Chemistry of inorganic compounds – Hydrogen or compound thereof – Elemental hydrogen
Patent
1980-07-21
1983-07-05
Vertiz, O. R.
Chemistry of inorganic compounds
Hydrogen or compound thereof
Elemental hydrogen
252373, 422197, 422199, C01B 113
Patent
active
043917941
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a process for producing hydrogen under pressure by means of chemical reaction between hydrocarbons and water vapour and at a reduced consumption of hydrocarbons and energy.
Hydrogen is required in large quantities primarily as a component gas for the synthesis of ammonia or methanol.
Processes in which hydrocarbons are reformed by means of water vapour at high temperatures in endothermic reactions are known. The required heat is produced by internal or external combustion of an additional quantity of hydrocarbons. A total of approximately 30 to 40 MJ of energy are required for the production of 1 kg of ammonia.
Process of electrolysis of water and of thermolysis of water vapour are also known and the energies required for the dissociation can be supplied partially or entirely by nuclear heat or by electric energy. However, in none of these processes the total amount of energy required is substantially lower than that mentioned above. Moreover, the nuclear heat at the desired temperature level is not yet economically available and in most cases the electric energy is substantially more valuable than the calorific value of hydrocarbons.
Said high requirements of energy is primarily not due to physical limits, but it is due to the not substantially reducible irreversibilities in the known processes within an economical optimization.
It is the aim of the present invention to reduce substantially the requirement of hydrocarbons for the production of hydrogen (approximately to one half) a portion of said base materials thus saved being replaced by electric energy. However, the amount of electric energy required for the process according to the invention is several times smaller than that for the known electrolysis and the total energy required is still substantially lower than that for any known process. Furthermore, the process according to the invention is simplified as compared with known processes and the expenditure for the apparatus according to the invention is reduced as compared with known apparatus.
The present invention relates to a process for producing hydrogen under pressure by means of chemical reactions between hydrocarbons and water vapour with a reduced requirement of hydrocarbons and energy, in which a portion of the heat which is required for heating the feedstock from the ambient temperature to the reaction temperature, as well as for the endothermic reactions originates from the recovery of the sensible heat of the reaction products, and in which additional heat is supplied to the process gas by electric heating between the remaining heating of the feedstock and the cooling of the reaction products.
The said additional heat is required for promoting the recovery of heat and for covering the heat required by the endothermic reactions.
The additional heat can also be supplied by combustion of reducing agents with oxygen or oxygen-containing gases.
The process is to yield the reaction products preferably at high pressure in order to save the energy for their eventually required further compression. This results in the necessity of a high final temperature of the chemical reactions so that they proceed far enough.
However, the parts of the apparatus which are exposed to high temperatures cannot withstand high stresses. This problem can be solved in that the heat recuperator with the catalyst required for accelerating the chemical reactions and the electric heating device are housed in a common pressure shell, whose inside is entirely or partially heat-insulated and which is externally cooled in a suitable manner.
The invention will now be described in more detail by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing.
The gas mixture consists of 1 mole of octane (C.sub.8 H.sub.18) and 32 moles of water vapour (H.sub.2 O) and is continuously fed via the pipe 1 into the pressure shell 2 at a pressure of 100 bars and a temperature of 600 K. The lower end of the shell 2 is lined on the inside with a heat-insulating material 3.
The introduced gas flows through the tube
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patent: 3514264 (1970-05-01), Sennewald et al.
patent: 3578416 (1971-05-01), Pope
patent: 3685977 (1972-08-01), Goodman
patent: 3751228 (1973-08-01), Semenov
Langel Wayne A.
Vertiz O. R.
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