OXYGEN TRANSPORT MEMBRANE REACTORS FOR DECARBONIZATION

Abstract

A method and system for decarbonization of a hydrocarbon conversion process such as steam methane reforming process for hydrogen production utilizing oxygen transport membrane reactors. The system employs catalyst-containing reforming reactors for converting natural gas into synthesis gas which is further treated in high temperature or medium temperature water gas shift reactors and fed to a hydrogen PSA to produce hydrogen product. The system further employs oxygen transport membrane reactors thermally coupled to reforming reactors and configured to oxy-combust about 90% to about 95% of combustibles in PSA tail gas that may be optionally mixed with natural gas. The oxy-combustion product stream leaving the oxygen transport membrane reactors contains about 90% of the carbon provided to the feed of the reforming reactor. The carbon dioxide in the oxy-combustion product stream can be recovered and further purified for utilization or geologic storage or liquefied to form a liquid carbon dioxide product.

Claims

1. A method for decarbonization of a hydrocarbon conversion process for hydrogen production utilizing an oxygen transport membrane-based reforming system, wherein said system composes at least one reforming reactor and at least one oxygen transport membrane reactor disposed in a reactor housing proximate to said at least one reforming reactor, the method comprising the steps of: separating oxygen from an oxygen containing stream with one or more catalyst-containing oxygen transport membrane reactors to produce an oxygen permeate and an oxygen-depleted retentate stream, the catalyst being contained within tubes on the permeate side of the oxygen transport membrane reactors; feeding a fuel stream to a permeate side of the oxygen transport membrane elements and reacting same with the oxygen permeate to generate a reaction products stream, oxy-combustion products stream and heat; transferring the heat via convection to the oxygen-depleted retentate stream and via radiation to at least one catalyst-containing reforming reactor configured to produce a synthesis gas stream; reforming a combined feed stream comprising natural gas and steam in said at least one reforming reactor in the presence of a reforming catalyst and radiant heat transferred from the oxygen transport membrane reactor to produce a reformed synthesis gas stream comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide; treating the synthesis gas product stream in a separate high, and/or medium and/or low temperature shift reactor to form a hydrogen-enriched synthesis gas stream; and treating the hydrogen-enriched synthesis gas stream in a hydrogen PSA; and recovering a hydrogen product stream and a tail gas stream; wherein a portion of the fuel gas stream required for the oxygen transport membrane reactor is the tail gas stream from the hydrogen PSA, optionally mixed with supplementary hydrocarbon fuel, and wherein no portion of the reformed synthesis gas stream leaving the reforming reactor is directly recycled back to the oxygen transport membrane reactor; wherein the oxygen transport membrane reactors combust about 90% to about 95% of the combustibles in the fuel gas, and oxy-combustion product stream leaving the oxygen transport membrane reactors contains about 90% of the carbon contained in the natural gas provided to the reforming reactor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the heat generated as a result of the reaction of the fuel stream with permeated oxygen is transferred: (i) to the reforming reactor; (ii) to the unreformed fuel gas stream present in the reactively-driven, catalyst-containing oxygen transport membrane reactor; and (iii) to an oxygen-depleted retentate stream.

3. A hydrogen production system comprising: an oxygen transport membrane-based reactor housing comprising: a reforming reactor disposed in the reactor housing and configured to reform a hydrocarbon containing feed stream in the presence of a reforming catalyst disposed in the reforming reactor and heat to produce a reformed synthesis gas stream; a reactively-driven, catalyst-containing oxygen transport membrane reactor disposed in the reactor housing proximate the reforming reactor and configured to receive a hydrocarbon containing fuel stream and react said stream with permeated oxygen and generate a first stream of reaction products and heat; a water gas shift reactor unit; and a hydrogen PSA unit, wherein the oxygen transport membrane reactors combust about 90% to about 95% of the combustibles in the fuel gas, and the oxy-combustion products stream leaving the oxygen transport membrane reactors contains about 90% of the carbon provided to the feed of the reforming reactor.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the reactively-driven, catalyst-containing oxygen transport membrane reactor further comprises a plurality of oxidation catalyst-containing oxygen transport membrane tubes defining an oxidant side and a reactant side and configured to separate oxygen from an oxygen containing stream contacting the oxidant side and permeate separated oxygen to the reactant side through oxygen ion transport when subjected to the elevated operational temperature and a difference in oxygen partial pressure across the at least one oxygen transport membrane tube.

