International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol.39, No.16, 8357-8373, 2014
Hydrogen networks synthesis considering separation performance of purifiers
In hydrogen networks, purifiers are quite often used to reduce operating costs. They should be properly integrated with the whole network in order to maximize the benefit. In this paper, a graphical method is proposed for targeting the minimum fresh resource consumption of hydrogen networks considering separation performance of purifiers. The material balance of the whole hydrogen network shows that the extent of fresh hydrogen reduction is subject to the maximum hydrogen surplus. Based on such observation, the mass transfer triangle is developed to describe the hydrogen transformation from maximum hydrogen surplus to fresh hydrogen. With both the purity and the flow rate of purification streams optimized, the minimum fresh hydrogen consumption can be determined through the proposed graphical method. Two cases are studied to illustrate the proposed methodology. Copyright (C) 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Hydrogen network;Purification reuse;Maximum hydrogen surplus;Mass transfer triangle;Minimum fresh hydrogen;consumption