Review of Small Stationary Reformers for Hydrogen Production

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Approximately 95% of the hydrogen produced today comes from carbonaceous raw material,
primarily fossil in origin. Only a fraction of this hydrogen is currently used for energy purposes;
the bulk serves as a chemical feedstock for petrochemical, food, electronics and metallurgical
processing industries. However, hydrogen’s share in the energy market is increasing with the
implementation of fuel cell systems and the growing demand for zero-emission fuels. Hydrogen
production will need to keep pace with this growing market.
In the near term, increased production will likely be met by conventional technologies, such as
natural gas reforming. In these processes, the carbon is converted to CO2 and released to the
atmosphere. However, with the growing concern about global climate change, alternatives to
the atmospheric release of CO2 are being investigated. Sequestration of the CO2 is an option
that could provide a viable near-term solution.
Cost of building sufficient distribution infrastructure and transporting hydrogen over large
distances are major economic barriers to the implementation of hydrogen-based technologies,
particularly in the transportation sector. Additionally, large-scale central production will depend
on market volumes to evolve in order to compensate for the capital expenditures of building up
capacity. Thus, distributed production via smaller reformer systems is viewed as an attractive
near- to mid-term option for supplying hydrogen, particularly for vehicles and in regions where
low-cost natural gas is readily available, and for securing market share for hydrogen
technologies.
Reformer technology is commercially available today. However, scale economies in capital cost
can be significant. Lower pressure and temperature and lower cost materials are needed to
make small-scale, distributed reforming competitive. Minimizing CO2 emissions must also be
addressed, as carbon capture and sequestration will be too costly at the small scale.
Recently, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Program on the Production and Utilization of
Hydrogen launched its new Task 16, Hydrogen from Carbon-Containing Materials, to bring
together international experts to investigate some of these near- and mid-term options for
producing hydrogen with reduced environmental impacts. In addition to large-scale fossil-based
production with carbon sequestration, small-scale reforming for distributed generation and
technologies to convert biomass to hydrogen are included in the activity.
This review of current hydrogen production technologies was prepared to facilitate in the
planning of collaborative activities to be carried out under the auspices of the IEA and focusing
on advancing small-scale reformers for distributed hydrogen production. This report surveys
conventional technologies:
• Steam Methane Reforming
• Partial Oxidation
• Auto-Thermal Reforming
• Methanol Reforming
• Catalytic Cracking of Methane
• Ammonia Cracking
Novel reformer technologies, such as sorbent enhanced reforming, ion transport reforming,
plasma reforming and microchannel reforming are also discussed. Technologies are reviewed