March 2012

System manufacturers, Dürr Systems GmbH and Caloric Anlagenbau GmbH, will collaborate in the field o... ...more

February 2012

Once more Calorics’ advanced hydrogen technology supports a greenfield development polysilicon prod... ...more

Low Temperature Steam Reforming

With the HCE process, high purity hydrogen is produced by low-temperature and low-pressure steam reforming. The HCE process is designed for hydrogen production at lowest investment costs.

A specific feature of the new reformer is its flexible use of various feedstocks. With only minor modifications, natural gas, LPG and methanol can be used alternatively. LPG or methanol can easily bridge time gaps, e.g. until availability of natural gas in the future or as a response to cost fluctuations among feedstocks.

The feed is desulphurized, mixed with steam and then converted into a syngas consisting of H₂, CO, CO₂, H₂O and CH₄ in an insulated low temperature reformer. The hot syngas is preheating the feed prior to being cooled to ambient temperature. After compression, the syngas passes the PSA purification unit where the H₂ is isolated to the required purity. The tail gas of the PSA is used as support fuel in the burner.

Typical feed:
natural gas, methanol, LPG

Capacity range:
50 - 300 Nm³/h

H₂ purity:
typically 99.999% by vol.
(optional 99.9999% by vol.)

H₂ supply pressure:
typically 15 bar g

Operation:
automatic, PLC controlled

Utilities:
For the production of 100 Nm³/h H₂
from natural gas the following utilities are required: