Vacuum promoted methane decomposition for hydrogen production with carbon separation: Parameter optimization and economic assessment

Zong Chen, Rongjun Zhang, Guofu Xia, Yu Wu, Hongwei Li, Zhao Sun and Zhiqiang Sun

Energy, 2021, vol. 222, issue C

Abstract: Catalytic methane decomposition (CMD) is a promising method for directly extracting hydrogen from methane. Nevertheless, relatively low methane conversion and carbon deposition on the catalyst are two main shortcomings to be resolved. A new process, vacuum promoted methane decomposition with carbon separation (VPMDCS), is proposed and simulated by Aspen Plus. The VPMDCS system is comprised of two reactors, a methane decomposition reactor (MDR) and a carbon separation reactor (CSR), which continuously generates hydrogen in the MDR and converts carbon into CO basically in the CSR based on Le Chatelier’s principle. The effects of methane decomposition temperature and pressure, gasifying agent concentration, CO2/C molar ratio, carbon separation temperature and pressure were comprehensively investigated and optimized. Besides, an economic analysis was conducted compared with that of steam methane reforming, evaluating the competitiveness of VPMDCS. Results reveal that VPMDCS can produce high-purity H2 and CO in the MDR and CSR, respectively, obtaining CH4 conversion of 99.18%, and H2 and CO concentrations of both 99.59 vol%. Economic analysis indicates that the cost to produce hydrogen in the VPMDCS process is 5.40 €/kg, which is somewhat competitive compared to hydrogen produced by small-scale SRM (4.55 €/kg).

Keywords: Vacuum promoted; Methane decomposition; Hydrogen production; Carbon separation; Economic assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544221002024
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:222:y:2021:i:c:s0360544221002024

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.119953

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().