Steam methane reforming (SMR) for hydrogen production with carbon capture from pressure swing adsorption (PSA) tail gas using MDEA

Steam methane reforming (SMR) is a method that can be used for producing hydrogen from natural gas. This is achieved in a processing device called a reformer which reacts steam at high temperature with the gas. SMR uses the following endothermic reaction:

CH₄ + H₂O ⇌ CO + 3H₂.

The reaction is carried out at an activation energy of 206 kJ/mol and temperatures of 500-900 degrees Celsius [3]. In this SMR plant, a COGEN plant is running to export a relatively small fraction of the energy involved to the electricity grid. This plant involves the capture of CO₂ from the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) tail gas using chemical absorption (using methyldiethanolamine – MDEA). This can achieve a CO₂ avoidance of 52%.