5. A method for decarbonizing a hydrogen production process that utilizes a steam methane reformer; wherein the feed to said reformer comprises natural gas, wherein said natural gas is converted into a syngas, and wherein a portion of the tail gas fuel stream derived from said syngas is combusted in one or more oxygen transport membrane reactors producing reaction heat, wherein a portion of the heat required to sustain the endothermic reforming reaction in said reformer is provided by said reaction heat via radiant heat transfer, followed by processing the combustion product stream exiting the oxygen transport membrane reactor to produce a concentrated CO2 stream containing from about 90% CO2 by volume to about 95% CO2 by volume.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein a CO2 product of at least 99.5% CO2 by volume is produced from the concentrated CO2 stream by a cryogenic liquefaction process.

7. The method of claim 6 whereby the non-condensable gases rejected from the cryogenic process are recycled back to the feed of the reformer system.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the concentrated CO2 stream is further processed in a PSA process or a TSA process to produce a higher purity CO2 stream for compression and carbon sequestration or use as a feedstock to a downstream process.

9. The method of claim 5 where the concentrated CO2 stream is subsequently utilized as part of the feed of a dry-reforming process.

10. The method of claim 8 where the concentrated CO2 stream is subsequently utilized as part of the feed of a dry-reforming process, a methanol synthesis process, or a Fisher-Tropsch synthesis process or a cement-curing process or a cement production process.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein said concentrated CO2 stream is subjected to catalytic oxidation with a supplemental oxygen containing stream to produce a super-critical CO2 product comprising at least 99% CO2 by volume.

12. The method of claim 5 wherein said concentrated CO2 stream is subjected to methanation process to produce a moderate purity super-critical CO2 product containing CO2 in a concentration of about at least 95% CO2 by volume, CO in a concentration of less than about 1000 ppm by volume, and total hydrocarbons in a concentration less than about 5% by volume.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the tail gas is compressed, mixed with superheated steam and subjected to a water-gas shift reaction to provide a fuel stream containing less than about 8% by volume CO for the oxygen transport membrane reactor.

14. The method of claim 5, wherein the tail gas is compressed, mixed with superheated steam and subjected to a methanation reaction to provide a fuel stream containing less than about 8% by volume CO for the oxygen transport membrane reactor.

15. The method of claim 5, wherein tail gas is compressed, mixed with superheated steam and subjected to a water-gas shift reaction or methanation reaction to provide a fuel stream for the oxygen transport membrane reactor wherein the fuel stream chemical equilibrium carbon activity calculated at a temperature of about 500° C. and a pressure of about 9 hart has a value less than about 10.

16. The method of claim 5, wherein the tail gas is compressed, mixed with superheated steam and subjected to a water-gas shift reaction or methanation reaction to provide a fuel stream for the oxygen transport membrane reactor wherein the fuel stream chemical equilibrium carbon activity calculated at a temperature of about 600° C. and a pressure of about 9 barg has a value less than about 5, preferably less than about 2.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] While the specification concludes with claims distinctly pointing out the subject matter that applicants regard as their invention, it is believed that the invention will be better understood when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

[0020] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment for using an oxygen transport membrane as a flameless oxidizer to provide heat to a natural gas conversion process while producing a concentrated and contained carbon dioxide stream.

[0021] FIG. 2 is a simplified schematic illustration of an embodiment of a process design for converting natural gas into hydrogen product, and creating a stream with highly concentrated CO2 for liquefaction, or purification, compression, and storage;

[0022] FIG. 3 is a detailed schematic illustration of an embodiment of a process design for converting natural gas into hydrogen product, and creating a stream with highly concentrated CO2 for liquefaction, or purification, compression, and storage;

[0023] FIG. 4 is a simplified schematic illustration and comparison of three embodiments of a process to further concentrate CO2 from a ceramic membrane flameless oxidizer

[0024] FIG. 5 depicts the relative thermodynamic chemical equilibrium solid carbon activities across a critical temperature range for several ceramic membrane flameless oxidizer fuel gas compositions.

