An innovative steam reformer for hydrogen production at temperatures lower than 550 °C has been developed in the EU project CoMETHy (Compact Multifuel-Energy To Hydrogen converter). The steam reforming process has been specifically tailored and re-designed to be combined with Concentrating Solar plants using “solar salts”: a low-temperature steam reforming reactor was developed, operating at temperatures up to 550 °C, much lower than the traditional process (usually > 850 °C). This result was obtained after extensive research, going from the development of basic components (catalysts and membranes) to their integration in an innovative membrane reformer heated with molten salts, where both hydrogen production and purification occur in a single stage. The reduction of process temperatures is achieved by applying advanced catalyst systems and hydrogen selective Pd-based membranes. Process heat is supplied by using a low-cost and environmentally friendly binary NaNO₃/KNO₃ liquid mixture (60/40 w/w) as heat transfer fluid; such mixture is commonly used for the same purpose in the concentrating solar industry, so that the process can easily be coupled with concentrating solar power (CSP) plants for the supply of renewable process heat. This paper deals with the successful operation and validation of a pilot scale reactor with a nominal capacity of 2 Nm³/h of pure hydrogen from methane. The plant was operated with molten salt circulation for about 700 h, while continuous operation of the reactor was achieved for about 150 h with several switches of operating conditions such as molten salts inlet temperature, sweep steam flow rate and steam-to-carbon feed ratio. The results obtained show that the membrane reformer allows to achieve twice as high a conversion compared to a conventional reformer operating at thermodynamic equilibrium under the same conditions considered in this paper. A highly pure hydrogen permeate stream was obtained (>99.8%), while the outlet retentate stream had low CO concentration (<2%). No macroscopic signs of reactor performance loss were observed over the experimental operation period.

欧盟项目CoMETHy（紧凑型多燃料-能源制氢转换器）开发了一种创新的蒸汽重整器，用于在550°C以下的温度下制氢。蒸汽重整工艺经过专门定制和重新设计，可与使用“太阳能盐”的聚光太阳能发电厂相结合：开发了低温蒸汽重整反应器，可在高达550°C的温度下运行，远低于传统工艺（通常> 850°C）。该结果是经过广泛研究后获得的，从开发基本成分（催化剂和膜）到将其整合到用熔融盐加热的创新型膜重整器中，在此过程中氢气的产生和纯化均在一个阶段进行。通过应用先进的催化剂系统和氢选择性的Pd基膜可以降低工艺温度。通过使用低成本和环保的二元NaNO提供过程热量₃ / KNO ₃混合液体（60/40 w / w）作为传热流体；这种混合物通常在聚光太阳能行业中用于相同的目的，因此该过程可以轻松地与聚光太阳能（CSP）装置结合使用，以提供可再生的过程热量。本文涉及标称容量为2 Nm ³的中试规模反应堆的成功运行和验证/ h来自甲烷的纯氢。该设备在熔融盐循环下运行约700小时，同时通过几个切换操作条件（例如熔融盐入口温度，吹扫蒸汽流速和蒸汽/碳进料比）实现反应器连续运行约150小时。所得结果表明，与在本文考虑的相同条件下在热力学平衡下运行的常规重整器相比，该膜重整器可实现两倍高的转化率。获得了高纯度的渗透氢物流（> 99.8％），而出口渗余物流具有低的CO浓度（<2％）。在实验操作期间没有观察到反应堆性能损失的宏观迹象。