STEAM REFORMING WITH SEPARATION OF PSA TAIL GASES

摘要

Steam and a hydrocarbon feedstock are reformed in a combustion heated reformer in a manner in which the energy content of the PSA tail gas downstream exceeds the heating requirements of the reformer. The syngas is separated in one or more PSA units into at least a high purity hydrogen stream, at least one process gas recycle stream containing tail gas energy units exceeding the energy units required for heating the reformer, and a burner stream containing the balance of the PSA inlet gases and preferably containing no more energy units than are required for heating the reformer. The recycle streams are recycled as process gas to the reformer, the PSA or both, and the burner stream is used for heating the reformer.