A conceptual design of a stand-alone hydrogen production system with low carbon dioxide emissions

A conceptual design for the carbon dioxide reforming of methane to consume greenhouse gases is implemented in an autothermal reformer (ATR)-based hydrogen production system. Based on the waste heat recovery configuration, a heat-integrated system without external heat supplies is proposed where the optimal operating conditions are determined by solving the constrained optimization algorithm for maximizing hydrogen selectivity or minimizing carbon dioxide selectivity. The results obtained from an Aspen HYSYS® simulator for the system design and optimization shows that the proposed stand-alone hydrogen production system can achieve 40%∼50% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

► Process design, simulation and optimization of a hydrogen production system.
► A conceptual design of a carbon dioxide reforming of methane is presented.
► The process design can ensure 40%∼50% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
► The stand-alone system is based on the waste heat recovery strategy.