CEB/CDB 2043/YAB 4123 CEB 2053 CEB/CDB 2063

INTEGRATED DESIGN PROJECT

1. Overview
KURIN Energy SDN BHD is an energy company that currently interested in producing
hydrogen (H2) from natural gas using steam methane reforming (SMR) technology (Figure 1).
The company is now opening a tender for a project to design H2 production of 30,000
tonnes/year with a purity of 99.9% via SMR technology.

Figure 1: Simplified SMR Process

2. Project Task

As a group of engineers, you are given a task to bid the tenders with the design shall specify
the followings:

CEB/CDB 2043 Reaction Engineering 1

YAB4123 Fundamentals of Reactor System
1. Type of the reactor and catalyst used.
2. The description of how the chosen reactor works for the H2 production
3. The strategy to maximize the selectivity & yield of H2 and minimize the side reaction,
if any.
4. The optimum operating conditions and sizing of the reactor.

CEB/CDB 2063 Separation Process 2

1. It is compulsory to use the Absorption system for the CO2 Removal Unit and
Adsorption system for the H2 Enrichment Unit.
2. For the Adsorption system, identify the type of adsorbent used, the isotherm and
design of the adsorption column (MTZ, diameter, and total height).
CEB/CDB 2043/YAB 4123 CEB 2053 CEB/CDB 2063

3. Strategy to achieve 99.9% of the H2 production and desorption/regeneration process.

CEB 2053 Process Modelling & Simulation

1. Verification based on the comparison between manual mass balance (individual unit
and overall) with ICON simulation on CO2 separation system.
2. Detailed simulation of the absorption-based CO2 separation system using a suitable
amine as the solvent.

3. Project Timeline
The important milestones are detailed in Table 1. It is compulsory to closely follow all the
due dates.
Table 1: Timeline for the Project
Activity Date
Progress Report Submission Week 9 : 4 March 2020
-Softcopy
- Reaction Engineering 1: Type of reaction
involved & kinetic data.
- Separation Process 2: Identification of the
type of adsorbent used & isotherm.
- Process Modelling & Simulation:
Preliminary PFD and calculations.

Report Submission Week 11: 18 March 2020

-Softcopy
- Executive summary, Introduction
(Literature), SMR Reactor, CO2 Removal,
H2 Enrichment, Verification via Simulation.

Presentation Day Week 11: 20 March 2020

-Pitching
-10mins presentation & 10 mins Q&A.
CEB/CDB 2043/YAB 4123 CEB 2053 CEB/CDB 2063

Reading materials
Holladay, J. D., Hu, J., King, D. L., & Wang, Y. (2009). An overview of hydrogen production
technologies. Catalysis Today, 139(4), 244-260.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cattod.2008.08.039
Dincer, Ibrahim, & Acar, Canan. (2015). Review and evaluation of hydrogen production
methods for better sustainability. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 40(34),
11094-11111. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.12.035
Li, H., Haas-Santo, K., Schygulla, U., & Dittmeyer, R. (2015). Inorganic microporous
membranes for H2 and CO2 separation—Review of experimental and modeling
progress. Chemical Engineering Science, 127, 401-417.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2015.01.022
Boyano, A., Blanco-Marigorta, A. M., Morosuk, T., & Tsatsaronis, G. (2011).
Exergoenvironmental analysis of a steam methane reforming process for hydrogen
production. Energy, 36(4), 2202-2214.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2010.05.020
Geankoplis C. J., Transport Processes and Separation Process Principles (includes unit
operations) 4th Ed, Prentice Hall, 2003.
D. Y Leung, G. Caramanna, and M. M Maroto-Valer (2014). An overview of current status of
carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies. Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews, 39, 426 – 443.