METHOD FOR THE CATALYTIC STEAM REFORMING OF A HYDROCARBON

• Main Authors: GAO, Yufei, WANG, Yong, WEGENG, Robert, S, TONKOVICH, Anna, Lee, Y
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 21.02.2018
• Subjects: APPARATUS THEREFOR; BLASTING; CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOIDCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; COMPOUNDS THEREOF; GENERAL METHODS OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY; HEAT EXCHANGE IN GENERAL; HEAT-EXCHANGE APPARATUS, NOT PROVIDED FOR IN ANOTHER SUBCLASS,IN WHICH THE HEAT-EXCHANGE MEDIA DO NOT COME INTO DIRECT CONTACT; HEATING; INORGANIC CHEMISTRY; LIGHTING; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; METALLURGY; NON-METALLIC ELEMENTS; ORGANIC CHEMISTRY; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS; TRANSPORTING; WEAPONS

The present invention relates to a process for the steam reforming of a hydrocarbon, comprising: passing a feed stream comprising hydrocarbon gas and steam into at least one reaction chamber; said reaction chamber comprising a catalyst that catalyzes the reaction of said hydrocarbon gas and steam to produce a gaseous mixture comprising at least carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas; wherein the contact time of the reactant with the catalyst is less than 0.3 seconds; transferring heat from at least one heat exchanger into the at least one reaction chamber; and producing more than 0.01 SLPM of hydrogen gas per cubic centimeter of reactor volume, where reactor volume is defined as the sum of the volume of the reaction chamber(s) and heat exchange chamber(s) including the volume of chamber walls.