Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) products

Refinery hydrogen requirements are growing due to the increased use of hydrocracking and hydro-treating, including processes such as HydroFlex™ and VeganR that produces renewable diesel.  Residual gas from these processes contains a significant amount of unused hydrogen at pressure, and membranes provide an economical recovery method. MTR’s hydrogen-permeable VaporSep-H2™ membranes can provide 90% to 99% pure hydrogen and greater than 90% recovery.

Syngas (H2 + CO) is required to make a variety of products.  Each of these syngas derivatives has a specific ratio of H2 to CO in the feed syngas that is optimal for its production.  However, the H2:CO ratio produced is a function of the syngas process and the hydrocarbon feed. This ratio will not necessarily be optimal for downstream products. Therefore, some method for reducing the amount of hydrogen in the syngas is needed.

VaporSep-H2™ is a simple system with compelling economics for recovering hydrogen from the purge gas. In ammonia production, hydrogen and nitrogen are reacted at high pressure to form ammonia. Since the conversion per pass is not 100%, the reactor is operated in loop mode. Ammonia is continuously condensed out of the loop and fresh synthesis gas is added. Because the synthesis gas contains small quantities of methane and argon, these impurities build up in the loop and must be continuously purged to prevent them from exceeding a certain concentration. Although this purge stream can be used to supplement reformer fuel gas, it contains valuable hydrogen which is lost from the ammonia synthesis loop.