Two-stage PSA/VSA to produce H-2 with CO2 capture via steam methane reforming (SMR)

A two-stage pressure/vacuum swing adsorption (PSANSA) process was proposed to produce high purity H-2 from steam methane reforming (SMR) gas and capture CO2 from the tail gas of the SMR-H-2-PSA unit. Notably, a ten-bed PSA process with activated carbon and 5A zeolite was designed to produce 99.99+% H-2 with over 85% recovery from the SMR gas (CH4/CO/CO2/H-2 = 3.5/0.5/20/76 vol%). Moreover, a three-bed VSA system was constructed to recover CO2 from the tail gas using silica gel as the adsorbent. CO2 product with 95% purity and over 90% recovery could be attained. Additionally, the effects of various operating parameters on the process performances were investigated in detail. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.