HIGHLY EFFICIENT, COMPACT REFORMER UNIT FOR GENERATING HYDROGEN FROM GASEOUS HYDROCARBONS IN THE LOW POWER RANGE

摘要

The invention relates to a reformer unit for generating hydrogen from astarting materialcomprising a hydrocarbon-water mixture, the reformer unit having a reactorvessel; a feed linefor feeding a starting material into the reactor vessel; a heat exchanger inthe form of a coaxialheat exchanger having a first, outer tube, which is connected to the starting-material feed line,and having a second, inner tube; a further heat exchanger, which is connectedto the first tube ofthe heat exchanger and is arranged around a reformer space; a line which isconnected to the heatexchanger and has at least one outlet opening for feeding the gaseous startingmaterial into thereformer space, with a catalyst unit arranged therein which is heated by aburner, at least onedischarge line for discharging the reformate which has been formed in thereformer space to thesecond tube of the heat exchanger, which at a distal end is connected to ashift reactor; and aproduct discharge line for the product gas which has been discharged from theshift reactor, andat least one discharge line for the flue gas from the reactor vessel. Aprocess for producing theproduct gas containing hydrogen is also provided.