Exergy analysis in intensification of sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming for clean hydrogen production: Comparative study and efficiency optimisation

Abstract

Hydrogen has a key role to play in decarbonising industry and other sectors of society. It is important to develop low-carbon hydrogen production technologies that are cost-effective and energy-efficient. Sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming (SE-SMR) is a developing low-carbon (blue) hydrogen production process, which enables combined hydrogen production and carbon capture. Despite a number of key benefits, the process is yet to be fully realised in terms of efficiency. In this work, a sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming process has been intensified via exergy analysis. Assessing the exergy efficiency of these processes is key to ensuring the effective deployment of low-carbon hydrogen production technologies. An exergy analysis was performed on an SE-SMR process and was then subsequently used to incorporate process improvements, developing a process that has, theoretically, an extremely high CO2 capture rate of nearly 100 %, whilst simultaneously demonstrating a high exergy efficiency (77.58 %), showcasing the potential of blue hydrogen as an effective tool to ensure decarbonisation, in an energy-efficient manner.