Research goals for minimizing the cost of CO2 capture when using steam methane reforming for hydrogen production

This paper presents a techno-economic assessment of adding state-of-the-art solvent-based CO₂ capture technologies to greenfield steam methane reforming (SMR)-based H₂ production plants and quantifies the impacts of improvements in CO₂ capture technology. Current conventional capture technologies are reviewed, and future technologies in intermediate and long-term scenarios are analyzed. The results show that SMR plants fitted with high efficiency solvent-based capture technologies consume the same amount of natural gas as a conventional SMR plant without capture, despite capturing most of the CO₂ and producing the same amount of H₂. Overall, improvements in reboiler duty and reductions in capital costs can significantly reduce the cost of H₂ production and cost of capture. Particularly, the reboiler duty of pre-combustion capture and the capital cost of post-combustion capture have the greatest impact. Based on the results, research goals are suggested. Solvent development is recommended—particularly pre-combustion solvents—for reducing the reboiler duties, and process schemes to reduce the capital costs. Costlier but more efficient solvents can be considered. A sensitivity analysis using natural gas price shows that technological improvements can reduce the impacts of high natural gas prices. The degree of economic feasibility of CO₂ capture increases with improvements to the capture technology.