Hydrocarbon Reforming

Basics

• This is the chemical reacting via various methods of mainly Lighter Hydrocarbons (Most often Methane , but Butane and Propane (And thus potentially LPG ? have been shown to work as well etc) (add citations from other tabs) ) to produce Syngas
• If combined with the Water Gas Shift Reaction it can produce mostly Hydrogen as well

Methods

Steam Reforming

• One of the most common methods
• The reaction is typically conducted with a high pressure mixture of steam and methane are put into contact with a nickel catalyst

Carbon Dioxide Reforming

• Also known as "Dry Reforming" (similar to "Dry Ice" meaning solid co2 )
• Is challenging as the hydrogen that is produced tends to react with the carbon dioxide
• Uses noble metal catalysts and/or nickel
• More sources needed on this; much less straigforeward than steam reforming

Partial Oxidation

• Abbreviated as POX
• Uses a lean air mix to produce syngas
• Can be thermal where it is essentially just a standard lean flame (TPOX), or catalytic (CPOX)where the temperature is lowered via catalysts
• Has issues with soot and water vapor buildup suppsoedly (dump sources here)

Autothermal reforming

• Autothermal reforming (ATR) uses both oxygen, and carbon dioxide or steam in a reaction with methane to form syngas
• Thus can be varied:
  • The required H2/CO ratio is provided by manipulating the carbon dioxide or steam

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Methane Reformers (seems to be wikipedia's most comprehensive page on this subject)
• The Wikipedia Page on Steam Reforming
• The Wikipedia Page on Carbon Dioxide Reforming
• The Wikipedia Page on Partial Oxidiation
• The Wikipedia Page on Autothermal Reforming (note that it doesn't have it's own page, another reason for me to get a wikipedia account...)