NOVELTRENDS IN REFORMING SOUR NATURAL GASFOR HYDROGEN & SYNTHESIS GAS PRODUCTION

• Main Author: Hussein K. Abdel-Aal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering, India 2016-07-01
• Series: Journal of Research in Engineering and Applied Sciences
• Subjects: sour natural gas; reforming; hydrogen; non-catalytic partial oxidation
• Online Access: http://www.mgijournal.com/Data/Issues_AdminPdf/70/2-Volume%201%20Issue%204%20%20Oct%202016.pdf

When reforming natural gas to obtain hydrogen and synthesis gas, it is taken for granted that the feed gas has to be sour-free. This is based on the ground that catalysts used in the reforming process are susceptible to poisoning by sulfur compounds. Therefore, we are faced with the dilemma of the exhaustive desulfurization process of the sour gas in order to make it sweet. The other option is to use thermal reforming and avoid the catalytic route. In this paper,trends in the reforming technology of natural gas, in general, are reviewed first. Next, novel trends in reforming sour natural gas, in particular, are presentedusing high temperature heat (H.T.H.) approach. This method can be carried out using non-catalytic partial oxidation NCPO in a chamber combustion (CC) or rich combustion in porous media (CPM). Simulation results for NCPO, reported earlier by Abdel-Aal et al [1,2] are re-examined on the ground that using CPM is a promising method to handle the reforming of sour natural gas through the proposed given process-schemeThe application of ultra-rich super-adiabatic partial oxidation in an inert porous medium forhydrogen generation is a novel area of research and technology. This is particularly true when dealing with sour natural gas resources. The present contribution focuses on this approach. The review helps to document the foundation on which the needed development can build.The proposed scheme avoids the problem of separation of acidic gases and aims instead, to direct chemical conversion. The partial combustion of sour natural gas will end up converting the sulfur element into to sulfuric acid as a co-product along with synthesis gas and hydrogen as end products.