Developing a Targeting Approach for Syngas Generation from Natural Gas

The conversion of natural and unconventional gas into syngas is a crucial intermediate step in the production of various important chemicals and liquid fuels. The syngas generation step usually requires the largest capital investment of the process and may also be very energy intensive. Therefore, determining the most efficient method of converting feedstock into syngas of the correct H2:CO ratio is of significant importance. The aim of this work was to set design and performance targets for different H2:CO ratios (depending on the downstream requirements) in terms of the carbon efficiency (including CO2 utilization or emissions), water usage, and energy requirements. It was shown that the overall process for natural gas tri-reforming is limited by the enthalpy change (ΔH = 0) and this process was able to produce work. It was further shown that high syngas ratios not only require significant amounts of natural gas and oxygen but also emit CO2.