Process and plant for the production of synthesis gas and generation of process condensate
AssigneeTopsoe A/S
InventorsSteffen Spangsberg CHRISTENSEN, Nitesh BANSAL
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Process and plant for producing a synthesis gas by catalytic steam reforming of a hydrocarbon feedstock in a steam reforming unit, wherein water is removed from the synthesis gas as a process condensate, wherein boiler feed water is introduced in the process, and wherein the process or plant produces at least two separate steam streams: a pure steam which is generated from at least a portion of the boiler feed water by the cooling of synthesis gas, and a process steam which is generated by evaporating at least a portion of the process condensate by using synthesis gas, optionally together with pure steam and/or flue gas from the steam reforming unit.
Claims19
A plant for producing a synthesis gas comprising:
- - a steam reforming unit for converting a hydrocarbon feedstock into the synthesis gas and optionally generating a flue gas;
- - a process condensate separator for removing water from the synthesis gas thereby forming a water-depleted synthesis gas stream and a process condensate stream;
- - a boiler feed water (BFW) system comprising one or more BFW heat exchangers for generating a pure steam stream, by indirect cooling in one or more heat exchangers of the synthesis gas;
- - a process condensate (PC) system comprising a process condensate boiler (PC boiler) for generating a process steam stream, the PC boiler comprising:
- a heat exchange unit for evaporating at least a portion of the process condensate stream by the cooling of synthesis gas;
- and optionally, at least one of:
- a heat exchange unit for evaporating at least a portion of the process condensate stream by the cooling of at least a portion of the pure steam stream as heat exchange medium;
- and a heat exchange unit for evaporating at least a portion of the process condensate stream by the cooling of the flue gas, - one or more water-gas shift conversion units for enriching the synthesis gas in hydrogen;
- and - a hydrogen purification unit for producing:
- the hydrogen product from at least a portion of the water-depleted synthesis gas stream;
- and an off-gas stream, wherein the steam reforming unit is:- a conventional steam methane reformer (SMR) and the one or more water-gas shift conversion units is a medium-temperature shift conversion unit (MT-shift unit);
- or- an autothermal reformer (ATR) and the one or more water-gas shift conversion units is a high-temperature shift unit (HT-shift unit) followed by a MT-shift unit or low-temperature shift unit (LT-shift unit).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.