Production of syngas from methane

A process for producing syngas from methane, the process is characterized in that it comprises the steps:

• a. providing one or more solid oxide fuel cells (1), wherein each of said one or more solid oxide fuel cells (1) has an anode and a cathode and comprises a solid oxide electrolyte between the anode and the cathode;
• further wherein the anode, the cathode and the solid oxide electrolyte are each composed of one or more ceramic materials;
• b. providing a cathode feed stream (3) at the cathode of the one or more solid oxide fuel cells (1), said cathode feed stream (3) being an oxygen-rich stream, to generate oxygen ions diffusing to the anode of the one or more solid oxide fuel cells (1) through the solid oxide electrolyte;
• c. providing an anode feed stream (5) at the anode of the one or more solid oxide fuel cells (1), said anode feed stream (5) comprising methane;
• d. performing at least a partial oxidation reaction of the methane of the anode feed stream (5) with the oxygen from the oxygen ions generated at step (b) to produce an anodic effluent stream (7) comprising syngas;
• e. providing one or more protonic membrane reformers (9) and a stream (11) comprising methane and water;
• f. within said one or more protonic membrane reformers (9):
• i. performing a steam methane reforming reaction with the stream (11) comprising methane and water to generate syngas;
• and
• ii. recovering from said syngas at least a carbon oxides-containing stream (13), said carbon oxides-containing stream (13) being at least partially mixed to the anode feed stream (5) provided at step (c);
• wherein each of said one or more protonic membrane reformers (9) has an anode and a cathode, and the anode of said each of the one or more protonic membrane reformers (9) is directly adjacent with the anode of said each of the one or more solid oxide fuel cells (1) provided at step (a).