(138b) Heavy Oil Reforming

TDA Research is developing a reforming process capable of converting nearly any hydrocarbon feedstock into H₂. Our process has the potential to use as little as 1/4 of the energy required per pound of H₂ produced (energy required to operate the process) compared to Steam Methane Reforming. We call our process HyRes (Hydrogen from Residuum), and we can steam-reform feedstock from shale derived natural gas to bottom-of-the-barrel atmospheric and vacuum residuum at low steam to carbon ratios. HyRes uses circulating fluidized bed reactors, one for steam reforming and one for catalyst regeneration. This reactor configuration permits us to maintain catalyst activity by continuously removing carbon deposited on the catalyst during the reforming process.

In addition to using less energy, the use of circulating fluidized beds for the reformer and regenerator means that the process no longer requires the use of the extremely expensive high alloy tubes such as those used in conventional fixed bed steam reforming. Also, because the catalyst is regenerated before enough carbon can build up to damage the catalyst, there is no irreversible catalyst deactivation due to coking (or sulfur) deposition. We discuss results where we have demonstrated our fluidized bed reforming process at the bench scale with several catalysts and hydrocarbon feedstocks.