IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v13y2020i15p3807-d389164.html

Exergetic and Economic Improvement for a Steam Methane-Reforming Industrial Plant: Simulation Tool

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco Jose Durán

    (Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Castilla—La Mancha, Avda. Camilo José Cela 12, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain)

  • Fernando Dorado

    (Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Castilla—La Mancha, Avda. Camilo José Cela 12, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain)

  • Luz Sanchez-Silva

    (Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Castilla—La Mancha, Avda. Camilo José Cela 12, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain)

Abstract

Steam methane reforming (SMR) for hydrogen production was studied by simulating the reformer and pre-reformer sections. This simulation was validated by using available data taken from a real industrial plant, which enabled precise correlations with the real industrial process to be found. Moreover, the influence of the molar ratio between the raw materials (steam-to-carbon molar ratio, S/C) and the reformer outlet temperature ( T cc ) was studied. The energy requirements for the reforming reaction increased with the S/C ratio. The energy needed for developing the reforming reaction also increased with T cc , but the hydrogen yield when operating with a high S/C ratio and T cc increased. In addition, an exergetic analysis was carried out to identify exergy losses in the SMR process, and most were destroyed in the chemical reactors. Increasing the combustion air flow was proposed for finding an optimum value for exergetic efficiency in the process, thereby reducing fuel consumption. Finally, there was a study into the economic viability of this investment, with a reduction of 22% in utility costs with the optimum exergetic value.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Jose Durán & Fernando Dorado & Luz Sanchez-Silva, 2020. "Exergetic and Economic Improvement for a Steam Methane-Reforming Industrial Plant: Simulation Tool," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:15:p:3807-:d:389164
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/15/3807/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/15/3807/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pashchenko, Dmitry, 2018. "First law energy analysis of thermochemical waste-heat recuperation by steam methane reforming," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 478-487.
    2. BoroumandJazi, G. & Rismanchi, B. & Saidur, R., 2013. "A review on exergy analysis of industrial sector," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 198-203.
    3. Nikolaidis, Pavlos & Poullikkas, Andreas, 2017. "A comparative overview of hydrogen production processes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 597-611.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Calapatia, Andre Marvin A. & Ubando, Aristotle T., 2024. "Design of dual-channel Swiss-roll reactor for high-performance hydrogen production from ethanol steam reforming through waste heat valorization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    2. Salem, O.H. & Hassan, Hamdy, 2026. "A comprehensive review on mainly hydrogen production based on waste heat recovery for single and multigeneration energy systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 402(PB).
    3. Sadeghi, Shayan & Ghandehariun, Samane, 2022. "A standalone solar thermochemical water splitting hydrogen plant with high-temperature molten salt: Thermodynamic and economic analyses and multi-objective optimization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    4. Santhanam, S. & Heddrich, M.P. & Riedel, M. & Friedrich, K.A., 2017. "Theoretical and experimental study of Reversible Solid Oxide Cell (r-SOC) systems for energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 202-214.
    5. Raúl Arango-Miranda & Robert Hausler & Rabindranarth Romero-López & Mathias Glaus & Sara Patricia Ibarra-Zavaleta, 2018. "An Overview of Energy and Exergy Analysis to the Industrial Sector, a Contribution to Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-19, January.
    6. Alves, Luís & Pereira, Vítor & Lagarteira, Tiago & Mendes, Adélio, 2021. "Catalytic methane decomposition to boost the energy transition: Scientific and technological advancements," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    7. Abadie, Luis Mª & Chamorro, José M., 2023. "Investment in wind-based hydrogen production under economic and physical uncertainties," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    8. Samuel Simon Araya & Fan Zhou & Simon Lennart Sahlin & Sobi Thomas & Christian Jeppesen & Søren Knudsen Kær, 2019. "Fault Characterization of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Stack," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, January.
    9. Abdellatif Azzaoui & Mohammed Attiaoui & Elmiloud Chaabelasri & Hugo Gonçalves Silva & Ahmed Alami Merrouni, 2025. "Techno-Economic Assessment of Linear Fresnel-Based Hydrogen Production in the MENA Region: Toward Affordable, Locally Driven Deployment for Enhanced Profitability and Reduced Costs," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-26, July.
    10. Navas-Anguita, Zaira & García-Gusano, Diego & Iribarren, Diego, 2019. "A review of techno-economic data for road transportation fuels," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 11-26.
    11. Utlu, Zafer, 2015. "Investigation of the potential for heat recovery at low, medium, and high stages in the Turkish industrial sector (TIS): An application," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 394-405.
    12. Freida Ozavize Ayodele & Siti Indati Mustapa & Bamidele Victor Ayodele & Norsyahida Mohammad, 2020. "An Overview of Economic Analysis and Environmental Impacts of Natural Gas Conversion Technologies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-18, December.
    13. Hegazy Rezk & Mokhtar Aly & Rania M. Ghoniem, 2023. "Robust Fuzzy Logic MPPT Using Gradient-Based Optimization for PEMFC Power System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.
    14. Park, Joungho & Kang, Sungho & Kim, Sunwoo & Kim, Hana & Kim, Sang-Kyung & Lee, Jay H., 2024. "Optimizing green hydrogen systems: Balancing economic viability and reliability in the face of supply-demand volatility," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 368(C).
    15. Iva Ridjan Skov & Noémi Schneider & Gerald Schweiger & Josef-Peter Schöggl & Alfred Posch, 2021. "Power-to-X in Denmark: An Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-14, February.
    16. Rey, I. & Barrio, V.L. & Agirre, I., 2025. "Environmental and economic assessment of large-scale hydrogen supply chains across Europe: LOHC vs other hydrogen technologies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 401(PC).
    17. Yali Wang & Haidong Yang & Kangkang Xu, 2020. "Thermal Performance Combined with Cooling System Parameters Study for a Roller Kiln Based on Energy-Exergy Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-31, July.
    18. Charalampos Michalakakis & Jeremy Fouillou & Richard C. Lupton & Ana Gonzalez Hernandez & Jonathan M. Cullen, 2021. "Calculating the chemical exergy of materials," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(2), pages 274-287, April.
    19. Lee, Timothy & Fu, Jintao & Basile, Victoria & Corsi, John S. & Wang, Zeyu & Detsi, Eric, 2020. "Activated alumina as value-added byproduct from the hydrolysis of hierarchical nanoporous aluminum with pure water to generate hydrogen fuel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 189-196.
    20. Aasadnia, Majid & Mehrpooya, Mehdi, 2018. "Large-scale liquid hydrogen production methods and approaches: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 57-83.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:15:p:3807-:d:389164. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.