Addressing the increasing demand for hydrogen in refining industry while limiting the associated CO2 emissions(PPT)

摘要

The refining industry uses more and more hydrogen to get the low sulfur products and the conversion level required by the market. The heavy oil production, the erosion of heavy fuels, inland demand, and the global trend for cleaner product makes the oil refining industry account for half of the total hydrogen worldwide production, far ahead of the second larger consumer-ammonia. A similar trend is expected for the next 20 years. This trend implies increased investments and increased CO2 emissions. To face the hydrogen demand while limiting the associated costs and CO2 emissions, IFPEN has developed an innovative process to produce hydrogen. This new process and technology for hydrogen production by SMR at large capacity is called HyGenSys~(TM). The breakthrough innovation is based on the way the heat is supplied to the steam reforming reaction, a specific reactor exchanger and the value of the steam produced in the process. In this concept, the heat required for the reaction comes from pressurized flue gases produced in a combustion chamber external to the reactor exchanger. This latter relies on an innovative compact arrangement of bayonet tubes. With a thermal extensive integration, the overall efficiency is improved and the consumption of natural gas reduced. Moreover, the steam produced by the process is entirely used in the process itself: one part for the reaction and the other to supply a turbine driving the compressor necessary to produce hot pressurised flue gas. The proof of concept of this process has been based on lab tests and on various simulations representing the whole process or focused on critical areas. A full scale single tube pilot plant has been built and performances achieved in the reactor-exchanger are being collected to validate the concept.