HIGH-TEMPERATURE ELECTROLYSIS FOR LARGE-SCALE HYDROGEN AND SYNGAS PRODUCTION FROM NUCLEAR ENERGY – SYSTEM SIMULATION AND ECONOMICS

Conference · Fri May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2009.09.009· OSTI ID:957519

O'Brien, J E; McKellar, M G; Harvego, E A; Stoots, C M

A research and development program is under way at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to assess the technological and scale-up issues associated with the implementation of solid-oxide electrolysis cell technology for efficient high-temperature hydrogen production from steam. This work is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, under the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative. This paper will provide an overview of large-scale system modeling results and economic analyses that have been completed to date. System analysis results have been obtained using the commercial code UniSim, augmented with a custom high-temperature electrolyzer module. Economic analysis results were based on the DOE H2A analysis methodology. The process flow diagrams for the system simulations include an advanced nuclear reactor as a source of high-temperature process heat, a power cycle and a coupled steam electrolysis loop. Several reactor types and power cycles have been considered, over a range of reactor outlet temperatures. Pure steam electrolysis for hydrogen production as well as coelectrolysis for syngas production from steam/carbon dioxide mixtures have both been considered. In addition, the feasibility of coupling the high-temperature electrolysis process to biomass and coal-based synthetic fuels production has been considered. These simulations demonstrate that the addition of supplementary nuclear hydrogen to synthetic fuels production from any carbon source minimizes emissions of carbon dioxide during the production process.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE - NE
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC07-99ID-13727
• OSTI ID: 957519
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-09-15563; TRN: US1000618
• Resource Relation: Journal Volume: 35; Journal Issue: 10; Conference: International Conference on Hydrogen Production,Oshawa, Ontario, Canada,05/03/2009,05/06/2009
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
08 HYDROGEN
09 BIOMASS FUELS
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
BIOMASS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON SOURCES
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
ELECTROLYSIS
HYDROGEN
HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
IMPLEMENTATION
MIXTURES
NUCLEAR ENERGY
PROCESS HEAT
REACTORS
STEAM
SYNTHETIC FUELS
High Temperature Electrolysis
Hydrogen Production
Nuclear Energy
Syngas