System For Combined Hydrogen and Electricity Production Using Petroleum Fuels

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016240877-A1
Application number	US-201615140975-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 28, 2016
Priority date	Nov 21, 2011
Publication date	Aug 18, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A SOFC system for producing a refined carbon dioxide product, electrical power, and a compressed hydrogen product is presented. The system can include a hydrodesulfurization system, a steam reformer, a water-gas shift reactor system, a hydrogen purification system, a hydrogen compression and storage system, a pre-reformer, and a CO2 purification and liquidification system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system useful for producing a refined carbon dioxide product, electrical power suitable for electrically-powered vehicles and a compressed hydrogen product suitable for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles using steam and a hydrocarbon fuel, the SOFC system comprising:
a hydrodesulfurization system that fluidly couples to a hydrogen compression and storage system and is operable to receive a hydrocarbon fuel; a steam reformer having catalytic reactor tubes and a reformer combustion chamber, where the catalytic reactor tubes fluidly couple to the hydrodesulfurization system and are operable to receive superheated steam and where the reformer combustion chamber thermally couples to the catalytic reactor tubes, fluidly couples to both an outlet of an anode side of a solid oxide fuel cell and an oxygen generation system and is operable to receive the hydrocarbon fuel; a water-gas shift reactor system that fluidly couples to the reformer catalytic reactor tubes and is operable to convert carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide and hydrogen; a hydrogen purification system that fluidly couples to the water-gas shift reactor system and is operable to produce a purified hydrogen gas; a hydrogen compression and storage system that fluidly couples to the hydrogen purification system and is operable to produce a compressed hydrogen product; a pre-reformer that fluidly couples to the outlet of the anode side of the solid oxide fuel cell and is operable to receive the hydrocarbon fuel and to produce a pre-reformer syngas product; the solid oxide fuel cell having the anode side and is operable to produce electrical power, where the anode side has an inlet that fluidly couples to both the pre-reformer, the pre-reformer followed by a sorbent bed for removing hydrogen sulfide, and a pressure-swing adsorber (PSA) off-gas conduit of the hydrogen purification system and is operable to produce an anode exhaust gas, the anode side operable to receive a methane-rich anode feed gas without a reformer, the methane-rich anode feed gas comprising the pre-reformer syngas product and an off-gas stream from the hydrogen purification system, where the off-gas stream comprises methane, carbon oxides, and inert gases, where the methane-rich anode feed gas comprises methane, carbon oxides, hydrogen, and water, the anode side further operable to reform, by a reforming catalyst in the solid oxide fuel cell, and electrochemically convert methane and water contained in the methane-rich anode feed gas into hydrogen and carbon oxides to generate the electrical power; the oxygen generation system that is operable to produce oxygen; and a CO2 purification and liquidification system that fluidly couples to the reformer combustion chamber and is operable to produce a refined carbon dioxide product, where the oxygen generation system of the SOFC system includes an electrolysis cell that electrically couples to the solid oxide fuel cell and is operable to receive water and electrical power and to produce electrolysis hydrogen and electrolysis oxygen and the hydrogen compression and storage system also fluidly couples to the oxygen generation system, where the SOFC system is operable to have water introduced therein; and where the SOFC system is operable such that electrical power passes to the oxygen generation system such that the oxygen generation system produces both an electrolysis oxygen and an electrolysis hydrogen separately; and the electrolysis hydrogen passes to the hydrogen compression and storage system.

2 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the water-gas shift reactor system comprises a high temperature shift reactor and a low temperature shift reactor that couple in series and where each reactor contains a different water-gas shift catalyst.

3 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the hydrogen purification system is a pressure-swing-adsorption unit.

4 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the pre-reformer contains a precious active metal catalyst that is sulfur-tolerant.

5 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the oxygen generation system of the SOFC system includes an electrolysis cell that electrically couples to the solid oxide fuel cell and is operable to both receive water and electrical power and produce an electrolysis hydrogen and an electrolysis oxygen, and where the hydrogen compression and storage system also fluidly couples to the oxygen generation system.

6 . The SOFC system of claim 5 where the electrolysis cell is a proton exchange membrane.

7 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the hydrocarbon fuel comprises a first hydrocarbon feed composition to one part of the SOFC system operable to receive hydrocarbon fuel and a second hydrocarbon fuel composition to a second part of the SOFC system operable to receive hydrocarbon fuel.

8 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where a portion of the compressed hydrogen product from the hydrogen compression and storage system passes to the hydrodesulfurization system.

9 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where a steam-to-carbon molar feed ratio in the catalytic reactor tubes is in a range of from about 2:1 to about 4:1.

10 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the catalytic reactor tubes are operable in a range of from about 775° C. to about 825° C. and at a pressure in a range of from about 8 bars to about 10 bars.

11 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the steam reformer is operable at a temperature differential of at least about 90° C. between the reformer combustion chamber and the catalytic reactor tubes.

12 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the SOFC system is operable to produce a purified hydrogen gas having a hydrogen purity in a range of from about 99.50 to about 99.99 mole percent.

13 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where a steam-to-carbon molar ratio for the catalytic reactor tubes is less than a steam-to-carbon molar ratio for the pre-reformer.

14 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the SOFC system does not include introduced fresh or make-up steam to the pre-reformer.

15 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the pre-reformer operates adiabatically.

16 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the pre-reformer is operable in a range of from about 350° C. to about 400° C.

17 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the system produces the pre-reformer syngas product having methane in a range of from about 15 percent to about 20 percent on a dry mole basis.

18 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the anode side of the solid oxide fuel cell is operable in a range of from about 725° C. to about 775° C.

19 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the SOFC system is operable to produce oxygen having an oxygen purity in a range of from about 95.00 to about 99.99 mole percent on a dry molar basis.

20 . The SOFC system of claim 1 where the SOFC system is operable to produce the refined carbon dioxide product having an oxygen concentration of less than about 10 parts-per-million molar.

Assignees

• Saudi Arabian Oil Co

Inventors

• Jamal Aqil
• Pham Thang

Classifications

• C01B2203/0811

  by combustion of fuel · CPC title

• C01B3/48

  followed by reaction of water vapour with carbon monoxide · CPC title

• H01M8/04097

  with recycling of the reactants (H01M8/04119, H01M8/04104 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01M8/0618 Primary

  Reforming processes, e.g. autothermal, partial oxidation or steam reforming · CPC title

• C01B2203/0283

  containing a CO-shift step, i.e. a water gas shift step · CPC title