[0025] FIG. 6 a typical heat-up and fueled start-up sequence for a ceramic membrane flameless oxidizer heated steam methane reformer process.

[0026] FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of a comparison between the CO2 emission of the present invention and a conventional hydrogen production process utilizing steam methane reforming in conjunction with an amine-based system for carbon dioxide capture.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] The present invention relates to a method and system for decarbonization of industrially important processes such as for production of hydrogen, liquid fuels, and chemicals. More particularly the invention utilizes oxygen transport membrane reactors to facilitate carbon capture in the industrially important hydrocarbon conversion process such as steam methane reforming for hydrogen production. The system of the invention comprises at least two reactors in the form of sets of catalyst-containing tubes: [0028] a first set of tubes comprising at least one reforming catalyst-containing reforming reactor configured to convert a hydrocarbon feedstock such as natural gas by endothermic reforming reactions into a synthesis gas stream, and [0029] a second set of tubes comprising a reactively-driven and catalyst-containing oxygen transport membrane reactor configured to oxy-combust a fuel gas comprising PSA tail gas, optionally mixed with natural gas, to generate and radiate heat to the reforming reactor; wherein the oxygen transport membrane reactors combust about 90% to about 95% of the combustibles in the fuel gas, and the oxy-combustion products stream leaving the oxygen transport membrane reactors contains about 90% of the carbon provided as natural gas to the reforming reactor.
The method of the invention comprises:

[0030] separating oxygen from an oxygen containing stream with one or more oxidation catalyst-containing oxygen transport membrane reactors to produce an oxygen permeate and an oxygen-depleted retentate stream, the catalyst being contained within tubes on the permeate side of the oxygen transport membrane reactors;

[0031] feeding a PSA tail gas optionally mixed with natural gas, fuel gas stream to a permeate side of the oxygen transport membrane elements and reacting same with the oxygen permeate to generate a reaction products stream, oxy-combustion products stream and heat;

[0032] transferring the heat via convection to the oxygen-depleted retentate stream and via radiation to said at least one catalyst-containing reforming reactor;

[0033] reforming a combined teed stream comprising natural gas and steam in said at least one reforming reactor in the presence of a reforming catalyst and radiant heat transferred from the oxygen transport membrane reactor to produce a reformed synthesis gas stream comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide;

[0034] treating the synthesis gas product stream in a separate high, medium and/or low temperature shift reactors to form a hydrogen-enriched synthesis gas stream; [0035] recovering a hydrogen product stream and a tail gas stream from the hydrogen-enriched synthesis gas stream utilizing a hydrogen PSA. No portion of the synthesis gas product stream from the reforming reactor is fed to the reactively-driven and catalyst-containing oxygen transport membrane reactor, allowing for higher ratios of H.sub.2/CO in the syngas and for the reformers to be operated at higher pressures than that of the oxygen transport membrane-based reforming elements;

[0036] wherein [0037] the oxygen transport membrane reactors combust about 90% to about 95% of the combustibles in the fuel gas, and oxy-combustion product stream leaving the oxygen transport membrane reactors contains about 90% of the carbon provided to the feed of the reforming reactor.

[0038] In one embodiment, at least a portion of the fuel gas stream required for the oxygen transport membrane reactor is the tail gas stream from the hydrogen PSA, mixed with supplementary light hydrocarbon fuel such as natural gas. The heat generated as a result of the reaction of the fuel gas stream with permeated oxygen in the reactively-driven and catalyst-containing oxygen transport membrane reactor is transferred: (i) to the reforming reactor; (ii) to the unreformed fuel gas stream present in the reactively-driven, catalyst-containing oxygen transport membrane reactor; and (iii) to an oxygen-depleted retentate stream. The oxygen transport membrane reactor can be configured to utilize all or a portion of the tail gas or a light hydrocarbon containing gas or mixtures thereof. Natural gas or any methane rich gas can be used as a source of the hydrocarbon containing feed stream.

[0039] A distinctive feature of the oxygen transport membrane reactor method and system is oxy-combustion of fuel gas wherein the oxygen transport membrane reactors combust about 90% to about 95% of the combustibles in the fuel gas, and the oxy-combustion products stream leaving the oxygen transport membrane reactors contain about 90% of the carbon contained in the natural gas provided to the reforming reactor.

