Nuclear Production of Hydrogen
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Nuclear Production of Hydrogen

Fourth Information Exchange Meeting, Oakbrook, Illinois, USA , 14-16 April 2009

Hydrogen has the potential to play an important role as a sustainable and environmentally acceptable energy carrier in the 21st century. This report describes the scientific and technical challenges associated with the production of hydrogen using heat and/or electricity from nuclear power plants, with special emphasis on recent developments in high-temperature electrolysis and the use of different chemical thermodynamic processes. Economics and market analysis as well as safety aspects of the nuclear production of hydrogen are also discussed.
Publication Date :
23 June 2010
DOI :
10.1787/9789264087156-en
 
Chapter
 

Heat pump cycle by hydrogen-absorbing alloys to assist high-temperature gas-cooled reactor in producing hydrogen You do not have access to this content

Authors:
OECD, Satoshi Fukada, Nobutaka Hayashi
Pages :
407–415
DOI :
10.1787/9789264087156-46-en

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A chemical heat pump system using two hydrogen-absorbing alloys is proposed to utilise heat exhausted from a high-temperature source such as a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), more efficiently. The heat pump system is designed to produce H2 based on the S-I cycle more efficiently. The overall system proposed here consists of HTGR, He gas turbines, chemical heat pumps and reaction vessels corresponding to the three-step decomposition reactions comprised in the S-I process. A fundamental research is experimentally performed on heat generation in a single bed packed with a hydrogen-absorbing alloy that may work at the H2 production temperature. The hydrogen-absorbing alloy of Zr(V1-XFeX)2 is selected as a material that has a proper plateau pressure for the heat pump system operated between the input and output temperatures of HTGR and reaction vessels of the S-I cycle. Temperature jump due to heat generated when the alloy absorbs H2 proves that the alloy–H2 system can heat up the exhaust gas even at 600°C without any external mechanical force.