Development of Membrane Reformer for Highly-efficient HydrogenProduction from Natural Gas

摘要

A membrane reformer is composed of a steam reformer equipped with palladium-based alloymodules in its catalyst bed, and can perform steam reforming reaction and hydrogenseparation processes simultaneously, without shift converters and purification systems. It thuscan be configured much more compactly and can provide much higher efficiency than theconventional technologies. We have thus far manufactured and tested a membrane reformerwith nominal hydrogen production capacity of 20 Nm 3 /h. The developed reformer was foundto produce 21 Nm 3 /h of hydrogen with 99.999% purity at the energy efficiency of 70%. Theoperation tests have demonstrated the capability of simple one-step reaction to producehigh-purity hydrogen, compactness, and high energy efficiency to produce pure hydrogenfrom natural gas. However, the long-term performance stability test of the reformer had to beterminated after 2,071 hours with 35 start-up and shut-down cycles because of the failure inthe hydrogen separation modules. Based on the operation test results of the 20 Nm 3 /h-classreformer, we have designed and manufactured a 40 Nm 3 /h-class reformer. The new design isexpected to provide improved durability, scalability and ease of maintenance, and itsefficiency is expected to increase to as high as 80%.