Chapter 15_Nuclear Heat for Hydrogen Production

8/3/2019 Chapter 15_Nuclear Heat for Hydrogen Production

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Chapter15:Nuclear Heat for Hydrogen Production

Edited by Dr. Mir F. Ali 1

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Nuclear heat for hydrogen production is another advanced application of nuclear energy.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and the third most abundant onEarth. Hydrogen gas does not exist on the earth or in our atmosphere in significantquantities. Instead, it reacts quickly with other elements to form more stable compounds.Hydrogen compounds are abundant in water and fossil fuels; its supply is effectively limitless. Because pure hydrogen is not as readily available as fossil fuels, hydrogen is notconsidered to be a source of energy but an energy carrier. Like electricity, hydrogen isManufactured . Energy carriers are a convenient medium to store, transport, and useenergy. But the convenience comes at a price, that is, efficiency.

There are several methods for producing hydrogen. All involve splitting compounds thatcontain hydrogen and capturing the hydrogen gas that results. To split water directly with

heat (Thermolysis) requires temperatures in excess of 2500C for significant hydrogengeneration. This method is not currently practical for industrial production, as thosetemperatures cannot be sustained. Instead, thermochemical cycles or electrical driversallow the splitting to occur at lower temperatures

Hydrogen has been researched as an energy transport medium since the 1960s. Tworecent technological developments have piqued the interest in hydrogen:

1. F uel cell technology to cleanly make electricity on location (or perhaps in vehicles); and

2. The direct use of hydrogen as a fuel, such as in rocket fuel or military aircraft.

Currently, hydrogen production is a major area of research throughout the world,especially in the US, Europe, and Japan. Burning hydrogen with oxygen, as is done in thespace shuttle, creates no pollution. The only by product of that combustion is water.Burning hydrogen with air does form some pollutants, such as NOX, but in much smallerquantities than when burning fossil fuels. Therefore, there are significant potentialenvironmental benefits to the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier.

Here is a graph which illustrates the process of using nuclear heat for hydrogenproduction:


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Number of thermo-chemical water splitting cycles have been identified in recent years.These cycles essentially split water into hydrogen and oxygen through a series of heat-driven chemical reactions. Early progress including bench-scale testing of the leadingcycles best suited for the high temperature gas-cooled reactor is under development inthe U.S., Japan, F rance and other countries. In the thermo-chemical processes, only water, heat and electricity (as a utility) are needed to produce hydrogen and oxygen. Although many of these cycles have been identified, most of the current development work is focused on the sulfur-iodine (SI) process.

Use of the high-temperature nuclear reactor as the heat source would eliminate carbondioxide emissions and result in efficiencies approaching 80 percent. Areas of commercialinterest in hydrogen include: oil refining, ammonia manufacturing (fertilizer), and

methanol production. Hydrogen can be combined with gasoline, ethanol, methanol, ornatural gas to increase engine performance and reduce pollution. This increasing demandfor hydrogen in the refining sector is driven by the need to produce cleanertransportation fuel for meeting environmental regulations. Hydrogen can be added in therefining process to create a cleaner-burning fuel.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device. A fuel cell converts thechemicals hydrogen and oxygen into water, and as a result, it produces electrical power


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efficiently, without producing any CO2. The by-products of an operating fuel cell are heatand water. In principle, a fuel cell operates like a battery. However, unlike a battery, a fuelcell does not run down or require recharging. With a fuel cell, chemicals constantly flowinto the cell so it never goes dead as long as there is a flow of chemicals into the cell, theelectricity flows out of the cell. Most fuel cells in use today use hydrogen and oxygen as

the chemicals.

