Catalytic methane decomposition (CMD) is a promising method for directly extracting hydrogen from methane. Nevertheless, relatively low methane conversion and carbon deposition on the catalyst are two main shortcomings to be resolved. A new process, vacuum promoted methane decomposition with carbon separation (VPMDCS), is proposed and simulated by Aspen Plus. The VPMDCS system is comprised of two reactors, a methane decomposition reactor (MDR) and a carbon separation reactor (CSR), which continuously generates hydrogen in the MDR and converts carbon into CO basically in the CSR based on Le Chatelier’s principle. The effects of methane decomposition temperature and pressure, gasifying agent concentration, CO₂/C molar ratio, carbon separation temperature and pressure were comprehensively investigated and optimized. Besides, an economic analysis was conducted compared with that of steam methane reforming, evaluating the competitiveness of VPMDCS. Results reveal that VPMDCS can produce high-purity H₂ and CO in the MDR and CSR, respectively, obtaining CH₄ conversion of 99.18%, and H₂ and CO concentrations of both 99.59 vol%. Economic analysis indicates that the cost to produce hydrogen in the VPMDCS process is 5.40 €/kg, which is somewhat competitive compared to hydrogen produced by small-scale SRM (4.55 €/kg).

催化甲烷分解（CMD）是一种直接从甲烷中提取氢的有前途的方法。然而，相对较低的甲烷转化率和催化剂上的碳沉积是需要解决的两个主要缺点。提出了一种新的过程，即真空促进的碳分离甲烷分解（VPMDCS），并由Aspen Plus模拟。VPMDCS系统由两个反应器组成，分别是甲烷分解反应器（MDR）和碳分离反应器（CSR），该反应器根据Le Chatelier原理在MDR中连续生成氢气并将CSR中的碳基本上转化为CO。甲烷分解温度和压力，气化剂浓度，CO _2的影响/ C摩尔比，碳分离温度和压力得到了全面研究和优化。此外，与蒸汽甲烷重整进行了经济分析，评估了VPMDCS的竞争力。结果表明，VPMDCS可以在MDR和CSR中分别产生高纯度的H ₂和CO，获得的CH ₄转化率为99.18％，H ₂和CO的浓度均为99.59 vol％。经济分析表明，在VPMDCS工艺中生产氢气的成本为5.40€/ kg，与小规模SRM生产的氢气（4.55€/ kg）相比，具有一定的竞争力。