Patent ID: 8715617

Claim:
A hydrogen production process comprising: introducing reactants comprising steam and a hydrocarbon feed into a first reactor wherein the hydrocarbon feed comprises methane and at least one C2-C5 hydrocarbon, reacting the reactants in the presence of a reforming catalyst under reaction conditions sufficient to form a reformate comprising H 2 , CO, and unreacted methane and steam, and withdrawing the reformate from the first reactor, wherein the reaction conditions sufficient to form the reformate include a temperature ranging from 430° C. to 570° C., and a pressure ranging from 0.7 to 9 MPa; introducing an oxygen-containing stream and the reformate from the first reactor into a second reactor, reacting the oxygen and the reformate in the presence of a second reforming catalyst under reaction conditions sufficient to form additional H 2 and CO in the reformate, wherein the reformate from the first reactor is not further reacted before being introduced into the second reactor; recovering heat from the reformate from the second reactor thereby cooling the reformate; reacting the cooled reformate in the presence of a shift catalyst under reaction conditions sufficient to shift the reformate to form additional H 2 in the reformate; recovering heat from the shifted reformate thereby cooling the shifted reformate; removing H 2 O from the shifted reformate to form a water-depleted reformate; separating the water-depleted reformate into a CO 2 product stream and a pressure swing adsorber feed stream comprising H 2 and secondary gas components, the secondary gas components comprising CO, N 2 , Ar, and CH 4 ; separating the pressure swing adsorber feed stream in a plurality of at least 4 pressure swing adsorption beds, each adsorption bed containing an adsorbent selective for the secondary gas components thereby forming a H 2 product stream and a pressure swing adsorption tail gas stream; introducing a first portion of the tail gas stream into at least one of the first reactor, and the second reactor; and introducing a second portion of the tail gas stream into at least one of the plurality of pressure swing adsorption beds.