Achieving Higher Energy Efficiency in a H2 Plant via Smart Manufacturing
Southwest Process Technology Conference
2016
8th Southwest Process Technology Conference
Southwest Process Technology Conference
Energy Efficiency
Thursday, October 6, 2016 - 9:55am to 10:20am
Steam methane reformers (SMRs) provide the bulk of the hydrogen consumed in refineries and for production of several important chemicals. Consequently, these are large scale systems, with modern hydrogen plants producing above 100 million standard cubic feet hydrogen per day. In this context, energy efficient operation is an imperative necessity for long-term economic viability and mathematical modeling of SMRs becomes a crucial tool for achieving high energy efficiency. The models can be either high-fidelity (e.g., using computational fluid dynamics), data-driven (and typically low-order) empirical models, or a combination of both. Furthermore, the development of mathematical models should be accompanied by online deployment. The latter must be supported by a smart manufacturing framework, that includes, i) capabilities for acquiring appropriate process data via systematically placed sensors, ii) adequate high-performance computational resources for just-in-time computations, and, iii) a user-friendly visualization interface for operator use. Moreover, rapid adoption of such practices demand that such an IT infrastructure should be easy to use and deploy. These requirements constitute the natural and essential form of â??Smart manufacturingâ??4 (SM). In this work, we present an example application of SM concepts to an industrial scale steam methane reformer along with the benefits obtained.