[0040] The invention may also be characterized as an oxygen transport membrane-based decarbonization method and system for converting hydrocarbon feedstocks into industrially important products such as hydrogen, synthesis gas, liquid fuels, chemicals and similar applications. The hydrocarbon feedstock such as natural gas is fed to a steam methane reformer wherein the natural gas is converted into a syngas. The syngas is further processed to produce a hydrogen product and a tail gas fuel stream. The tail gas fuel stream derived from syngas is combusted one or more oxygen transport membrane reactors producing reaction heat and a combustion product stream. A portion of the heat required to sustain the endothermic reforming reaction in the reformer is provided by the oxygen transport membrane generated reaction heat via radiant heat transfer. The combustion product stream exiting the oxygen transport membrane reactor is processed to produce a concentrated CO2 stream containing from about 90% CO2 by volume to about 95% CO2 by volume.

[0041] FIG. 1 provides a schematic illustration of use of oxygen transport membranes, as a flameless oxidizer for decarbonization of an industrially important natural gas conversion process for producing hydrogen. A feed of natural gas and superheated steam, 101, is fed to one or more steam methane reformer tubes, 103, and reacted in the presence of internal catalyst 104. Heat for reforming reactions in the steam methane reformer tubes is provided from oxygen transport membrane tubes. OTM tubes, 107, to create a syngas, 105, which is then cooled, shifted, and sent to a PSA to create a first hydrogen product stream. Heated low pressure tail gas effluent from the PSA process, 106, is provided to one or more oxygen transport membrane (OTM) tubes, 107, and reacted with pure oxygen, separated from heated air stream, 102, and transported across the ceramic membrane, 108, to produce a raw stream, 109, where approximately 90-95% of the totalized molecular hydrogen, CO, and methane contained in the PSA tail has been oxidized to produce a stream containing approximately 90-95% CO2 by volume on dry basis.

[0042] Referencing the schematic in FIG. 2, a reactor system, 200, comprising one or more arrays of steam methane reformer tubes, 212, and one or more arrays, 204 of oxygen transport membrane tubes, flameless oxidizer (FOx) tubes, that operate as a hydrogen production system additionally creating a stream with highly concentrated CO2 for liquefaction, or purification, compression, and storage. In the depicted process embodiment, a mixed-feed of preheated and desulfurized natural gas, and superheated steam in a ratio of approximately 2 to 5 moles of steam per mole of natural gas, 211, is supplied to one or more catalyst-filled reformer tubes, 212, arranged in a furnace enclosure in radiation heat exchange with ceramic membrane flameless oxidizers, 204, and convective heat exchange with surrounding air within the enclosure. Approximately 75%-85% of methane in mixed-feed is converted to hydrogen and CO, forming a reformed synthesis gas, also referred to as syngas. The syngas is cooled by generating steam in process gas boiler (PGB), 213, and then further reacted in a water-gas shift (WGS) reactor, 214, to further convert some of the carbon monoxide and steam to carbon dioxide and hydrogen. A high purity product hydrogen stream is separated at high pressure in a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit, 215, and the residual gases are removed as a tail gas stream, 217, at low pressure. The PSA tail gas stream, 217, is compressed to approximately 7-9 bang in compressor 218. Superheated steam, 219, is added to the high-pressure compressor discharge, approximately 20%-50% of the final mixed volume and fed to reactor, 220. The reactor 220, preferably a water-gas shift (WGS) reactor, or alternately a methanation reactor, facilitates reactions, in the presence of the appropriate commercially available catalysts to reduce the carbon monoxide concentration. The desired CO concentration leaving the reactor is less than 8% by volume. The CO-adjusted, flameless oxidizer fuel stream is subsequently preheated in heat exchanger, 221, against hot ceramic membrane nameless oxidizer exhaust, 224, and further heated in one or more tubular elements, 222, positioned inside the furnace and radiatively heated by the flameless oxidizers, 204. The nameless oxidizer fuel stream. 223, is oxidized approximately 90-95% in nameless oxidizer array, 204, producing oxy-combustion product stream, 224, further cooled by heat exchanger, 221, and process gas cooler heat exchanger, 225. The raw oxy-combustion stream comprising CO2 and residual hydrogen, moisture, CO, and nitrogen carryover from the natural gas feed may be fed to a downstream liquefaction process, 226, to produce liquid CO2 co-product, or further purified with reactions of the impurities in reactor 228, to produce a high CO2 concentration stream, 229, which may be further dried and compressed in compressor train, 230, and subsequently provided to a pipeline as a super-critical fluid, 231, suitable for permanent geological storage. Oxygen for the nameless oxidizer elements is provided from ambient air filtered in particulate filter, 201, pressurized with forced-draft blower, 202, and preheated in heat exchanger, 203, against depleted air leaving the furnace, and further heated by auxiliary burner, 205, supplied with auxiliary fuel and air, 206. The oxygen-depleted furnace air, typically with oxygen concentration 8-10% by volume, is further heated with auxiliary burner, 205, and cooled with heat exchanger, 203, and process gas cooler heat exchanger, 208. Further draw from the furnace is provided by induced-draft blower, 209, with exhaust to stack. 210.

