Water Purification Using Energy from a Steam-Hydrocarbon Reforming Process

Abstract

A process and system for producing a H 2 -containing product gas and purified water from an integrated catalytic steam-hydrocarbon reforming and thermal water purification process. Raw water, such as salt water, is heated by indirect heat transfer with reformate from the catalytic steam reforming process for purifying raw water in one of a multiple effect distillation process and a multi-stage flash process.

1 . A system for producing a H 2 -containing product gas and for producing purified water from a raw water stream containing contaminants, the system comprising:
 a thermal water purification system comprising a plurality of evaporators, wherein at least a first evaporator of the plurality of evaporators comprises a first heat transfer coil operatively connected to a source of a reformate comprising H 2 , CO, CH 4 , and H 2 O to receive reformate from the source of the reformate and a second heat transfer coil operatively connected to a steam source to receive steam from the steam source; and   a gas separator operatively connected to the first heat transfer coil to receive reformate from the first heat transfer coil.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the steam source is a second evaporator of the plurality of evaporators, and the source of the reformate is a steam-hydrocarbon reforming system. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2  wherein the first heat transfer coil is operatively connected to a third heat transfer coil contained in the second evaporator to receive the reformate from the third heat transfer coil, and the third heat transfer coil is operatively connected to the source of the reformate to receive the reformate from the source of the reformate. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein at least a second evaporator of the plurality of evaporators comprises a heat transfer coil operatively connected to the source of the reformate to receive the reformate from the source of the reformate. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the gas separator is a pressure swing adsorber.