Production of hydrogen (H2) from hydrocarbon (HC) feedstocks, by steam reforming.
Feedstocks: Ranging from natural gas to heavy naphtha as well as potential refinery offgases. Many recent refinery hydrogen plants have multiple feedstock flexibility, either in terms of back-up or alternative or mixed feed. Automatic feedstock change-over has also successfully been applied by TECHNIP in several modern plants with multiple feedstock flexibility.
The generic flowsheet consists of feed pretreatment, pre-reforming (optional), steam-HC reforming, shift conversion and hydrogen purification by pressure swing adsorption (PSA). However, it is often tailored to satisfy specific requirements. Feed pretreatment normally involves removal of sulfur, chlorine and other catalyst poisons after preheating to 350°C to 400°C.
The treated feed gas mixed with process steam is reformed in a fired reformer (with adiadatic prereformer upstream, if used) after necessary superheating. The net reforming reactions are strongly endothermic. Heat is supplied by combusting PSA purge gas, supplemented by makeup fuel in multiple burners in a top-fired furnace.
Reforming severity is optimized for each specific case. Waste heat from reformed gas is recovered through steam generation before the water-gas shift conversion. Most of the carbon monoxide is further converted to hydrogen. Process condensate resulting from heat recovery and cooling is separated and generally reused in the steam system after necessary treatment. The entire steam generation is usually on natural circulation, which adds to higher reliability. The gas flows to the PSA unit that provides high-purity hydrogen product (up to < 1ppm CO) at near inlet pressures. Typical specific energy consumption based on feed + fuel – export steam ranges between 3.0 and 3.5 Gcal/KNm3 (330–370 Btu/ scf) LHV, depending upon feedstock, plant capacity, optimization criteria and steam-export requirements. Recent advances include integration of hydrogen recovery and generation, recuperative (post-)reforming also for capacity retrofits. Licensor: Technip