[0043] FIG. 3. is a more detailed schematic of hydrogen production system shown in FIG. 2, Referencing the schematic in FIG. 3, a steam-methane reformer based hydrogen production system, 24, comprising one or more arrays of steam methane reformer tubes, 11, and one or more arrays of oxygen transport membrane flameless oxidizer tubes, 10, operate as a hydrogen production system with a concentrated CO2 stream co-product. A natural gas feed stream, 60, is mixed with a small portion of hydrogen product stream, 25, and sent to a natural gas heater, 27, and desulfurized in hydro-desulfurizer bed, 28, containing ZnO. The heated and desulfurized natural gas stream is mixed with saturated steam from steam drum, 61, and preheated in feed heater coil, 31, oriented in the heated process air stream. The heated mixed feed is supplied to one or more arrays of steam methane reformer, 11, heated by OTM flameless oxidizer tubes, 10, in furnace enclosure, 24 to produce a syngas. The syngas is cooled in water-filled process gas boiler, 32, and water-gas shifted in reactor, 26. The shifted syngas is cooled in natural gas heater 27, and boiler feedwater heater, 33. Process condensate is separated in knock-out drum, 35, and the remaining syngas is further cooled in heat exchangers, 34 and 36. Additional water is removed in knock-out drum, 37, and the remaining cooled syngas is provided to hydrogen pressure swing adsorption system (PSA), 15, to form a first hydrogen product, 40. The low pressure PSA tail gas, is compressed in compressor, 30, preheated in heat exchanger, 42, and fed to a reactor, 14, to reduce CO content with a water-gas shift reaction, or alternatively a methanation reaction. The CO-adjusted gas is further preheated in heat exchanger, 18, and subsequently provided to the OTM flameless oxidizer elements, 10. The predominately oxy-combusted PSA tail gas leaving OTM tubes, 17, is cooled in heat exchanger, 18, and further cooled in heat exchanger, 42, steam superheater, 19, heat exchanger, 48, and air preheater heat exchanger, 50. The raw CO2 stream is further concentrated in purifier, 20, producing a process condensate stream, and a concentrated CO2 stream, 22.

