• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.515-524
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• 2022

In this study, the on-site hydrogen production process for refueling stations that were not energy-optimized was improved through exergy analysis and heat exchange network synthesis. Furthermore, the process was scaled up from 30 Nm3/h to 150 Nm3/h to improve hydrogen production capacity. Exergy analysis results show that exergy destruction in the SMR reactor and the heat exchanger accounts for 58.1 and 19.8%, respectively. Thus, the process is improved by modifying the heat exchange network to reduce the exergy loss in these units. As a result of the process simulation analysis, thermal and exergy efficiency is improved from 75.7 to 78.6% and 68.1 to 70.4%, respectively. In conclusion, it is expected to improve the process efficiency when installing on-site hydrogen refueling stations.