Looking at the graph, there are six types of fuel cells , connected to two different types of applications Stationary and Transport. Here is a brief description of each type of fuelcell:

1. Proton Exchange Membrane F uel Cells (PEMFC): This type also known as Poly Electrolyte Membrane. These fuel cells deliverhigh power density and offer the advantages of low weight and volumecompared to other fuel cells. PEM F C are particularly suited to poweringpassenger cars and buses due to their fast start-up time, favourable power

density, and power-to-weight ratio;2. Phosphoric Acid F uel Cells (PAFC ):Phosphoric acid fuel cells (PA F C) use phosphoric acid as an electrolyte andporous carbon electrodes containing a platinum catalyst. They were the firstfuel cells ever used commercially and over 200 units are currently in use.Primarily used in stationary power applications, as well as for poweringbuses;

3. Direct Methanol F uel Cells (DMFC): Most fuel cells are powered by hydrogen, which can be fed to the fuel cell system directly or can be generated within the fuel cell system by reforming

hydrogen-rich fuels such as methanol, ethanol, and hydrocarbon fuels.DMF C, however, are powered by pure methanol. DM F C fuel cell technology is relatively new, compared to that of fuel cells powered by pure hydrogen,and research and development are roughly 3-4 years behind that of otherfuel cell types;

4. Alkaline F uel Cells (AFC): Alkaline fuel cells (A F C) were the first fuel cell technology ever developedand used in the United States space programme. They use a potassiumhydroxide solution as the electrolyte and a variety of non-precious metals asa catalyst at the anode and cathode. A F C typically operate at between 100-250 C, but recent versions operate at between 23-70 C. A F C are high-performance devices that achieve an efficiency of 60 percent, but they are vulnerable to poisoning by even small amounts of carbon dioxide;

5. Molten Carbonate F uel Cells (MCFC): Molten Carbonate F uel Cells (MC F C) are being developed to be fuelled by natural gas. These fuel cells cannot be fuelled by pure hydrogen. MC F C usea molten-carbonate-salt electrolyte suspended in a porous, inert ceramicmatrix. They do not need an external reformer, because they operate at high


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temperatures (>650 C). In addition, they do not use precious-metalcatalysts, further reducing their cost; and

6 . Solid Oxide (SOFC): Solid Oxide F uel Cells (SO F C) used a non-porous ceramic electrolyte andappeared to be the most promising technology for electricity generation. When combined with a gas turbine, SO F C, expected to achieve an electricalefficiency of 70 percent and up to 80-85 percent efficiency in cogeneration.High operating temperatures of 800-1000 C mean precious-metal catalystsand external reformers are unnecessary, helping to reduce the cost of SO F C.

The applications have been divided into the following two categories:1. STATIONARY APPLICATIONS: Here are some facts about the fuel cell stationary applications:

1. More than 11,000 small stationary fuel cells units have been deployed globally;2. In 2008, the installed capacity of fuel cells in large scale stationary applications

reached 170MWe ; 3. Japan has 5,862 stationary fuel cells units under operation;4. 6,000 fuel cell CHP units, commercially available today, rated at 400kWe

(sufficient to power a supermarket or school) would deliver the same level of


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carbon dioxide (CO2) reductions as the proposed Severn Barrage, and could be inplace in 5 years at more than 3 times lower capital cost;

5. If 5.6 million homes had microCHP installed by 2020, the saved CO2 emissions would be equivalent to the emissions from eight new 750MW Combined Cycle GasTurbine power stations;

6 . A 2kW stationary fuel cell CHP unit can save up to 5 tonnes of CO2 per householdper annum depending on the installation; and

7. F uel cells enable wider uptake of combined heat and power generation at 80-90percent overall efficiency.

Here is a brief summary on each major stationary application, which is mainly based on2009 Annual Report of the Hydrogen and F uel Cell Technical Advisory Committee :1.1 Power Generation and Electric Support Applications:F uel cells generate power without combustion resulting in the generation of cleanelectricity. As a result, the fuel cell emits virtually zero pollutants such as NOx, SOx orparticulate matter. The fuel cell electrical generation process is highly efficient, resultingin fuel savings for customers and lower greenhouse gas emissions compared tocombustion based power sources.

The Connecticut Public Utility Commission approved the installation of nine F uel CellEnergy ( F CE) molten carbonate fuel cell power plants, totaling 27.3 megawatts (MW), infive separate grid-connected projects. In Korea, POSCO Power ordered 68 MW of moltencarbonate fuel cells from F CE, and Samsung installed 4.8 MW of UTC fuel cells at a powerplant outside Seoul.

