Abstract
Variations of environmental impacts with lifetime and production capacity are reported for nuclear based hydrogen production plants using the three-, four- and five-step (copper-chlorine) Cu–CI thermochemical water decomposition cycles. Life cycle assessment is utilized which is essential to evaluate and to decrease the overall environmental impact of any system and/or product. The life cycle assessments of the hydrogen production processes indicate that the four-step Cu–Cl cycle has lower environmental impacts than the three- and five-step cycles due to its lower thermal energy requirement. Parametric studies show for the four-step Cu–Cl cycle that acidification and global warming potentials can be reduced from 0.0031 to 0.0028 kg SO 2-eq and from 0.63 to 0.55 kg CO 2-eq, respectively, if the lifetime of the system increases from 10 to 100 years.
Published Version
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