New Developments in Steam Reformer Design

Block 2, Forum 8 paper

New Developments in Steam Reformer Design

Zain Abdin, Technip Benelux B.V.
Simon Barendregt, Technip Benelux B.V.
Abstract:
Environmental legislations are challenging hydrogen technology licensors to develop and
apply steam reformer design technologies to meet the requirements on emissions and low
energy consumption. This paper is dealing with Technip's answer to those challenges and will
discuss latest ultra low NOx combustion technologies to reduce NOx emissions to lowest
possible levels.
This paper also covers topics related to application of an EHTR (post reformer) to increase
hydrogen production in an existing unit at reduced energy consumption to meet growing
demand of hydrogen for various hydroprocessing processes in the refinery.
Introduction
Processing of heavier & more sour crude oil, growing demand of middle distillates and more
stringent environmental regulations are putting pressure on refiners for a need of more
hydrogen. Continuous increase in the demand of hydrogen in refinery industry has led to
installation of large number of on-purpose hydrogen production plants in last two decades. As
need is also called as mother of inventions, the emerging needs of hydrogen gave big
challenges to hydrogen technologists to find out new developments so that refiners can be
benefited with more hydrogen, which is not only cost effective & efficient but at the same time
the hydrogen production plant is reliable, safe, operable and fulfils the environmental
emission norms. Since majority of the on-purpose hydrogen production in refinery are based
on steam methane/hydrocarbon reforming (SMR) route, this paper covers the new
developments introduced by Technip in hydrogen production based on steam
methane/hydrocarbon reforming (SMR) route.
Hydrogen Production by SMR Route
Typical process configuration of a modern SMR plant, for production of hydrogen, consists of
following process steps:

Pre-treatment of Hydrocarbon Feed (Natural gas/ LPG/ Naphtha)

Pre-reformer (Optional)
Steam Reformer
Shift Conversion
Purification (PSA)

A typical process flow diagram for SMR plant is shown in Figure 1.

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New Developments in Steam Reformer Design

Block 2, Forum 8 paper

Figure 1

Due to the following, which has direct impact on the reformer, therefore, it is reformer is
generally called heart of any SMR plant:

Process Considerations

Reforming severity (s/c ratio, inlet/ outlet temperatures, avg. heat flux, etc.)
Firing control
Combustion air preheat level
Export steam
Thermal efficiency

Operational Aspects

Start-up/ shut-down
Turn-down

Economic Parameters

Net operating cost

Payback criteria
Level of sparing for reliability

Safety & Environment

Design margins
NOx, SOx, CO in the flue gas

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New Developments in Steam Reformer Design

Block 2, Forum 8 paper

Reformer Design
The steam reforming process is carried out in tubular reactors that are highly endothermic
and catalytically controlled. The reaction heat is supplied by the top mounted down-fired
burners in the furnace box and transferred to the catalyst tubes mainly by radiation.
The steam reformer is essentially a fired reactor consisting of catalyst-filled tubes, which are
installed in multiple lanes in the fire-box. It involves simultaneous heat and mass transfer in a
no-adiabatic catalytic system, thus its design incorporates complex interactive thermodynamic
and kinetic models based on zonal heat transfer for rigorous simulation of both process side
as well as of combustion side. Technips in-house simulation models are extensively validated
and reconciled against the field data and valuable feed back from operators of reformers.
Typical layout for a top fired reformer is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Based on the technological advances in high temperature metallurgy, the microalloys have
permitted higher severity in terms of higher outlet temperature and/ or higher pressure in
combination with higher heat flux, without compromising on reliability. For refinery SMR plants
outlet temperature of upto ~890 oC is applied, as outlet temperature above this value does not
justify for the hydrogen production. However, outlet temperature above 930 oC have been
applied for production of syngas (H2 + CO) for chemical industry, as higher reformer outlet
temperature is favourable for CO production.
Furthermore in order to have an exhaustive analysis of the furnace behaviour in terms of fluid
dynamics of combustion and heat transfer, advance computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
modelling is employed to assess the performance of the reformer under different geometries
and operating conditions. These techniques are not only used for designing new reformers

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New Developments in Steam Reformer Design

Block 2, Forum 8 paper
but are also used to evaluate the performance of existing reformers for possible revamping
and / or troubleshooting.
Addition of Pre-reformer
Due to the growing trend for feedstocks flexibility (naphtha/ LPG/ Natural Gas) in the SMR
plants, particularly in a refinery environment, significant application of pre-reformer has taken
place in SMR plants. Incorporation of pre-reformer allows higher temperatures (upto 650oC) at
inlet of reformer due to absence of C2+. This in turn offers the potential for shifting part of the
radiant duty to convective (pre)heat, which not only reduces the size of the reformer by 5-15%
depending upon the reheat potential but also provides fuel savings against reduced export
steam. Application of pre-reformer allows use of gas catalysts (irrespective of what is the feed
to SMR plant) in the reformer, which provides additional advantages during start-up and shutdown operation modes especially when liquid hydrocarbon is feed to the SMR plant.
Schematics for integration of pre-reformer with the reformer within SMR plant is shown in
Figure 3.

