This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or wcfulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any spccific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, m o mmendirtion, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.
DISCLAIMERPortions of this document may be illegible electronic image products. Images are produced from the best available original document.
SummaryPhase I of the Air ProductsDOE Sorption Enhanced Reaction Project is complete, and the technical accomplishments are summarized in this report. The work was carried out to develop a more efficient process, termed the sorption enhanced reaction process (HzSERP), for producing hydrogen via steam methane reforming.An effective C02 adsorbent consisting of a mixed metal oxide promoted with potassium carbonate (K2CO$HTC) has been developed which satisfies initial capacity, stability, and kinetic goals. In addition, the adsorbent is compatible with the H2-SER catalyst, and the carbonate phase is not leachable in a steam environment. Production of this material has been scaled up to the kg range. Future efforts will be focused on developing second-generation materials (new classes or modifications of KzC03/HTC) exhibiting improved capacity, kinetics, or isotherm shape.. The H2-SERPconcept has been experimentally demonstrated. It is clear that including a C02 adsorbent along with the S M R catalyst enhances the methane conversion to products and improves the hydrogen purity of the effluent gas. The best performance thus far has been obtained for a 1 :3 adsorbent (K2CO3/HTC)/prereformer catalyst system operated at 45OoC, 55 psig, and with a feed consisting of 11% C& / 89% H20. For a 95% H2 product, the methane conversion for the SEW system is 68%. The conversion and H2 purity of a conventional catalyst-only system operated at these conditions are only 34% and 57%, respectively, based on thermodynamic calculations. Increasing the reactor temperature and steadmethane ratio improves the performance of the system. Future experiments are designed to extend the reaction step pressure range to 250 psig and to make efforts to quantify the desorption step. A second cyclic experimental unit based on two-bed operation is under design and will be used to answer questions that cannot be resolved with the current unit.A process simulator has been developed and will be applied to the H2-SERP system. Economic analysis of a preliminar...
