Sequential Combustion in Steam Methane Reformers for Hydrogen and Power Production With CCUS in Decarbonized Industrial Clusters

Abstract

In future energy supply systems, hydrogen and electricity may be generated in decarbonized industrial clusters using a common infrastructure for natural gas supply, electricity grid and transport and geological storage of CO 2. The novel contribution of this article consists of using sequential combustion in a steam methane reforming (SMR) hydrogen plant to allow for capital and operating cost reduction by using a single postcombustion carbon capture system for both the hydrogen process and the combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant, plus appropriate integration for this new equipment combination. The concept would be widely applied to any post-combustion CO 2 capture process. A newly developed, rigorous, gPROMs model of two hydrogen production technologies, covering a wide range of hydrogen production capacities, thermodynamically integrated with commercially available gas turbine engines quantifies the step change in thermal efficiency and hydrogen production efficiency. It includes a generic post-combustion capture technology-a conventional 30%wt MEA processto quantify the reduction in size of CO 2 absorber columns, the most capital intensive part of solvent-based capture systems. For a conventional SMR located downstream of an H-class gas turbine engine, followed by a three-pressure level HRSG and a capture plant with two absorbers, the integrated system produces ca. 696,400 Nm 3 /h of H 2 with a net power output of 651 MWe at a net thermal efficiency of 38.9% LHV. This corresponds to 34 MWe of additional power, increasing efficiency by 4.9% points, and makes one absorber redundant compared to the equivalent non-integrated system producing the same volume of H 2. For a dedicated gas heated reformer (GHR) located downstream of an aeroderivative gas turbine engine, followed by a two-pressure level HRSG and a capture plant with one absorber, the integrated system produces ca. 80,750 Nm 3 /h of H 2 with a net power output of 73 MWe and a net thermal efficiency of 54.7% LHV. This corresponds to 13 MWe of additional power output, increasing efficiency by 13.5% points and also makes one absorber redundant. The article also presents new insights for the design and operation of reformers integrated with gas turbines and with CO 2 capture.

Centralized and distributed hydrogen production using steam reforming: challenges and perspectives

“…Additionally, there has been considerable research on advanced SMR processes to reduce CO 2 emissions in the wide range of production capacities from 14 992 to 1 492 286 kg per day. 21,22,28,34,35 In addition to CO 2 capture techniques, advanced combustion systems such as chemical looping combustion (CLC) are more commonly applied to large-volume production processes. 23,34,35 It is worth noting that the membrane reactor mainly used in small-scale SMR has also been studied for largescale hydrogen production of more than 100 000 kg per day.…”

Energy Efficiency of Hydrogen Technologies on Thermal Power Plant

“…There are also prototypes of combining TPP and SMR cycles for simultaneous carbon dioxide capture with promised high efficiency. [11] Still all the researches mostly relate to hydrogen combustion for gas turbines, not covering power boilers. For Russia, where the bulk of electricity output is produced by steam turbines, it's more of interest to estimate the possibilities of hydrogen utilization as a fuel for power boilers.…”

The prospects of flexible natural gas-fired CCGT within a green taxonomy

“…5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 In the long-term, NG will remain an important feedstock for the large-scale production of hydrogen, 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 with potential applications in decarbonizing transport, 14 heat, 12 and power. 15 , 16 …”