The well-known problems linked to the depletion of fossil fuels and to the growing energy demand address the industrial research toward the development of effective innovative routes for alternative energy resources. If in one hand hydrogen is pointed as the best clean energy vector (to employ in fuel cell systems), in the other hand its production through hydrocarbon reforming still appears as the most viable solution in a transition period towards a hydrogen based economy. One of the main limitation connected to the hydrogen employment diffusion is linked to economic issues related to the H2 transport and storage. In this aim, distributed hydrogen production appeared an optimal solution, both for the stationary and mobile installations. From this point of view, hydrocarbons catalytic Auto-Thermal Reforming (ATR) appears the best candidate process1: it combines the partial oxidation and the steam reforming processes, since hydrocarbons react with both oxygen and steam to obtain a self-sustained and very fast process. Anyway the high carbon monoxide content of the produced stream require a further catalytic stage, the Water-Gas Shift (WGS) in which CO reacts with steam to produce further hydrogen. Anyway, the very different operating temperature of ATR and WGS stages resulted in the necessity of a heat exchange system, with a consequent increasing in plant size and operating costs.
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