2022 Annual Meeting
Techno-Economic Optimization of a Palladium Membrane Reactor for Steam Methane Reforming Industrial Process
Traditional hydrogen (H2) production via steam methane reforming (SMR) requires significant heat duty and emissions to achieve reasonable conversions and H2 yields. An alternative, yet novel, SMR technology is a palladium membrane reactor in place of the reformer and water gas shift units. Multiple studies showed high thermal efficiency and product yields in a membrane reactor due to the continuous removal of H2 from the system. However, few studies analyzed the membrane reactorâs overall performance inside a traditional SMR process flowsheet. This study integrates a counter-current palladium membrane reactor into steam methane reforming (SMR-MR) in replace of the reformer and water gas shift units. The plant is simulated in tandem with a conventional SMR plant for production rates of 100,000 Nm3/hr of 99.9% H2 product. Techno-economic optimizations are performed on the SMR-MR and conventional plants, subject to pollutant and design-related nonlinear constraints. The results indicate the increased thermal efficiency of the SMR-MR plant lowers the overall energy demand of the process. Conversely, the membrane reactor demands larger pressure gradients, resulting in increased downstream compression costs. For membrane lifetimes of 1-3 years, the SMR-MR total annual costs (TAC) are competitive with the conventional plant. This is attributed to the increased thermal efficiency of the process, which lowers the overall demand on fuel and material costs. With further development to lower the high palladium costs, the SMR-MR becomes a promising substitute technology in steam methane reforming.