Refrigeration cycle for cryogenic separation of hydrogen from coke oven gas

Abstract

Ten billion cubic meters of hydrogen are dissipated to the environment along with the emission of coke-oven gas every year in China. A novel cryogenic separation of hydrogen from coke oven gas is proposed to separate the hydrogen and liquefy it simultaneously, and the cooling capacity is supplied by two refrigeration cycles. The performance of the ideal vapor refrigeration cycle is analyzed with methane and nitrogen as refrigerant respectively. The results show that the coefficient of performance (COP) of methane refrigeration cycle is 2.7 times that of nitrogen refrigeration cycle, and the figure of merit (FOM) of methane refrigeration cycle is 1.6 times that of nitrogen refrigeration cycle. The performance of ideal gas refrigeration cycle is also analyzed with neon, hydrogen and helium as refrigerant respectively. The results show that both the coefficient of performance and figure of merit of neon refrigeration cycle is the highest. It is thermodynamically possible to arrange the refrigeration cycle with methane and neon as refrigerant, respectively.

Keywords

coke oven gas / hydrogen / cryogenic separation / refrigeration cycle