(128c) Efficiencies in Small Scale Hydrogen Production by Methane Steam Reforming in High Temperature Catalytic and Low Temperature Plasma Processes

Catalytic methane steam reforming is relatively efficient for large scale systems with integrated heat recovery. However, for smaller scale systems in distributed production, optimized heat recovery will be less complete, limiting the efficiency that may be achieved. Low temperature plasmas use electricity with limitations on electrical power generation efficiency, but with small amounts of unrecoverable heat production. For distributed production, the efficiency difference between the two processes may be small compared to other costs and complexities.