As far as the Electric Grid Support applications are concerned, the Ohio utility,F

irstEnergy, announced that it would purchase a 1 MW, trailer-based polymer electrolytemembrane (PEM) fuel cell system from Ballard Power. The project will demonstrate fuelcell capabilities to provide feeder peak management, defer distribution system assetupgrades, deliver zero local CO2 emissions, and provide power conditioning for highquality power.

The bottomline is that the demand for multi-megawatt fuel cell systems for powergeneration and electric grid support applications are on the increase.1.2 Combined Heat and Power Applications:Combined Heat and Power (CHP) or cogeneration is a system that involves the recovery of waste heat from power generation to form useful energy like useable steam. Combinedheat and power is also the production of electricity and thermal energy in a singleintegrated structure.

Whole F oods Market announced a second store to install a UTC 400 kW fuel cell system.UTC will also provide a 200 kW phosphoric acid fuel cell system to provide heat andpower to a Coca Cola facility in New York State. In anticipation of the need for qualified


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technicians to support CHP systems, Plug Power commissioned a 5 kW unit installed atUnion College in New York to be used for educational purposes.

The bottomline is that retail and manufacturing companies are beginning to see the valuein the combined heat and power (CHP) benefits provided by fuel cell systems.1.3 Back up and Remote Power Generation Applications: Wireless TT Info Services Ltd, an arm of a major telecom operator in India, contracted with Plug Power for the purchase, installation and maintenance of 200 GenSys fuel cellsystems to provide continuous power for off-grid cell towers in India. Motorolaannounced that it would use Ballard fuel cells in back-up power systems for 123 basestations in Denmark s TETRA-standard public safety communication network. In theU.S., the Department of Energy (DOE) is working with the F ederal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense (DOD) to install 43 emergency back-up

power systems. In late 2009, the Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, incollaboration with DOE, issued a solicitation for 36 PEM fuel cell systems, ranging in sizefrom 1 to 28 kW, as emergency back-up power for buildings and operations at 16 federalfacilities (including DOD, DOE, and NASA sites).

The bottomline is that back-up and remote power applications provide an important andgrowing early market for fuel cell systems.


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1.4 Material Handling Equipment Applications: F uel cell developers and hydrogen refueling equipment manufacturers are targeting themulti-billion dollar North American market opportunity to supply hydrogen and fuel celllift trucks to distribution centers and manufacturing plants. Compared with battery-powered forklifts, fuel cell forklifts have a greater range, take less time to recharge andcool before use, are not prone to voltage drops as power discharges, and do not sufferfrom downtime during battery change-outs. F uel cell systems also require less space forrefueling, and do not face concerns about battery life and disposal. F ive new DOE projectsfunded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will help deploy more than 300fuel cell forklifts at F ed Ex, Genco, Sysco, and East Penn Manufacturing. Other fuel cellforklift customers include Central Grocers, Nestle Water, Walmart, Whole F oods,Bridgestone, and Coca Cola.

The bottomline is that the DOD has emerged as a key early adopter, and is establishing aclear business case for fuel cell forklifts and sales of fuel cell forklifts are rapidly

expanding to commercial facilities.

In spite of the growing popularity of fuel cell technologies, there are a limited number of companies that manufacturing fuel cells commercially for stationary applications for thecommercial, residential, and industrial buildings. At the same time, there are a significantnumber of demonstration plants around the world, where fuel cell technologies are beingtested and implemented to take advantage of the environmentally friendly, reliable, anddecentralized electricity generation solutions of the future. F urthermore, according to various reports high efficiency building cogeneration systems using fuel cells will be oneof the key technology options for improving building energy efficiency.

2. TRANSPORT APPLICATIONS: A hydrogen car defined to be an alternative fuel vehicle that uses hydrogen as its onboardfuel for motive power. The term may also refer to a personal transportation vehicle, suchas an automobile, or any other vehicle that uses hydrogen in a similar fashion, such as anaircraft. The power plants of such vehicles convert the chemical energy of hydrogen tomechanical energy either by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine, or by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to run electric motors.

