Patent ID: 8075870

Claim:
A process for obtaining hydrogen from natural gas, the process comprising the steps of: a. reacting the natural gas with a mixture of air and steam in a single reactor to obtain a gas comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide, b. reacting the carbon monoxide produced in step (a) at a high temperature with steam to obtain a gas comprising hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and c. reacting the carbon monoxide which has not reacted in step (b) at a low temperature with steam to obtain a gas comprising hydrogen and carbon dioxide, wherein in step (a) the natural gas, the air and the steam are fed simultaneously with an O 2 /CH 4 feed ratio varying between 0.4 and 0.7 and a H 2 O/CH 4 feed ratio varying between 0.8 and 2.5 and react on the same catalyst at a space velocity comprised between 70,000 and 90,000 h −1 , and in that the pressure used in steps (a) to (c) varies between 1 and 8 atm.