Producing ammonia using ultrapure, high pressure hydrogen

Abstract

In various implementations, feed streams that include ultrapure, high-pressure hydrogen streams and ultrapure, high-pressure nitrogen streams are reacted to produce ultrapure, high-pressure feed gas in a stoichiometric ratio to an ammonia synthesis reactor loop without or independent of including a methanol loop purge gas.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for producing fuel gas mixture comprising;
 exothermically reacting a first portion of a hydrocarbon feed stream with at least one of steam or an oxidant gas comprising molecular oxygen to produce an exothermically generated syngas product;   endothermically reforming a second portion of the hydrocarbon feed stream with steam over a catalyst in a heat exchange reformer to produce an endothermically-reformed syngas product, wherein at least a portion of heat used in generation of the endothermically-reformed syngas product is obtained by recovering heat from the exothermically-generated syngas product and the endothermically reformed syngas product;   combining the exothermically generated syngas product and the endothermically-reformed syngas product to produce a combined syngas stream   cooling the combined syngas stream to produce steam in a heat recovery boiler;   catalytically reacting the combined syngas stream in one or more catalytic carbon monoxide shift reactors to generate a shifted stream including additional H 2  and CO 2 ;   cooling the shifted stream to near ambient temperature in a heat exchanger by transferring heat to water for steam production in syngas generation;   removing CO 2  from the shifted syngas stream to produce a CO 2 -depleted stream;   removing a high pressure, substantially pure H 2  stream from the CO 2 -depleted stream; and   combining the high pressure, substantially pure H 2  stream with a high pressure, substantially pure N 2  stream to produce ammonia.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein impurities include in the ammonia are about 50 parts per million (ppm) or less. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the ammonia is produced independent of a loop purge. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the combined high pressure, substantially pure H 2  stream and high pressure, substantially pure N 2  stream have a pressure in a range about 100 to 300 bars. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the high pressure, substantially pure H 2  stream comprises about 20 parts per million (ppm) by total volume of other components different than H 2 . 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the high pressure, substantially pure H 2  stream has a pressure of about 60 bars or greater. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the exothermically-generated syngas product is generated using a partial oxidation burner followed by a catalytic reforming section in a convectively heated steam plus hydrocarbon reformer. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the feed stream includes methane. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the CO 2  is removed using at least one of a conventional physical scrubbing process or a conventional chemical scrubbing process. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the high pressure, substantially pure H 2  stream is separated from the CO2-depleted stream using one or more pressure swing adsorption systems. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more pressure swing adsorption systems comprises two pressure swing adsorption systems. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein H 2  produced from the two pressure swing adsorption systems are at substantially a same pressure. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein at least a portion of waste gas from the one or more pressure swing absorption systems is used as fuel for a gas turbine. 
     
     
         14 . A system for producing ammonia, comprising;
 a partial oxidation reactor (PDX) or an autothermal reforming reactor (ATR) that exothermically reacts a first portion of a hydrocarbon feed stream with at least one of steam or an oxidant gas comprising molecular oxygen to produce an exothermically generated syngas product;   a gas-heated catalytic reformer (GHR) that endothermically reforms a second portion of the hydrocarbon feed stream with steam over a catalyst in a heat exchange reformer to produce an endothermically-reformed syngas product and combines the exothermically generated syngas product and the endothermically-reformed syngas product to produce a combined syngas stream, wherein at least a portion of heat used in generation of the endothermically-reformed syngas product is obtained by recovering heat from the exothermically-generated syngas product and the endothermically reformed syngas product;   a first heat exchanger that cools the combined syngas stream to produce steam in a heat recovery boiler;   one or more shift conversion reactors that catalytically reacts the combined syngas stream to generate a shifted stream including additional H 2  and CO 2 ;   a second heat exchanger that cools the shifted stream to near ambient temperature in a heat exchanger by transferring heat to water for steam production in syngas generation;   a scrubber that removes CO 2  from the shifted syngas stream to produce a CO 2 -depleted stream;   one or more pressure swing adsorption systems that generate a high pressure, substantially pure H 2  stream from the CO 2 -depleted stream; and   an ammonia reactor that combines the high pressure, substantially pure H 2  stream with a high pressure, substantially pure N 2  stream to produce ammonia.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein impurities include in the ammonia are about 50 parts per million (ppm) or less. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the ammonia is produced independent of a loop purge. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the combined high pressure, substantially pure H 2  stream and high pressure, substantially pure N 2  stream have a pressure in a range about 100 to 300 bars. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the high pressure, substantially pure H 2  stream comprises about 20 parts per million (ppm) by total volume of other components different than H 2 . 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the high pressure, substantially pure H 2  stream has a pressure of about 60 bars or greater. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the exothermically-generated syngas product is generated using a partial oxidation burner followed by a catalytic reforming section in a convectively heated steam plus hydrocarbon reformer.