H2 production process:

1. Feed pretreatment section

Feed natural gas is mixed with a small, pure H2 stream (H2 flow = 2-5% of NG feed flow)
using the recycle H2 compressor. This mixed feed stream is heated to 385°C (725 F) in the
feed gas preheater. The heated feed passes to the hydro-desulfurization bed which consists of
a Co/Mo hydrogenation catalyst layer on top of a zinc oxide desulfurization catalyst layer.
The Co/Mo catalyst layer converts any unsaturated compounds or mercaptan sulfur to H2S
whereas the ZnO adsorbent layer reacts with H2S to form ZnS + H2O which is retained in the
bed.
2. Mixed feed preheats and steam reforming section
The desulfurised natural gas feed is mixed with steam in a S/C ratio of 3 and then fed to the
mixed feed coil located within the convection section of the furnace, where it is heated to
565°C (1050 F). The mixed feed temperature is kept to a moderate value to avoid any
possibility of problems resulting from cracking of the mixed feed.
The heated mixed feed enters the radiant section of the reformer and passes down through
catalyst filled tubes, where it reacts to produce H2, CO and CO2.
The reformer effluent at 833°C (1532 F) is routed through the reformer waste heat
exchanger, where it is cooled to about 340°C (650 F) and the recovered heat is used to
generate 40 bar(g) (600 psi(g)) (nominal pressure) saturated steam in this natural circulation
steam generator.
3. Water gas shift section
The reformer effluent then flows to the shift converter, where excess steam converts most of
the CO to CO2 and H2 over a bed of catalyst:
CO + H2O  CO2 + H2
4. Syngas cooling section
The shift effluent at about 411°C (773 F) is cooled to about 320°C (615 F) by a waste heat
boiler.
The syngas is then cooled to about 286°C (547 F) by heating boiler feed water in the BFW
preheater. The syngas then passes through a deaerator water preheater where it is cooled to
about 159°C (319 F). Final cooling of syngas to 37°C (100 F) is accomplished in two
coolers: condensate preheater and the raw gas trim cooler. Syngas stream outlet from the
condensate preheater is 132°C (270°F) and syngas outlet from the raw gas trim cooler is 37°C
(100 F).
As the gas is cooled, excess steam present in syngas condenses which is removed in the cold
condensate drum. The exchangers are arranged so that process condensate flows by gravity
into the cold condensate drum.

5. H2 purification in PSA section

The raw hydrogen stream flows to the PSA unit, where impurities are removed by a cyclic
adsorption process. The PSA unit employs between 4 and 10 adsorption beds, whichever is
the most economic arrangement for this quantity of hydrogen. An example of this is that with
a 5 bed PSA system, approximately 86% of the hydrogen present in the shifted gas is
recovered as product.
The advantage of using more than a 4 bed system is that it is able to revert to a four bed
reduced recovery mode in the event of failure of a switching valve. This feature greatly
enhances the reliability. The tail/ vent gas stream from the PSA unit, containing the
impurities removed as well as some residual hydrogen, is returned to the reformer to supply
most of the reformer fuel requirements. The product hydrogen passes through a filter, to
remove any PSA adsorbent fines (which are typically present only during start-up).
6. Reformer furnace and convection section
The reformer furnace has a radiant section consisting of a single fire-box containing rows of
catalyst tubes. The furnace radiant box discharges hot flue gases into the convection section.
The typical convection section has five coils which recover heat from the flue gas leaving the
radiant section to the following process and utility duties:
 Mixed feed heating
 Steam generation
 Steam superheating
 Feed-gas preheat
 Boiler feed water preheating.

The furnace is designed to recover as much heat from the flue gas as is economic. The
principle fuel for the reformer is tail gas from the PSA unit, supplemented with make-up NG
fuel during normal operation. NG is used as start-up fuel when PSA tail gas is not available.
7. Steam system
There are two sources of boiler water:
1. Imported make-up boiler feed water
2. Internally generated process condensate.
Process condensate is produced from unreacted steam and is collected in the cold condensate
drum. It contains a large amount of CO2 as well as small amounts of methanol, organic acids
and ammonia. Apart from these contaminants, the process condensate is a high-quality water
stream.
It is stripped of dissolved gases (primarily CO2) with steam in the deaerator. Then it is
pumped to the boiler feed water preheater using the BFW pumps. The low-pressure steam
used for deaeration, is provided as needed by high pressure internally generated steam let
down.
The balance of the boiler feed water requirement is made up from the high-pressure supply
from the demineralized water supply and joins the process condensate out of the cold
condensate drum. This combined deaerator make-up water stream is preheated in the
condensate preheater to about 102°C (217°F), 10 degrees below saturation temperature, at 5
psig pressure) prior to feeding the deaerator.
The deaerated boiler feed water from the deaerator at 0.34 bar(g) (5 psi(g)) is pumped to high
pressure using the boiler feed water pumps. The high pressure BFW from the boiler feed
water pumps is split between the BFW heater and the economiser coil in the reformer
convection section. This arrangement enables a high proportion of waste heat to be recovered
as steam. Preheated boiler feedwater passes to the steam drum.
From the steam drum, water circulates to the reformer waste heat exchanger, the convection
section WHB coil, and the HTS effluent WHB by gravity. Steam and circulating boiler water
pass back to the steam drum. The steam is superheated in the reformer superheat coil to a
minimum of 400°C (750°F). Part of the steam is used for injection in to the process with the
remainder amount exported after satisfying the small needs for stripping in the deaerator.