L'air Liquide, Soci&#xe9;t&#xe9; Anonyme Pour L'etude Et L'exploitation Des Proc&#xe9;d&#xe9;s Georges Claude

L'air Liquide, Societe Anonyme Pour L'etude Et L'exploitation Des

Catherine Denis

Pascal Marty

Pierre Gauthier

Bernd Polster

Jean-Claude Villard

Michel-Jean Masson

Laurent Remy

The present invention concerns a process for producing synthesis gas by steam reforming a hydrocarbon load in a reforming furnace provided with a combustion chamber and a convection chamber; the combustion chamber includes vertical tubes filled with catalyst wherein a mixture of hydrocarbons and steam circulates from top to bottom recovering raw synthesis gas at the bottom of the tubes, and burners disposed in rows heat the tubes; the convection chamber discharges fumes containing the gases produced by the combustion. The process also comprises steps of using the heat contained in the fumes for preheating and/or heating various fluids related or unrelated to the process. In the event of the reduction of the mass flow of fumes, the quantity of energy to be transferred into the convection area is maintained by supplying a supplementary gaseous flow to the combustion area.

Process for producing synthesis gas with preservation of the energy transfer by means of the fumes

A process and installation for the cryogenic purification of impure hydrogen, of the type in which impure hydrogen is cooled under a low pressure PO to a temperature sufficiently low to condense a predetermined proportion of the impurities, by heat exchange in a thermal heat exchange line (3) with purified hydrogen and with a residual fraction containing the expanded preliminarily condensed impurities (in 11, 12) to a low pressure P1. The remaining cold is supplied by the expansion of purified hydrogen in a turbine (8) with gas bearings and the expanded hydrogen is added to the light impurities expanded at the cold end of the heat exchange line. The turbine (8) is supplied with the gas leaving its bearings (17), after cooling of hydrogen at the labyrinthine seal (18) of the turbine is withdrawn under a pressure slightly less than the interstitial pressure Pi which prevails between the rotor (14) and the stator (16) of this turbine.

Process and installation for the cryogenic purification of hydrogen

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Champigny sur Marne, France

Catherine Denis