Hydrogen production from biogas: Process optimization using ASPEN Plus

This work is part of the VABHYOGAZ (valorization of biogas into hydrogen) program, which targeted the industrial deployment of hydrogen production from biogas in France. To-date, different processes of methane reforming, such as steam reforming of methane (SRM), dry reforming of methane (DRM) and tri-reforming of methane (TRM), have been studied in the literature, but only SRM is applied at industrial scale. Since SRM is an energy-intensive process, a critical analysis of these routes for hydrogen production from biogas is indispensable for process optimization. This has been addressed in this work, by using ASPEN Plus (R) simulation. Different global processes of hydrogen production from biogas, via DRM, SRM, or TRM, with or without tail gas recycling, have been studied. Among them, hydrogen production using TRM technique (H-2-TRM0.3C process) with a partial recycling of tail gas (30%) was found to be the best option, leading to the highest hydrogen production rate and the best energy yield. H-2-TRM0.3C process was also found to be more efficient than the actual industrial process (H2-REF), which is based on SRM technique. Under the same conditions, H-2-TRM0.3C process led to a higher H2 production (8.7% more), a lower total energy consumption (18.6% less), and a lower waste heat generation (15.4% less), in comparison with the actual industrial process (H-2-REF). (c) 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.