Development of Membrane Reformer for Highly-efficient Hydrogen Production from Natural Gas

Abstract

A membrane reformer is based on the advanced concept of simultaneous generation and separation of hydrogen in a single reactor, which can make the reactions free from the limitation of chemical equilibrium. Because of these advantages, the membrane reformer can be made very compact and offers much higher efficiency than the conventional ones. We have manufactured and tested a membrane reformer with nominal hydrogen production capacity of 40 Nm³/h. The developed reformer was found to produce 40.1 Nm³/h of hydrogen with 99.999% purity at the energy efficiency of 76.2% (HHV). Additionally, under the partial-load operating condition, the reformer maintained the high energy efficiency of 69%. The system has thus been proved to give the highest efficiency in producing hydrogen from natural gas among various competing technologies.