Thermal Integration Options for Hydrogen Cogeneration With Molten Salt Nuclear Reactors

Thermochemical hydrogen cogeneration using heat of molten salt nuclear reactors (MSRs) is discussed in this paper. Sulfur-iodine and copper-chlorine cycles are taken as typical examples for analysis and discussion. It is found that the heat exchanger design is predominately determined by the maximum and range of temperatures of themochemical hydrogen production cycles with MSRs. Copper-chlorine (Cu-Cl) thermochemical cycles can link with most MSRs, but sulfur-iodine (S-I) cycles can only link with very high temperature MSRs. The location of extracted heat from MSRs to S-I and Cu-Cl cycles is investigated, and its influence on the layout of nuclear reactor coolant loop is discussed. Some conceptual designs of heat exchangers are proposed to transfer heat from MSRs to Cu-Cl and S-I cycles. The available heat quantity at different hours of a day and corresponding hydrogen production scales are determined. It is found that the available heat at most hours of power demand in a day is equivalent to the hydrogen cogeneration capacity of an industrial scale steam methane reforming plant, if an MSR power station is operating at an invariable maximum power, independent of an electrical load throughout a day or year.