Hydrogen production capacity of membrane reformer for methane steam reforming near practical working conditions

Analysis of Parameters of High-Purity Hydrogen Production from Methane in a Laboratory-Scale Membrane Reformer with an Ultrathin Palladium Membrane

“…Application of model representations for calculating the basic technological and design parameters of a high-effi ciency membrane reformer with a 41.8 m 3 H 2 /h production capacity for feeding a 50 kW battery of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) with hydrogen is illustrated on a project example. Keywords: modeling, membrane reformer, high-purity hydrogen.Formulation of theoretical and experimental principles of high-purity hydrogen (HPH) production from products of steam reforming of methane and other hydrocarbons using thin palladium and palladium-alloy membranes has been drawing increasing attention [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. In [3], the flow characteristics of a pilot membrane reformer (MR) with up to 40 m 3 /h production capacity and a mixture of steam and natural gas as the feedstock [5] is described quantitatively using a mathematical model [4] that takes account of hydrogen flux through the membrane and chemical reactions in the gas phase.…”

“…Formulation of theoretical and experimental principles of high-purity hydrogen (HPH) production from products of steam reforming of methane and other hydrocarbons using thin palladium and palladium-alloy membranes has been drawing increasing attention [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. In [3], the flow characteristics of a pilot membrane reformer (MR) with up to 40 m 3 /h production capacity and a mixture of steam and natural gas as the feedstock [5] is described quantitatively using a mathematical model [4] that takes account of hydrogen flux through the membrane and chemical reactions in the gas phase.…”

“…In this work, the model [4] was used to analyze the experimental data [6,7] obtained on a laboratory MR with an ultrathin (thickness 4 μm) membrane of pure palladium.…”

“…The hydrogen-lean multicomponent gas mixture was removed from the annular space as waste gas through the outlet B. The hydrogen diffused through the palladium membrane into the low-pressure chamber (LPC) and together with the purge gas (Ar) DOI 10.1007/s10556-015-0032-1 was removed from the MR through the outlet D. The purge gas was injected into the MR through the inlet C to reduce the partial pressure of the hydrogen in the LPC for accelerating the membrane extraction process [6].…”

“…The graphically depicted experimental temperature dependencies of the density of the hydrogen flux J H 2 diffusing through the membrane in the 450-550°C range were analyzed by mathematical modeling [6]. The experiments in the laboratory MR were conducted in [6] at a fixed absolute pressure P h = 0.9 MPa in the HPC of the MR and at a constant purge gas to methane flow ratio I = Q Ar / Q CH 4 = 2.6. For calculations, the volume flow rates of the initial CH 4 -3H 2 O mixture was kept constant and equal to Q 0 = 0.019 m 3 /h, and the partial pressure of the hydrogen in the LPC of the MR was p H = 0.055 MPa.…”