Progress of the IAHE Nuclear Hydrogen Division on international hydrogen production programs

Abstract

This paper presents recent activities of the IAHE Nuclear Hydrogen Division and associated research advances in Canada, China, France, Germany, Poland, and Romania on programs and major initiatives on large-scale hydrogen production and utilization. Germany and France have made significant advances in high temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE). Germany has successfully demonstrated a 3-kW electrolyzer powered by solar energy. France demonstrated a 25-cell stack HTSE, which can produce 1.7 Nm 3 /hr of hydrogen. China has made significant progress in developing the Sulfur-Iodine cycle at a hydrogen production rate of 60 dm 3 /hr. A 10-cell HTSE was developed and tested at Tsinghua University, China. Romania is collaborating with Canada on nuclear hydrogen production with the thermochemical Cu-Cl cycle. The individual unit operations of the Cu-Cl cycle have been verified experimentally. Research on integration of a laboratory scale system to produce 3 kg of hydrogen per day is underway at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Ontario. Poland has developed advanced simulation capabilities for Solid Oxide Fuel/Electrolysis Cells for hydrogen peak energy storage as well as laboratory scale experiments focused on solid oxide and molten carbonate fuel cells. This paper presents a review of activities of members of the IAHE Nuclear Hydrogen Division in these six countries.

Thermochemical looping technologies for clean hydrogen production – Current status and recent advances

“…Studies focus on optimal flow sheet options for better thermal coupling of components and temperature matching with nuclear heat. Since the HyS cycle requires the same maximum temperature as in the SI cycle, similar operations are conducted by also considering electrification of the electrolysis step from either nuclear technology or other renewable sources (Gorensek et al, 2017;Odukoya et al, 2016;El-Emam et al, 2015a). ➢ The Cu-Cl cycle has been one of the most intensively studied cycles, with many configurations and flow sheet operations in various institutions.…”

Solid oxide electrolysis stack development and upscaling

“…Among the different electrolysis technologies, solid oxide electrolysis (SOE) presents the highest efficiency and is therefore considered to be a highly promising technology to produce hydrogen at low cost [4, 5]. A levelized cost of hydrogen down to 2€ kg −1 is forecasted for electrolysis plants at the scale of hundreds of MW with an electricity cost of 40€ MWh −1 [6]. To reach such large units, the upscaling of the different components of the SOE technology is a cornerstone, which includes cells, stacks and modules.…”

Safety Investigation of Hazardous Materials Released from the Combined High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor – Hydrogen Production Plant Using ALOHA Software

“…The High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) is an advanced-generation reactor capable of utilizing high temperature coolant of up to 950 °C, which is significantly higher than the ~325 °C coolant exit temperature with light water reactors (LWRs). The HTGR can be used for high efficiency power production with both a gas-turbine in a direct cycle and/or a superheated steam turbine as a process of heat supply using high temperature helium or steam for a hydrogen production plant or other chemical plants [4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”