[0044] Referencing FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C, three different process configurations for CO2 purification is depicted, Common to FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C, is a mixed-feed of natural gas and steam, 400, feeding an oxygen transport membrane, flameless oxidizer-fired steam-methane reformer furnace, 401, producing a syngas stream, 409, and a raw oxy-combustion product stream comprising CO2, 403, The syngas stream, 409, is water-gas shifted in reactor, 410, to produce stream, 411, with a high concentration of hydrogen and CO2. A pressure-swing adsorption system (PSA), 412, separates high-purity hydrogen product from the residual gas forming PSA tail gas stream, 402, which is subsequently heated and provided to the flameless oxidizer elements in SMR, 401, producing a raw oxy-combustion product stream comprising CO2, 403. In FIG. 4A, a further purification of stream 403 is implemented with a liquefaction process, 405A, producing a liquid CO2 co-product, 407A of 99.9% or higher purity. The non-condensable gases rejected from the cryogenic process, 413, can optionally be recycled back to the feed of the reformer system. In FIG. 4B, a further purification of stream 403 is implemented by a catalytic oxidation process (CATOX) 405B, with supplied oxygen, 404, to produce a concentrated CO2 stream which can be subsequently compressed with compressor train, 406, to produce super-critical CO2 product, 407B having 99.3% or higher purity. In FIG. 4C, a further purification of stream 403 is implemented by a methanation reaction process followed by a dryer, 405C, to produce a concentrated CO2 stream which can be subsequently compressed with compressor train, 406, to produce a moderate purity super-critical CO2 product, 407C such as containing 96% or higher CO2 concentration by volume; CO in a concentration less than 1000 ppm by volume, total hydrocarbons in a concentration less than 5% by volume, preferably less than 4% by volume. Typical stream compositions are shown in FIG. 4D. From the figure, one can see that the highest purity is attained with liquefaction process producing stream 407A. The CATOX process, 405B, produces then the next highest CO2 purity, at generally a lower energy and capital cost than the liquefier option. The methanation process, 405C, produces stream 407C that has a lower purity than 407B, but also at a significantly lower cost than CATOX process, 405B. The purification process will generally be chosen based upon the purity requirements for the CO2.

[0045] FIG. 5 depicts the relative equilibrium solid carbon activities across a critical temperature range for several ceramic membrane flameless oxidizer fuel gas compositions. For the hydrogen production process as described in FIG. 2, or FIG. 3, the PSA tail gas is reheated in one or more heat exchangers and presented to the ceramic membrane nameless oxidizers as a fuel, ultimately to be combusted in the presence of permeated oxygen, releasing heat to drive the steam-methane reforming of the natural gas and steam feed. The PSA tail gas generally comprises a mixture of residual CO, CO2, and methane and during the reheating process, may undergo one or more carbon formation reactions:

CO+H2C(s)+H2O CO reduction[−131kJ/mol]

2COC(s)+CO2Boudouard[−172kJ/mol]

CH4C(s)+H2Methane Pyrolysis[+75kJ/mol]

[0046] From Le Chatelier's principle, the methane pyrolysis reaction is endothermic and favored at high temperatures. The CO reduction and Boudouard reactions are exothermic and are favored at reduced temperatures, but not so low as that the reaction kinetics rates are suppressed, and also favored at higher pressure since the reaction produces less moles of gaseous products. For the heating of PSA tail gas, the CO reduction and Boudouard reactions are generally problematic for heating in the 450-650 C temperature range. The reverse CO reduction and Boudouard reactions are favored in the presence of increased product concentration, CO2 and steam, and reduced reactant concentration, primarily CO. FIG. 8, depicts carbon formation mitigation strategy across the critical temperature range. The chart shows thermodynamic chemical equilibrium carbon activity across a range of temperature for several feed compositions to the ceramic membrane flameless oxidizers.