The concept of hydrogen car is not new. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) used fuel cells to generate electricity aboard space missionsduring the 1960s, but Sir William Grove s invention found little use of hydrogen in any other setting. Geoffrey Ballard, founder of Ballard Power , a dual US-Canadian citizen who was educated in Harvard, turned the promise of a hydrogen-based economy powered by fuel cells into reality, a task that fell to several dozen scientists gathered on the outskirt of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.


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It is no secret that there are already many hydrogen cars on the road. Typically, thesehydrogen cars are used as fleet vehicles in California, Japan, Canada, and the EuropeanUnion.

It was indeed a great help when President Bush signed a $1.2 billion deal over five years in2003 to help fund research into hydrogen power with the objective that in 2015, theEnergy Hydrogen Program will make a decision on commercializing hydrogen poweredfuels cells to power vehicles and make infrastructure to fuel them. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was pushing to get 200 hydrogen fuelling stations built by 2010stretching from Vancouver all the way down to Baja, California.

The critical component of hydrogen cars is the infrastructure of hydrogen fuel stations onthe hydrogen highways. The hydrogen fuelling stations of the future could very well be

both, standalone ports or a complementary part of current gasoline stations.California s first hydrogen fuel station open to the public was on April 13, 2004 inDiamond Bar in the southern part of the state. Since then, California has 23 activehydrogen fuel stations across the state that is providing fuelling service to 158 fleet vehicles on a regular basis. Currently, there are 14 more fuel stations underconstruction.


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The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) hosts the Stuart Energy SES-f hydrogen fuelling station, which has attracted international attention from theNetherlands, Czech Republic, Belize, Switzerland, Philippines, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, China, South Africa, Latvia, and the Republic of Georgia. The Stuart Energy Station was also chosen by Toyota to provide hydrogen-fuelling infrastructure to its headquarters

in Torrance, California.

Other hydrogen fuelling stations across the world include those in Germany, Lisbon,Sweden, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Portugal, Spain, Iceland, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, Italy, Belgium, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.Here is the link to a comprehensive Worldwide Hydrogen F uelling Stations that describesthe availability of hundreds of hydrogen fuelling stations by the country and by the city.

It is interesting to note that besides commercial fuelling stations, the future may holdthat home hydrogen fuelling stations become commonplace. By the process of electrolysis, an electrical current can split tap water into hydrogen and oxygen, thusmaking it possible to fuel up your car at home before you hit the road.

This chapter was published on Inuitech Intuitech Technologies for Sustainability onF ebruary 6, 2012: http://intuitech.biz/chapter15-nuclear-energy-applications-nuclear-heat-hydrogen-production-edited-dr-mir-f-ali/


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http://intuitech.biz/?p=7687

Resources:

1. Hydrogen Production by Nuclear Heat: http://www.mpr.com/news-and-publications/white-papers/H2-from-Nuclear.pdf 2. Thermochemical Water Splitting Cycles:

http://www.cea.fr/var/cea/storage/static/gb/library/Clefs50/pdf/037a041grastien-gb.pdf

3. Hydrogen F uel Cells: http://intuitech.biz/?p=7666 4. Energy Efficiency F uel Cells:

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/fuelcells/fc_types.html 5. Hydrogen F uel Cell: Stationary Applications:6. Wikipedia: Internal Combustion Engine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_combustion_engine 7. Wikipedia: F uel Cell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ F uel_cell 8. Ballard Power Systems Inc.: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/Al-

Be/Ballard-Power-Systems-Inc.html 9. Nuclear Energy: Hydrogen Cars: http://intuitech.biz/?p=7647 10. Hydrogen F ueling Stations: http://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/hydrogen-fuel-

stations.htm 11. F uel Cells 2000: http://www.fuelcells.org/info/charts/h2fuelingstations.pdf

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Chapter 15_Nuclear Heat for Hydrogen Production