Patent ID: 7214251

Claim:
A compact steam reformer for converting natural gas into hydrogen and carbon dioxide, comprising: a housing; a reforming reactor, established in the housing, having two sectioned compartments for mixing natural gas and steam for accommodating a catalyst bed; a metal fiber burner, surrounding the reforming reactor in an inward manner; a high temperature converter, established outside of the metal fiber burner to communicate with the reforming reactor, for primarily removing carbon monoxide from the synthetic gas introduced from the reforming reactor; a low-temperature converter, established outside of the metal fiber burner to communicate with the high-temperature converter, for secondarily reducing the carbon monoxide level of the synthetic gas by converting unreacted carbon monoxide into hydrogen and carbon dioxide; a heat exchanger, provided between the high-temperature converter and the low-temperature converter, for cooling the gas effluent from the high temperature converter to a temperature suitable to conduct the conversion of unreacted carbon monoxide into hydrogen and carbon dioxide in the low-temperature converter; a steam-generating coiled pipe which is placed in an upper portion of the housing and which converts water into steam by the heat generated from the exhaust; and in which the steam reformer with the reactors is integrated in one housing and characterized in generating steam with the exhaust in the above reforming devices without placing separate steam boilers externally.