Enriched methane production by solar steam reformer: process evaluation

The aim of this work is to present a novel hybrid plant for the production of a mixture of methane and hydrogen from a steam reforming reactor whose heat duty is supplied by a molten sail stream heated up by the innovative concentrating solar power plant developed by ENEA. By this way, a hydrogen stream, mixed with natural gas, is produced from solar energy by a consolidated production method as the steam reforming process and by a widely tested and pre-commercial technology as molten salts parabolic mirrors solar plant. After the hydrogen production plant, the residual heat stored in the molten salt stream is used to produce electricity. A module of the plant requires 1.5 hectares and can supply electricity and gas to 3000 domestic Italian users. A 4-tubes-and-shell reactor 0.5 m long and with packed bed tubular reactor with diameter of 3 '' is able to produce up to 350 Nm(3)/h of enriched methane.