The carbon activity expressions for the three carbon formation reactions are listed in Table 1. The equilibrium constants as function of temperature for each of the reactions—K.sub.1, K.sub.2, K.sub.3— are calculated first using thermodynamic properties. The carbon activities—ac.sub.1, ac.sub.2, ac.sub.3—are then computed using equilibrium constants and partial pressures of the reactants and products according to the reference “Fundamental of Mass Transfer in Gas Carburizing [Olga Karabelchtchikova, Ph.D. Dissertation, November 2007]”. The maximum carbon activity of three reactions is considered for selecting suitable tail gas composition for FOx elements. The tail gas feed composition is adjusted either by addition of steam, addition of steam followed by water gas shift reaction or addition of steam followed by methanation reaction such that maximum carbon activity at 600° C. approaches to one. The 600° C. temperature is chosen as design condition since it is reported in the literature as kinetically favorable temperature at which reaction rates of carbon formation reactions are at peak levels.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Carbon Formation Reactions Reaction Activity equation Equilibrium constant 1) CO reduction [00001]${\mathrm{ac}}_1=K_1\frac{p_{\mathrm{CO}}{p}_{H2}}{p_{H2O}}$ [00002]$K_1=e^{\left(\frac{16333.11}{T}-17.26\right)}$ 2) Boudouard [00003]${\mathrm{ac}}_2=K_2\frac{{\left(p_{\mathrm{CO}}\right)}^2}{p_{\mathrm{CO}2}}$ [00004]$K_2=e^{\left(\frac{20530.65}{T}-20.98\right)}$ 3) Methane pyrolysis [00005]${\mathrm{ac}}_3=K_3\frac{p_{\mathrm{CH}4}}{{\left(p_{H2}\right)}^2}$ [00006]$K_3=e^{\left(\frac{10949.68}{T}-13.31\right)}$
Carbon activity of various gas composition was also investigated in laboratory experiments by flowing a gas mixture comprising hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, steam, and methane, through a ceramic tubular shell heated with three electrical tube furnaces with heating zones evenly distributed along its length with setpoints at 300° C., 500° C., and 700° C. Several 800HT metal alloy sheet metal coupons were distributed along the gas flow path from inlet to outlet to serve as substrates for carbon deposition. Temperature measurements from thermocouples were obtained at the location of each sample. The experiments confirmed the deposition of carbon at significant rates for exposures less than 100 hours in the temperature range of 430° C. to 650° C. By conducting tests with gas compositions across a range of thermodynamic carbon activities and evaluating carbon deposition rates on the metal coupon samples, it was determined that a carbon activity of less than 10 is desirable for metal temperatures above 500° C., and the process should be configured to achieve the lowest practical carbon activity in the range of 500° C. to 600° C., FIG. 5 plots the results of chemical equilibrium calculations for carbon forming reactions listed in Table 1 for FIG. 4D gas compositions. The PSA tail gas, stream 402 will have a severe high carbon activity across the temperature range of interest. Steam may be added to the PSA tail gas mixture leading to a marked improvement in carbon activity, however experiments indicate that carbon precipitate will be observed within the temperature range of interest consistent with the thermodynamic carbon activity. The carbon activity can be further reduced by reducing the concentration of CO in the feed gas. This can be achieved with either the well-known water-gas shift reaction, or methanation reaction. The benefits of each approach are shown in the figure and each produce a reduced carbon activity in the target range that is consistent with experiments showing no carbon precipitation. Further reductions in rates can be achieved by reducing gas pressure. For this reason, the compression of the PSA tail gas is to be limited to below 9 barg, and preferably as low as practical to overcome system pressure drop and achieve target oxygen flux permeation rates in the ceramic membrane nameless oxidizers. A summary of gas stream compositions and reference carbon activities at 500° C. and 600° C. and target pressure of 9 barg is shown in Table 2. The carbon activity in the temperature range of interest is dominated by the Boudouard and the CO reduction carbon-forming reactions, and are very sensitive to the concentration of CO. In general, a CO concentration of less than 8% by volume is desirable, and preferably the process should be configured to reduce the concentration of CO to a minimum.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Carbon Activity Calculation Results TG + 50% Dry PSA TG + 50% TG + 20% steam with Tail Gas steam steam with water-gas shift (TG) addition methanation (WGS) H.sub.2 Mole % 24.5% 16.3% 9.4% 21.8% N.sub.2 0.5% 0.4% 0.5% 0.4% CO 11.5% 7.7% 4.5% 2.2% CO.sub.2 46.8% 31.2% 43.9% 36.6% H.sub.2O 0.8% 33.9% 22.5% 28.4% CH4 15.9% 10.6% 19.2% 10.6% Carbon activity at 1439 48.2 11.7 7.8 500° C.; 9 barg Carbon activity at 128 2.3 1.1 0.69 600° C.; 9 barg

