Exergy analysis in intensification of sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming for clean hydrogen production: Comparative study and efficiency optimisation

Data availability statement: All the generated data in this work has been presented and integrated within the paper in form of tabulated data. ; Hydrogen has a key role to play in decarbonising industry and other sectors of society. It is important to develop low-carbon hydrogen production technologies that are cost-effective and energy-efficient. Sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming (SE-SMR) is a developing low-carbon (blue) hydrogen production process, which enables combined hydrogen production and carbon capture. Despite a number of key benefits, the process is yet to be fully realised in terms of efficiency. In this work, a sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming process has been intensified via exergy analysis. Assessing the exergy efficiency of these processes is key to ensuring the effective deployment of low-carbon hydrogen production technologies. An exergy analysis was performed on an SE-SMR process and was then subsequently used to incorporate process improvements, developing a process that has, theoretically, an extremely high CO2 capture rate of nearly 100 %, whilst simultaneously demonstrating a high exergy efficiency (77.58 %), showcasing the potential of blue hydrogen as an effective tool to ensure decarbonisation, in an energy-efficient manner. ; The research presented in this work has received financial support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the project “Multiphysics and multiscale modelling for safe and feasible CO2 capture and storage - EP/T033940/1'', as well as via the EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTP) award, EP/T518116/1 (project reference: 2688399). The authors would also like to acknowledge the UKCCSRC ECR Collaboration Fund 2022 (call 4) for the financial support of the collaboration between the researchers in this work.