Customer case

Asian hydrogen plant

Steam Reformer Assessment/Optimization

Hydrogen plant capacity

increases 10% after optimization
In todays market, no plant can really afford to operate below design capacity.
Topsoes reformer optimization gave us the 10% more capacity we needed to
get back on track.
Section Chief at Asian hydrogen plant

Challenge Solution Outcome

An Asian hydrogen plant was having
trouble achieving its full design
capacity.To reach capacity, the plant
would have had to increase reformer
tube temperatures to above their
design temperature, which would
shorten the lifetime of the tubes. The
company asked Topsoe to look at the
reformer and find a solution.
Topsoe engineers examined the
data and decided that a reformer
optimization would be the best
course of action. While trimming
the reformer, the team discovered
an erroneous ignited burner matrix.
Adjusting this to ensure optimal
performance opened the door
to operation at 110% of nominal
capacity without exceeding the
tubes design temperature.
Topsoes reformer assessment and
subsequent optimization solved the
plants problem. The corrected burner
matrix resulted in far less scattering
of the tube wall temperatures (TWT)
almost halving the difference
between the hottest and coldest
areas. This enabled the plant to
increase its margin on maximum TWT
and, ultimately, to boost capacity
by more than 10% with potential
for further reformer performance
optimization

Get in touch today

topsoe.com/contact
Haldor Topsoe A/S, cvr 41853816 | CCM | 0032.2016/Rev.2
 Asian hydrogen plant

1000 The graphs show TWTs before and after

reformer furnace improvements. The first
graph shows high and fluctuating TWTs at
990 100% load, while the second shows more
uniform TWTs at 110% load, with potential for
further reformer performance optimization
980 (pink color).

970
Temperature, C

960

950

940

Tube wall temperature before trimming

930 Linear regression
Design temperature

920
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Reformer tube number
Reformer tube wall temperature before trimming, 100% load

1000

990

980

970
Temperature, C

960

950

940

Tube wall temperature after trimming

930 Linear regression
Design temperature

920
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Reformer tube number
Reformer tube wall temperature after trimming, 110% load