Catalytic partial oxidation coupled with membrane purification to improve resource and energy efficiency in syngas production

Catalytic partial oxidation coupled with membrane purification is a new process scheme to improve resource and energy efficiency in a well-established and large scale-process like syngas production. Experimentation in a semi industrial-scale unit (20 Nm(3) h(-1) production) shows that a novel syngas production scheme based on a pre-reforming stage followed by a membrane for hydrogen separation, a catalytic partial oxidation step, and a further step of syngas purification by membrane allows the oxygen-to-carbon ratio to be decreased while maintaining levels of feed conversion. For a total feed conversion of 40 %, for example, the integrated novel architecture reduces oxygen consumption by over 50 %, with thus a corresponding improvement in resource efficiency and an improved energy efficiency and economics, these factors largely depending on the air separation stage used to produce pure oxygen.