PROCESS INTENSIFICATION FOR HYDROGEN PRODUCTION FROM AMMONIA

Abstract

Ammonia is presented as one of the main carriers for the transport and storage of hydro-gen under mild conditions. In this context, the present work introduces the integration and intensification of an ultrapure hydrogen production process from am-monia as a feedstock. A production scale is set to sat-isfy the requirements of a typical hydrogen refueling station (200-kgH2/day). A multifunctional shell-and-tube reactor is designed to carry out the ammonia cracking reaction. The system operates at a moderate pressure (8-bar) and in a temperature range for the ammonia decomposition reaction between 300-°C and 650-°C. Total ammonia conversion is achieved due to the chemical equilibrium shift by H2 extraction through the incorporation of 100-% selective mem-branes. The Pd-Ag membranes provide a recovery of about 86-% of the hydrogen produced. The remain-ing hydrogen (i.e., the non-permeated stream) is cata-lytically combusted representing the only source of heat of the entire process.