Optimal Synthesis of Natural Gas Reforming Based Hydrogen Production

In this work, we present a methodology to synthesize globally minimum energy consumption hydrogen production networks, which are allowed to employ multiple reformers, separators, and heat exchangers. The synthesis problem is formulated within the Infinite DimEnsionAl State-space (IDEAS) conceptual framework, which is shown to be applicable to the problem at hand. Within the IDEAS framework, network synthesis is formulated as an infinite dimensional linear optimization problem. The IDEAS conceptual framework is realized through solution of a series of finite dimensional linear programs whose optimum values converge to the infinite program’s infimum. Global optimality is established by demonstrating that the input–output information maps of the reformers, separators, and heat exchangers satisfy all properties required for the application of the infinite dimensional state-space (IDEAS) approach to the hydrogen production network synthesis problem. The power of the proposed methodology is demonstrated on a case study featuring a variety of reactors and separators, including Gibbs equilibrium reactors, and equilibrium flash separators.