Steam-Hydrocarbon Reforming with Low Steam Production

A system for producing a hydrogen-enriched product stream comprising:

• a reformer comprising a reforming catalyst and one or more burners, wherein the reformer is configured to accept a reformer feed stream comprising methane and a reactant selected from the group consisting of water and carbon dioxide to contact the reforming catalyst and produce a syngas stream comprising hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide;
• wherein the one or more burners are configured to combust a fuel gas and transfer heat energy to the reformer feed stream in the presence of the reforming catalyst;
• a carbon dioxide removal system configured to accept the syngas stream or a stream derived from the syngas stream to produce a carbon dioxide-enriched stream and a carbon dioxide-depleted stream;
• a product purification system comprising an inlet port, a product outlet port, and a tail gas outlet port, configured to accept the carbon dioxide-depleted stream to produce a hydrogen-depleted tail gas stream and the hydrogen-enriched product stream;
• a membrane separation system comprising an inlet port, a permeate outlet port, and a retentate outlet port, configured to accept the hydrogen-depleted tail gas stream to produce a hydrogen-enriched permeate stream and a hydrogen-depleted retentate stream;
• a permeate conduit in fluid flow communication with the permeate outlet port of the membrane separation system and the inlet port of the product purification system;
• and
• a fuel gas conduit in fluid flow communication with the one or more burners and the tail gas outlet port of the product purification system.