DFMA Approach to Reducing the Cost of Hydrogen Produced from Natural Gas

Steam methane reformer (SMR) based hydrogen production facilities are highly capital intensive because they are custom-designed and are built using one-at-a-time fabrication techniques. Capital costs account for 70-85% of the total per unit hydrogen costs for on-site systems in the 50 kg/h and below capacity range. Opportunities exist for significant reductions in product hydrogen costs by introducing advanced design technologies such as Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA). An SMR based system designed using the DFMA approach is expected to significantly reduce the capital cost by minimizing the overall part count, simplifying the design, and optimizing the assembly process. Praxair, in cooperation with the US Department of Energy (DOE), has completed the study phase of a system developed using this approach. This paper presents an overview of the impact of this approach on the system design and the overall cost for the small on-site production of hydrogen.