[0047] FIG. 6 depicts a typical heat-up and fueled start-up sequence for a ceramic membrane flameless oxidizer heated steam methane reformer process with devices and streams defined in FIG. 2, The typical heat-up and fueled start-up process for the subject invention, 200, proceeds through several phases: A burner-heated warm-up to a threshold temperature followed by an arbitrary duration stand-by at threshold temperature, followed by a main process fueled ramp-up in temperature to a normal operation temperature and operating state. The burner-heated warm up is initiated by the energizing of the main motors serving one or more blowers, 202, 209, that circulate the airflow through the air-side of the process and reformer furnace enclosure. Once proof-of-airflow is confirmed, the ignition of one or more auxiliary burners, 205, may commence, generally following a prescribed burner management controller system sequence. Once an active and stable combustion process is established and confirmed, the system proceeds through a warm-up phase where the hot gas effluent from the burner is mixed with the cooler returning air from the furnace, and the hot mixture proceeds to an air preheater heat exchanger, 203. This heat exchanger is generally of a multi-pass tube and shell arrangement, utilizing 304SS and 800HT alloy tubes in the tube bundles as required by their operating temperature. The hot combustion gases are generally conveyed on the inside diameter of the tubes in the bundle, with the air being preheated on the outside (shell) side of the heat exchanger. For tubes with surfaces operating above about 500° C., an alumina barrier coating is applied to the outside surface of the tube, in a commercial aluminide cementation process as performed by DAL in the U. K. to reduce the Cr containing vapor species emission from the tubes into the feed air to the furnace containing the ceramic membrane flameless oxidizers. Filtered ambient air is provided to the shell side of the heat exchanger through action of typically an induced-draft blower, 209, at the exit of the process air system, or a combination of forced-draft blower, 202, at the inlet of the process, and an induced-draft blower, 209, at the outlet of the process. The incoming ambient air is preheated in the heat exchanger, 203, to a temperature typically 20-150° C. higher than the furnace exit air temperature by adjusting the firing duty of the auxiliary burner and the airflow rate as delivered by the blowers. The heating continues in this manner until a threshold temperature is reached, typically between 750-850° C. At this point, a stand-by, or dwell period of arbitrary duration may be conducted. A moderate duration dwell period, or ‘soak’ at this temperature serves to create a more uniform temperature environment in the reformer furnace before a process-fueled ramp-up phase is initiated. The process-fueled ramp-up phase is initiated when process steam is available at pressure in the steam drum and the initial low flow of natural gas and steam, 211, mixed-feed is supplied to the steam methane reformer tubes, 212. During this phase, the PSA tail gas fuel, 217, will begin to emerge from the PSA, 215, in increasing rates consistent with the mixed-feed flow rates to the steam-methane reformers. The PSA tail gas provides a fuel gas to the ceramic membrane flameless oxidizer elements, 204, promoting oxygen transport and oxy-combustion, and the associated heat release serving to drive additional heat to the reformer section. This process will occur with a progressive slow increase of reformer feed flow rate, associated PSA tail gas fuel flow to the ceramic membrane flameless oxidizing burners, and a corresponding increase in air temperature rise leaving the furnace. The auxiliary burner duty is adjusted during this period to allow for a coordinated heat up of the ceramic membrane and reformers to the target normal operating temperature of nominally 1000° C. for the ceramic membrane elements. Once normal operation temperature is achieved, then mixed-feed flow rate to the reformers and auxiliary burner duty are both modulated independently to maintain ceramic operating temperature within the desired range and maintain reformer production rates and metal temperature below prescribed operating limits. During this period, a supplemental flow of natural gas may be provided to the ceramic membrane elements to adjust their heat duty up to maintain temperature control. Alternatively, or in conjunction with the natural gas a small stream of recycled product hydrogen may be used to supply additional fuel to the ceramic membrane elements. During the normal operating period, the predominant CO2 emission from the plant is through the flue emissions, 207, from the natural gas fired auxiliary, burner, 205. These emissions can be offset and reduced to substantially zero by replacing some, or all, of the fuel energy supplied to the burner by natural gas with recycled product hydrogen.

[0048] FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of a comparison between the CO2 emission of the present invention and a conventional hydrogen production process utilizing steam methane reforming in conjunction with an amine-based system for carbon dioxide capture. Overall the method utilizing oxygen transport ceramic membranes, flameless oxidizer in an oxy-combustion mode to provide heat to the steam methane reformer avoids the need for an amine-based capture system and further avoids a majority of the CO2 emissions, and trace nitrogen-oxide emissions created by the air-blown combustion of a steam methane reformer furnace. The overall rate of CO2 capture with the ceramic membrane configuration is 30% higher per unit of hydrogen product than the steam methane reformer configuration with an amine-based capture system. The emitted CO2 of the ceramic membrane configuration is 17% of the steam methane reformer configuration with an amine-based capture system per unit of hydrogen product.

[0049] While the present invention has been characterized in various ways and described in relation to preferred embodiments, as will occur to those skilled in the art, numerous, additions, changes and modifications thereto can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims,