Abstract
A thermodynamic analysis of hydrogen production from propane by oxidative steam reforming (OSR) is performed with a Gibbs free energy minimization method. Addition of oxygen reduces the enthalpy of the system and facilitates the heat supply. Equilibrium compositions of OSR as a function of temperature (300, 500, 700 and 900
°C), H
2O/C
3H
8 ratio (1.0–20.0) and O
2/C
3H
8 ratio (0.0–2.0) under oxidative and thermo-neutral (TN) conditions are evaluated. The results for oxidative conditions demonstrate that at 700
°C with H
2O/C
3H
8 ratios above 7.0 and/or O
2/C
3H
8 ratios higher than 1.3 are beneficial for hydrogen production which facilitates superior hydrogen yield, i.e. close to 9.0
mol/mol propane, with coke and methane formation reactions being suppressed effectively. For TN condition, autothermal temperature and equilibrium composition have a stronger dependence on O
2/C
3H
8 ratio than on H
2O/C
3H
8 ratio. Further calculations show that the condition at 700
°C with an appropriate H
2O/C
3H
8 ratio between 7.0 and 13.0 is favorable for achieving a high hydrogen yield and a low carbon monoxide yield. Therefore, a favorable operational range is proposed to ensure the most optimized product yield.