Thermodynamic analyses of hydrogen production from sub-quality natural gas: Part II: Steam reforming and autothermal steam reforming

Part I of this paper analyzed sub-quality natural gas (SQNG) pyrolysis and autothermal pyrolysis. Production of hydrogen via direct thermolysis of SQNGs produces only 2 mol of hydrogen and 1 mol of carbon per mole of methane (CH4). Steam reforming of SQNG (SRSQNG) could become a more effective approach because the processes produce two more moles of hydrogen via water splitting. A Gibbs reactor unit operation in the AspenPlus™ chemical process simulator was employed to accomplish equilibrium calculations for the SQNG + H2O and SQNG + H2O + O2 systems. The results indicate that water and oxygen inlet flow rates do not significantly affect the decomposition of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) at temperatures lower than 1000 °C. The major co-product of the processes is carbonyl sulfide (COS) while sulfur dimer (S2) and carbon disulfide (CS2) are minor by-products within this temperature range. At higher temperatures (>1300 °C), CS2 and S2 become major co-products. No sulfur dioxide (SO2) or sulfur trioxide (SO3) is formed during either SRSQNG or autothermal SRSQNG processes, indicating that no environmentally harmful acidic gases are generated.