Figure 3

Application of pre-reformer for SMR plant with naphtha feed can result in net thermal
efficiency of hydrogen production by 1-4%, depending of type of feed and selected operating
conditions.
Addition of an EHTR for increased Hydrogen production from existing SMR plant
Search for finding ways and means for retrofit to meet the demand of additional hydrogen
from any existing SMR plant, it is generally found that reformer is the main bottleneck and
therefore an innovative concept of an EHTR (Enhanced Heat Transfer Reformer) was
developed.
Due to the highly endothermic reaction in steam reformer the effluent leaves the reformer at
quite high temperature ~900 oC, which is traditionally cooled in the process gas waste heat
boiler by generate steam. In an EHTR this available heat, from the reformer effluent, is
effectively used for steam reforming of additional hydrocarbon to produce more hydrogen. By

Copyright World Petroleum Congress all rights reserved

New Developments in Steam Reformer Design

Block 2, Forum 8 paper
application of an EHTR in an existing SMR plant, hydrogen production can be increased upto
~25% of original design. Integration of an EHTR with Reformer for higher hydrogen
production is shown in Figure 4.

F
igure 4

Table 1 summarizes the performance data of the revamped SMR plant (by addition of an
EHTR). It clearly indicates that 25% hydrogen capacity could be achieved without any
overload on the reformer or steam system.
Table 1

Hydrogen capacity
Feed + fuel, Gcal
Steam generation
Import steam
Specific energy consumption,
Gcal/KNm3 of H2
Flue gas quantity/ ton of H2

Original design
(before revamp)
Base
Base
Base
Not required
Base

Post revamp (addition

of an EHTR)
+25%
+22%
-9%
Required
-1.5%

Base

-10%

Utilization of Process Condensate

As SMR plants are traditionally exporter of steam, refiners want to effectively use these export
steam from the SMR plant as motive steams for the turbines. However, if the process
condensate is re-utilized within the SMR plant then it may contain undesirable compounds
likes ammonia, methanol, aldehydes, formic acid, etc. (especially when MT or LT shift
catalysts are applied) and therefore, is not desired for the turbine usage. To overcome this
limitation Technip developed and have successfully implemented SMR plant flow scheme,
which has two separate systems for the generation of process steam & clean export steam.

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New Developments in Steam Reformer Design

Block 2, Forum 8 paper
Under such scheme all the process condensate is sent to the steam generation system which
produces process steam and the split between the two steam systems are such that in all
operating scenarios supplementary process steam is provided by the clean steam generated
by clean BFW and the reverse is not allowed. Typical block diagram for such SMR plant is
shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5

Environmental Aspects
Though the SMR plants are driven by the environmental regulations of transport fuels, the
SMR plant itself also needs to comply with the stipulated environmental norms. One of the
biggest challenge for todays designers of modern SMR plant is to find cost effective solution
for meeting stringent environmental norms with respect to NOx emission imposed by local
authorities. Secondary treatment for NOx reduction by SCR is not only very expensive but
also calls for additional process step alongwith maintaining chemical (ammonia) inventory,
which is not encouraged by present refiners. Therefore, burner suppliers have started
developing low NOx burners. The latest state-of-the-art proprietary burner designed
developed by Air Products will now enable refiners to achieve NOx close10 ppmv, with their
latest Ultra Low NOx LSV burners, which been have successfully implemented in SMR plant
reformers. NOx of ~10 ppmv is the lowest NOx emissions achieved without any secondary
treatment in SMR plant.

References
Hydrogen Technology an overview by Sanjiv Ratan of Technip published in PTQ Autumn 2003
Improve Your Hydrogen Potential by Sanjiv Ratan of Technip & C.F. Vales of Repsol-YPF, La Coruna,
Spain
Environmental Solutions Emission Optimizer and Large Scale VortexTM Low NOx burner courtesy Air
Products

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