors will be technically and economically viables. However at the present the use of oxygen poses safety problems in addition to its cost. The partial oxidation and the autothermal reforming are attractive especially for syngas, when oxygen can be available at low cost or are used in combination with steam reforming. Steam reforming is the most mature and predominant technology and the 95% of current hydrogen and syngas production is based on the steam reforming of hydrocarbons. In response to market increased demand, KTI is introducing technology innovations which permit to decrease operating and capital cost of the hydrogen/syngas production units. These innovations, which will be illustrated and discussed in this paper, resulted in the development of the HER (Heat Exchanger Reformer) and of the ART (Advanced Reforming Technology) and are focused in the reformer area which is the heart of the hydrogen and syngas plant