High Efficiency and Low-Cost Reforming to Produce Hydrogen

78317S 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 exchangers tubes. Further, the tubes are extraordinarily expensive because they are high nickel alloys that cost ten times as much as carbon steel and have thick walls to withstand high temperatures (up to 900¿C) and high pressures (400-500 psi). Reducing the cost of hydrogen production is an essential part of creating the hydrogen economy. Instead of combustion in a fired-furnace reformer, this project will develop a more efficient direct-heat-transfer burner inside a reactor to provide the heat for the endothermic reforming reaction. The cost of producing hydrogen will be dramatically reduced, primarily by significantly reducing the capital cost of the reforming plant, while at the same time reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Phase I will demonstrate how natural gas can be reformed efficiently using direct combustion heat transfer to provide the energy for reforming. Also, the technical and economic feasibility of this process will be demonstrated. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: U.S. demand for hydrogen is now about nine million tons per year, and growing rapidly. The new reforming technology should signficantly reduce the cost of generating hydrogen from natural gas with no change to the conversion efficiency and with far less carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere.