1. The significance hydrogen production

Hydrogen is an efficient, clean and renewable energy source that will play a significant role in the sustainable development of the global energy system and will have a huge impact on the global ecological environment. Hydrogen is renewable and only generates water when burned, producing no pollutants, allowing for true "zero emissions." In addition, hydrogen has a series of outstanding advantages compared with other energetic substances. The energy density of hydrogen is 2.68 times that of ordinary gasoline. When used for electricity storage, its technical and economic performance may exceed other kinds of electricity storage technology at present. Converting hydrogen into power, the thermal efficiency is 30-60% higher than that of conventional fossil fuels, for instance, as a fuel cell fuel, the efficiency can be doubled; Hydrogen is suitable for pipeline transport and can be shared with natural gas transmission systems; Among all kinds of energy sources, hydrogen has the lowest transmission cost and the least loss, which is superior to power transmission. Hydrogen combined with fuel cells provides an efficient, clean, driveless, and noise-free power generation technology.

2. Methanol steam reforming in small and medium-sized hydrogen production

2.1 Compared with large-scale natural gas hydrogen production or water electrolysis hydrogen production, methanol steam reforming hydrogen production is less investment, and low energy consumption. Due to the low reaction temperature (230℃~280℃), the process is simple. Meanwhile, compared with natural gas hydrogen production plants of the same scale, the investment of methanol steam conversion for hydrogen production is lower.

2.2 Methanol, the raw material used in methanol steam reforming for hydrogen production, is easy to obtain, convenient to transport and store. Moreover, because the raw material methanol used is of high purity, it does not need to be purified again, the reaction conditions are mild, and the process is simple, so it is easy to operate.

3. Natural gas steam reforming in medium and large scale hydrogen production

3.1 Natural gas can be both used as raw gas and fuel gas, without transportation and storage, low hydrogen energy consumption, low consumption, and the lowest cost of hydrogen.

3.2 Higher investment in hydrogen production from natural gas, suitable for large-scale industrial production.

4. Summary and suggestions

(1) The advantages of natural gas steam reforming process are low raw material cost, convenient source, low operating cost, and hydrogen production gauge.

The advantage is obvious when the scale is larger. The disadvantage is that the investment scale is large, the process is complex, and the operation is difficult.

(2) The advantages of methanol steam reforming process are relatively low raw material price, small investment scale, low operating costs, and easier device, 

with little influence from the other aspects after driving, easy to start and stop, and simple process. The disadvantage is at the current price of raw materials, the operating cost is slightly higher than the natural gas method.