A hydrocarbon is reacted with water in the presence of a catalyst to form hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. Hydrogen is selectively allowed to pass through a hydrogen separation membrane to a permeate side of a reactor, while water and carbon-containing compounds remain in a retentate side of the reactor. An outlet stream is flowed from the retentate side to a heat exchanger. The outlet stream is cooled to form a cooled stream. The cooled stream is separated into a liquid phase and a vapor phase. The liquid phase is flowed to the heat exchanger and heated to form steam. The vapor phase is cooled to form condensed water and a first offgas stream. The first offgas stream is cooled to form condensed carbon dioxide and a second offgas stream. The steam and the second offgas stream are recycled to the reactor.

A system and method of producing hydrogen, including converting hydrocarbon to methane via steam and pre-reforming catalyst in a pre-reformer, converting the methane to hydrogen and carbon dioxide by steam reforming via a reforming catalyst in a membrane reformer, diffusing through hydrogen through a tubular membrane in the membrane reformer.

Method and plant for generation of synthesis gas, comprising the steps of air fractionation to give oxygen, nitrogen and tail gas, gasification of a hydrocarbonaceous fuel to give crude synthesis gas and cleaning of the crude synthesis gas by removal of acid gas by means of cryogenic absorption, wherein the absorbent is cooled by means of a compression coolant circuit and the cooling water used is cooled by evaporative cooling by means of the tail gas obtained in the air fractionation.

Process control parameters for production of hydrogen and FT products by steam/CO2 reforming include controlling steam reformer temperature, addition of steam, CO and optionally, biogas. Optimization of parameters have resulted in increased production of H.sub.2, removal of sulfur and halogen contaminants, and control of the H.sub.2/CO ratio for efficient generation of Fischer-Tropsch products.

A hydrogen generator having a reforming catalyst that causes hydrocarbon gas and steam to carry out a reforming reaction and reform into a hydrogen rich reformed gas, a reformer that is filled with said reforming catalyst and in which said reforming reaction is carried out, and a combustion chamber for combusting a fuel gas and obtaining reaction heat that is applied to said reforming reaction. At least the reforming region carrying out the reforming reaction is disposed inside the combustion chamber. A steam generator that introduces steam into the reformer is provided outside the combustion chamber.

A method of continuously performing one or more heat-consuming processes, where at least one heat-consuming process is electrically heated. The maximum temperature in the reaction zone of the heat-consuming process is higher than 500° C., at least 70% of products of the heat-consuming process are continuously processed further downstream and/or fed to a local energy carrier network, and the electrical energy required for the heat-consuming process is drawn from an external power grid and from at least one local power source. The local power source is fed by at least one local energy carrier network and by products from the heat-consuming process. The local energy carrier network stores natural gas, naphtha, hydrogen, synthesis gas, and/or steam as energy carrier, and has a total capacity of at least 5 GWh. The local energy carrier network is fed with at least one further product and/or by-product from at least one further chemical process.

A process is proposed for producing synthesis gas with reduced steam export by catalytic steam reforming of a hydrocarbonaceous feed gas with steam in a multitude of reformer tubes in a burner-heated reformer furnace to form a steam reforming flue gas. This process includes a configuration of the reformer tubes as reformer tubes with internal heat exchange and the use of a structured catalyst. For amounts of export steam between 0 and 0.8 kg of export steam per m.sub.N.sup.3 of hydrogen produced, these features interact synergistically when particular steam reforming conditions are selected.

The system includes a methane reformer, a combined cycle power generator, and a switch. The reformer is configured to react methane with steam. The combined cycle power generator includes a steam turbine, a gas turbine, a power generator, and a water boiler. The steam turbine is configured to rotate in response to receiving steam. The gas turbine is configured to rotate in response to receiving a mixture of fuel and air. The power generator is configured to convert rotational energy from the steam turbine and the gas turbine into electricity. In a first position, the switch is configured to direct exhaust from the gas turbine to the reformer, thereby providing heat to the reformer. In a second position, the switch is configured to direct exhaust from the gas turbine to the water boiler, thereby providing heat to the water boiler to generate steam.

In one aspect, the disclosure relates to relates to CO.sub.2-free methods of co-producing hydrogen and solid forms of carbon via methane decomposition. The methods are efficient, self-sustaining, and environmentally sound. In a further aspect, the disclosure relates to recyclable and recoverable catalysts supported by solid forms of carbon and methods for recycling the catalysts. In some aspects, the disclosure relates to catalysts that do not require support by solid forms of carbon. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure.

Fixed point applications of producing hydrogen from hydrocarbons and using such are described. A feedstock including natural gas is introduced to a plasma reformer, and H2 is generated from the feedstock. The plasma reformer can be integrated into a number of locations for various purposes. For example, reformers can be integrated into buildings for onsite generation of H2 , either for storage, distribution as fuel, or for generating electricity for onsite needs to alleviate strain on the energy grid. Likewise, legacy natural gas distribution points or fuel stations can be converted to H2 distribution points, or further used as electricity distribution points by way of an H2 fuel cell. Likewise, reformers can be integrated into natural gas distribution networks to self-energize nodes or stations in the network via H2 fuel cells.