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• What are the most attractive long-term options for incorporating autothermal reforming (ATR) and/or partial oxidation (POX) to produce blue hydrogen at near-zero CO2 emissions? Or can CO2 emissions from SMR units be further reduced?

  Mar-2023

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Answers

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• Nitesh Bansal, Topsoe, niba@topsoe.com

  There are multiple advantages of using ATR technology for blue hydrogen production:
  • High carbon capture is possible using ATR. Topsoe SynCOR (advanced ATR) can achieve up to 99% carbon capture using only process gas carbon capture
  • ATR technology can provide the scale of operation, which is the key feature for blue hydrogen production. Topsoe SynCOR (advanced ATR) can reach up to 800,000 Nm3/h hydrogen capacity in a single train
  • Overall levelised cost of hydrogen production (LCOH) is  lower in ATR compared to SMR due to the scale-up Capex as well as lower Opex and higher carbon capture credits.

  This begs the question: can CO2 emissions from SMR units be further reduced?
  CO2 emissions from SMR units can be reduced by 60-65% by installing process gas carbon capture. If there is a requirement to further reduce carbon capture by >90%, there are multiple options:
  • H2 firing in the reformer. This will increase the overall plant size by 30%
  • Installing flue gas carbon capture. This is expensive from both a Capex and Opex point of view.

   

  Mar-2023