Hydrogen networks synthesis considering separation performance of purifiers

In hydrogen networks, purifiers are quite often used to reduce operating costs. They should be properly integrated with the whole network in order to maximize the benefit. In this paper, a graphical method is proposed for targeting the minimum fresh resource consumption of hydrogen networks considering separation performance of purifiers. The material balance of the whole hydrogen network shows that the extent of fresh hydrogen reduction is subject to the maximum hydrogen surplus. Based on such observation, the mass transfer triangle is developed to describe the hydrogen transformation from maximum hydrogen surplus to fresh hydrogen. With both the purity and the flow rate of purification streams optimized, the minimum fresh hydrogen consumption can be determined through the proposed graphical method. Two cases are studied to illustrate the proposed methodology.