Thermal-Hydraulic Analyses of Heat Transfer Fluid Requirements and Characteristics for Coupling A Hydrogen Production Plant to a High-Temperature Nuclear Reactor

Download or read book Thermal-Hydraulic Analyses of Heat Transfer Fluid Requirements and Characteristics for Coupling A Hydrogen Production Plant to a High-Temperature Nuclear Reactor written by D. F. Wilson and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department of Energy is investigating the use of high-temperature nuclear reactors to producehydrogen using either thermochemical cycles or high-temperature electrolysis. Although the hydrogenproduction processes are in an early stage of development, coupling either of these processes to the hightemperaturereactor requires both efficient heat transfer and adequate separation of the facilities to assurethat off-normal events in the production facility do not impact the nuclear power plant. An intermediateheat transport loop will be required to separate the operations and safety functions of the nuclear andhydrogen plants. A next generation high-temperature reactor could be envisioned as a single-purposefacility that produces hydrogen or a dual-purpose facility that produces hydrogen and electricity. Earlyplants, such as the proposed Next Generation Nuclear Plant, may be dual-purpose facilities thatdemonstrate both hydrogen and efficient electrical generation. Later plants could be single-purposefacilities. At this stage of development, both single- and dual-purpose facilities need to be understood. Seven possible configurations for a system that transfers heat between the nuclear reactor and thehydrogen and/or electrical generation plants were identified. These configurations included both directand indirect cycles for the production of electricity. Both helium and liquid salts were considered as theworking fluid in the intermediate heat transport loop. Methods were developed to perform thermalhydraulicand cycle-efficiency evaluations of the different configurations and coolants. The thermalhydraulicevaluations estimated the sizes of various components in the intermediate heat transport loopfor the different configurations. The relative sizes of components provide a relative indication of thecapital cost associated with the various configurations. Estimates of the overall cycle efficiency of thevarious configurations were also determined. The evaluations determined which configurations andcoolants are the most promising from thermal-hydraulic and efficiency points of view. These evaluationsalso determined which configurations and options do not appear to be feasible at the current time.