Simultaneous analysis of hydrogen productivity and thermal efficiency of hydrogen production process using steam reforming via integrated process design and 3D CFD modeling

Abstract

Steam methane reforming (SMR) is a widely adopted method for H2 production due to its advantages in the maturity of technology and economic feasibility. Since the optimization of an SMR reactor in the overall H2 production process is important to reduce energy loss and increase productivity, the analysis of the reactor is essential. However, in order to increase the efficiency of the entire H2 production process, it is necessary to analyze the entire process in an integrated manner rather than focusing on an SMR reactor. To this end, we develop a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the SMR reactor and integrate it with the H2 production process based on experimental data, to simultaneously evaluate the H2 productivity and process thermal efficiency. The reactor yield and process efficiency according to operating conditions were evaluated by combining the exact rate of heat transfer of the SMR reactor into process simulation. The integration model achieved higher accuracy of modeling the process than the individual modeling of the SMR reactor and the H2 production process. From the parametric study via the integration model, the most advantageous set of operating conditions of the H2 production process is proposed.