Evaluation of the economic and environmental impact of combining dry reforming with steam reforming of methane

Lately, there has been considerable interest in the development of more efficient processes to generate syngas, an intermediate in the production of fuels and chemicals, including methanol, dimethyl ether, ethylene, propylene and Fischer-Tropsch fuels. Steam methane reforming (SMR) is the most widely applied method of producing syngas from natural gas. Dry reforming of methane (DRM) is a process that uses waste carbon dioxide to produce syngas from natural gas. Dry reforming alone has not yet been implemented commercially; however, a combination of steam methane reforming and dry reforming of methane (SMR + DRM) has been used in industry for several years. The aim of this work was to simulate both the SMR and SMR + DRM processes and to conduct an economic and environmental analysis to determine whether the SMR + DRM process is competitive with the more popular SMR process. The results indicate that the SMR + DRM process has a lower carbon footprint. Further research on DRM catalysts could make this process economically competitive with steam methane reforming. (C) 2012 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.