Production of Hydrogen from Low Rank Coal Using Process Integration Framework between Syngas Production Processes: Techno-Economic Analysis

An increase in energy demand in the recent decades have created energy shortages that can be fulfilled by the use of fossil fuels. Gasification and reforming techniques are effective methods for producing syngas and hydrogen from natural gas and coal. The two process models have been developed in this study, in which syngas and hydrogen is produced from coal and natural gas. The case 1 relies on the entrained flow gasification unit which is validated by literature data, and then integrated with the reforming process reforming to generate the case 2. The integrated gasifier and reforming model was created to increase H₂ output while lowering the total carbon footprints. In case of 2^nd model, the hydrogen to carbon monoxide ratio (HCR) is 1.20 which is almost 88% higher than the baseline. Due to the higher HCR in case 2, the overall production of H₂ is 55% higher than the case 2. Moreover, the efficiency of case 2 is 18.5% higher which reduces the carbon emissions by 69.6% per unit of hydrogen production compared to case 1.Furthermore, the investment per ton of hydrogen production and hydrogen selling prices in Case 2 is 28.9% lower compared to the case 1 design.