Gas reformer for producing hydrogen

A process for reforming for producing hydrogen and generating electricity, comprising:

• introducing a feed comprising a hydrocarbon stream to a reformer to produce an unshifted synthesis gas (syngas);
• introducing the unshifted syngas to a multi-stage water gas shift unit comprising a high temperature shift reactor and a low temperature shift reactor to produce a shifted syngas;
• introducing the shifted syngas to a shifted syngas cooling unit comprising a heat exchanger configured as a cross-exchanger having a shifted syngas side and a coolant side for removing aqueous condensate from the shifted syngas;
• removing the aqueous condensate from the shifted syngas side of the heat exchanger;
• introducing the aqueous condensate to the coolant side of the heat exchanger via a pump configured to facilitate flow of the aqueous condensate from the shifted syngas side to the coolant side;
• producing a heat exchanger steam comprising a dirty steam including dissolved carbon dioxide and ammonia from the aqueous condensate;
• feeding the heat exchanger steam without treatment to the reformer, wherein the heat exchanger steam replaces a boiler feed water thereby avoiding a requirement of using the boiler feed water;
• removing CO2 from the shifted syngas in an absorption unit using a physical solvent regenerated by flash regeneration without a stripper and without a steam-fed reboiler to produce a CO2 depleted syngas and a CO2 product;
• introducing the CO2 depleted syngas to a pressure swing adsorption unit to produce a hydrogen product and an off-gas comprising carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, unreacted methane;
• splitting a portion of the hydrogen product;
• and
• providing the portion of the hydrogen product to an electricity generator for generating electricity for use within the process,
• wherein the process achieves a carbon dioxide capture of equal to or greater than 70 mol % based on a sum amount of CO2 introduced into the process plus CO2 generated in the process.

A process for installing apparatus in a reforming unit for producing hydrogen, wherein the reforming unit comprises a reformer, a water gas shift unit, and a pressure swing adsorption unit, the process comprising:

• installing a shifted syngas cooling unit downstream of the water gas shift unit, the shifted syngas cooling unit comprising a heat exchanger configured as a cross-exchanger having a shifted syngas side configured to receive a shifted syngas and remove aqueous condensate therefrom, and a coolant side configured to receive the aqueous condensate and convert the aqueous condensate to steam;
• installing a pump configured to transfer the aqueous condensate from the shifted syngas side to the coolant side of the heat exchanger;
• connecting a steam outlet of the coolant side of the heat exchanger to a steam inlet of the reformer such that dirty steam comprising dissolved carbon dioxide and ammonia flows without treatment from the heat exchanger to the reformer;
• installing an absorption unit downstream of the shifted syngas cooling unit to receive shifted syngas from the shifted syngas cooling unit, wherein the absorption unit comprises a physical solvent absorption system with flash regeneration configured to operate without a stripper and without a steam-fed reboiler;
• installing the absorption unit and the shifted syngas cooling unit such that a boiler feed water supply to the reformer is eliminated and replaced by the steam from the heat exchanger;
• and
• configuring the process to achieve a carbon dioxide capture of equal to or greater than 70 mol % based on a sum amount of CO2 introduced into the process plus CO2 generated in the process.