Efficiency of a conceptual design of a high temperature electrolysis system coupled to a VHTR for nuclear hydrogen production

Abstract

High temperature electrolysis process coupled to a very high temperature reactor is one of the most promising methods for hydrogen production using a nuclear reactor as the primary energy source. A computational fluid dynamic model for the evaluation and optimisation of the electrolyser of a high temperature electrolysis hydrogen production process flowsheet was developed using ANSYS FLUENT®. Electrolyser's operational and design parameters will be optimised in order to obtain the maximum hydrogen production and the higher efficiency in the module. A complete flowsheet is proposed for the high temperature electrolysis process coupled to an accelerator driven system, considering a Brayton cycle for the energy production and a sweep gas system for the gas separation. An acceptable value of global efficiency for the initial operating condition is obtained. Several parametric studies are conducted using the flowsheet proposed to evaluate important operating parameters in the overall process efficiency.