Natural-Gas-Derived Hydrogen in the Presence of Carbon Fuel Taxes and Concentrated Solar Power

This work focuses on the incorporation of renewable energy resources into the natural-gas-based production of hydrogen, via steam methane reforming (SMR). The novel concept of “energetically enhanced steam methane reforming” (EESMR) is introduced, which changes the endothermicity level of the SMR process through incorporation of carbon monoxide and steam into the SMR feed. Novel EESMR flow sheets are presented in which the aforementioned resources are internally generated and recycled, so as to create a natural-gas-based hydrogen production system with methane as raw material and a hybrid (methane/solar) energy supply. The current worldwide carbon tax legislative environment is briefly reviewed, and its potential impact on SMR-versus-EESMR economic viability is quantified. A novel method for solution of linear parametric programming problems is proposed based on the concept of dimensionality reduction—this allows the analytic quantification of the optimum objective function value and associated optimum variable vector. Regions in carbon/renewable utility cost coefficient ratio space are identified, in which one technology is superior over the other. EESMR is shown to be preferable in the presence of significant levels of taxation on the use of natural gas as fuel.