Patent ID: 8920772

Claim:
A process for producing a H 2 -containing product gas and for producing purified water from a raw water stream containing contaminants, the process comprising: (a) withdrawing a reformate from a reformer; (b) heating at least a portion of the raw water stream by indirect heat transfer with the reformate thereby cooling the reformate, and thereby evaporating a portion of the at least a portion of the raw water stream in a first evaporator of a plurality of evaporators of a thermal water purification system to form a first steam stream and a first contaminant-enriched raw water stream, withdrawing the first steam stream from the first evaporator, and withdrawing the first contaminant-enriched raw water stream from the first evaporator, the first contaminant-enriched raw water stream having a higher concentration of the contaminants than the at least a portion of the raw water stream introduced into the first evaporator; (c) heating the raw water stream by indirect heat transfer with the reformate after the reformate has already been cooled in step (b), thereby further cooling the reformate to a temperature ranging 20° C. to 60° C., wherein the at least a portion of the raw water stream is heated in step (c) prior to being heated in step (b); (d) introducing the first steam stream into a second evaporator of the plurality of evaporators of the thermal water purification system, heating one of either the first contaminant-enriched raw water stream withdrawn from the first evaporator or a second portion of the raw water stream by indirect heat transfer with the first steam stream to form a second steam stream by evaporating a portion of either the one of the first contaminant-enriched raw water stream or the second portion of the raw water stream, thereby cooling the first steam stream and forming a first condensate stream from the first steam stream, withdrawing the second steam stream from the second evaporator, withdrawing the first condensate stream from the second evaporator wherein the purified water comprises the first condensate stream, and withdrawing a second contaminant-enriched raw water stream from the second evaporator, the second contaminant-enriched raw water stream having a higher concentration of the contaminants than the one of either the first contaminant-enriched raw water stream withdrawn from the first evaporator or the second portion of the raw water stream; and e) forming the H 2 -containing product gas from the reformate after cooling the reformate in step (c).