ABSTRACT
Hydrogen is considered as a promising energy carrier, which can replace fossil fuels in most of their applications. Currently, a large number of technologies are available to produce hydrogen using different types of feedstocks, including water, biomass, and hydrocarbons. Steam reforming of natural gas is a well-established and mature technology to produce hydrogen at large scale. With immense development of natural gas resources, it has become the most economical option to generate industrial hydrogen. However, steam reforming of natural gas is an energy extensive process and produces a large amount of air pollutants. As a result, much research efforts are being made to develop the environmentally benign and energy-efficient hydrogen production technologies for large-scale operation. Some novel approaches to steam reforming such as membrane, plasma, and microchannel reforming have been proposed. Other reforming technologies such as partial oxidation, autothermal reforming, dry reforming, bi-reforming, and tri-reforming can also be used to generate hydrogen from natural gas, but their economic viability make them unfavorable for large-scale production. This chapter presents an overview of different natural gas reforming technologies for hydrogen production and their current state of art, R&D gaps, and scope of development.
