Optimal production of syngas via super-dry reforming. analysis for natural gas and biogas under different CO2 taxes.

Abstract

[EN]This work presents a mathematical optimization approach that evaluates the use of super-dry reforming (SDR) together other reforming technologies, water-gas-shift and hydrogen from electrolysis. The aim is to produce syngas with different H2:CO ratios, taking into account two methane sources: natural gas and biogas. A superstructure is developed and optimized using an economic objective function that considers carbon taxes as parameter to determine the most profitable technology or the combination of them. As a result from this analysis, the single use of SDR is less profitable than the single use of tri-reforming for all the range of carbon taxes studied. SDR is only selected when it operates in parallel with a tri-reformer to produce syngas with a H2:CO ratio of 1 for any of the raw materials used. For a ratio of 1.7, SDR is only selected in parallel to tri-reforming to process biogas and with CO2 taxes of at least $60/t. Meanwhile for a H2:CO ratio of 2.5 it is never selected. In the case that the reformers do not generate enough H2, WGS is selected to adjust the H2:CO ratio for all the carbon taxes studied.