A steam methane reformer (SMR) system includes an outer tube, wherein a first end of the outer tube is closed; an inner tube disposed in the outer tube, wherein a first end of the inner tube is open. A flow channel is defined within the inner tube and an annular space is defined between the outer tube and the inner tube, the flow channel being in fluid communication with the annular space. The SMR system includes a catalytic foam disposed in the annular space between the outer tube and the inner tube, the catalytic foam comprising a catalyst.

A method for producing hydrogen includes flowing a first gas along a bayonet flow path of a steam methane reformer (SMR) to produce a first product, including flowing the first gas through a foam disposed along the bayonet flow path; providing the first product produced in the SMR to an input of a water gas shift (WGS) reaction channel defined within a reaction tube of a WGS reactor; and flowing a second gas including the first product through the WGS reaction channel to produce a second product. Flowing the second gas includes flowing the second gas across a heat transfer material disposed in the WGS reaction channel to reduce the temperature of the flowing second gas; and flowing the second gas across a WGS catalyst disposed in the reaction channel.

A process for producing synthesis gas using at least a first and a second steam reforming reactor each having at least one reaction stage enabling the circulation of a reaction mixture and at least one heat supply stage enabling the circulation of a heat transfer fluid.

Integrated refinery processes and systems for generating hydrogen by direct decomposition of hydrocarbons. The integrated processes and systems can be used to capture carbon and sulfur in solid form, reducing carbon dioxide and sulfur oxide emissions. The processes include reacting sour gas with a metal-based sorbent in a reactor to produce sulfur-bearing solids and water, and to partially reform hydrocarbons in the sour gas to produce hydrogen-rich syngas; and cracking remaining hydrocarbons thermally with or without the presence of a catalyst to produce hydrogen and solid carbon.

The invention relates to petroleum sludge or other wastes recycle treatment system, which comprises a pre-treatment operation facility for a treated matter to be treated as a raw material. A feeding unit is arranged to feed the raw material into at least one gasification reactor with a push rod or a screw for pyrolysis gasification. The upper half of the at least one gasification reactor is provided with a syngas collecting pipe which can be connected with a gas collecting pump, and the lower half is provided with a liquid petroleum output pipe and an ash residue outlet, in which the ash residue outlet can be provided with a spiral pipe to draw the ash residue out. The petroleum sludge and other wastes in a dense fluid state are transported from a raw material tank to the at least one gasification reactor end which is bent upward through at least one pipe body, and the feeding mode of pyrolysis gasification of the raw material from below to upper of the gasification reactor is adopted. The top of the at least one gasification reactor is provided with a syngas collecting pipe, and the other side is provided with an ash residue accumulation chamber. The ash residue can be centralized and discharged through the lower buffer chamber and the slag discharge chamber, so as to convert the petroleum sludge or other wastes into more energy-efficient syngas providing human beings as users of electric or thermal energy.

A hydrogen permeable membrane device is provided that includes a porous ceramic layer having a material that includes zirconia, Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), /Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and/or YSZ /Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and a porous Pd film or porous Pd-alloy film deposited on the a mesoporous ceramic layer.

Disclosed is a technology based upon the nesting of tubes to provide chemical reactors or chemical reactors with built in heat exchanger. As a chemical reactor, the technology provides the ability to manage the temperature within a process flow for improved performance, control the location of reactions for corrosion control, or implement multiple process steps within the same piece of equipment. As a chemical reactor with built in heat exchanger, the technology can provide large surface areas per unit volume and large heat transfer coefficients. The technology can recover the thermal energy from the product flow to heat the reactant flow to the reactant temperature, significantly reducing the energy needs for accomplishment of a process.

A catalytic membrane reactor and methods of operating and producing the same are provided that efficiently produces highly pure hydrogen (H.sub.2) from ammonia (NH.sub.3) as well as operates according to other chemical conversion processes. In one embodiment, a tubular ceramic support made from porous yttria-stabilized zirconia has an outer surface that is impregnated with a metal catalyst such as ruthenium and then plated with a hydrogen permeable membrane such as palladium. An inner surface of the ceramic support is impregnated with cesium to promote conversion of ammonia to hydrogen and nitrogen (N.sub.2). The resulting catalytic membrane reactor produces highly pure hydrogen at low temperatures and with less catalytic loading. Therefore, ammonia can be used to effectively transport hydrogen for use in, for example, fuel cells in a vehicle.

The invention relates to a method of starting-up a fuel cell arrangement (1) comprising a fuel processor (2) and a fuel cell (70), wherein the fuel processor (2) comprises the following components: a first evaporator (10), a reformer (20) arranged downstream of the first evaporator (10), a water-gas shift reactor (30), a PrOx reactor (40), a first heat exchanger (11), an afterburner (21) and a startup burner (50), wherein the method comprises the following steps: a) electrically heating a heating arrangement in the fuel processor (2) to heat a first gas (G1), b) heating the components of the fuel processor (2) to a fixed operating temperature by circulating the heated first gas (G1) through at least the first heat exchanger (11) and the afterburner (21), c) catalytically combusting an atomized or evaporated fuel (B) in the startup burner (50) and then afterburning hydrogen in the afterburner (21) for further heating of the first gas (G1) via at least one heat exchanger, d) introducing the fuel (B) into the preheated components of the fuel processor (2) and stopping the catalytic combustion in the startup burner (50), e) starting up at least one reaction in the components of the fuel processor (2), until an exit gas from a PrOx reactor (40) has a given CO content, and f) switching on the fuel cell (70). The invention further relates to a fuel cell arrangement.

The invention relates to a process for producing hydrogen from a light hydrocarbon source, in which a synthesis gas is generated by steam methane reforming after desulfurization and optionally pre-reforming of the feedstock. The synthesis gas is enriched with hydrogen by steam conversion of carbon monoxide, and is subsequently purified in a pressure swing adsorption unit to give a pure H.sub.2 product and a residual gas mixture containing CH.sub.4, CO, H.sub.2 and CO.sub.2; in accordance with the invention, the conversion step is performed in a cooled reactor in which the heat of the conversion reaction is transferred to a fluid which feeds the burners of the reformer, or to the gas for reforming.