Monday, March 29, 2021

Use Steam Methane Reformer SMR to Produce Hydrogen

Introduction

Hydrogen is becoming a hotter and hotter topic. Do you know how hydrogen is produced? One popular method to produce hydrogen is through a steam methane reforming process.


Overview

Generally speaking, there are 6 process modules to produce hydrogen. First methane and steam react in the heating & reaction module, then it is cooled to ambient temperature before sending to a Pressure Swing Adsorption or PSA module to get the pure hydrogen. The final step is to compress hydrogen to the required pressure. Along with the 4 main process modules, we also need to have a steam module to produce steam and a flue gas module to provide all the heat needed in the process.

Methane feed is first split to 2 parts. The major part will be converted to hydrogen and the other part will be burned to provide the heat required. I will first go through the 4 main process modules and then come back to the 2 utility modules.