Heat Transfer Characteristics of the Steam Reformer in the HTTR Hydrogen Production System

A technology development of a hydrogen production system by nuclear heat is being performed as a heat application system of a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor in the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. The objectives of this study are to clarify the heat transfer performance of the steam reformer in the HTTR hydrogen production system and to obtain characteristics of heat transfer and pressure drop in a channel having metallic wire inserts with high porosity. A heat transfer experiment has been performed using a horizontal circular tube. It was found that the heat transfer performance of the method using the metallic wire inserts could be further improved under the high temperature conditions.