INVESTIGATION OF THE I-S CYCLE FOR MASSIVE HYDROGEN PRODUCTION

摘要

The French Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA) has, since mid-2001, performed a preliminary evaluation of different methods to produce hydrogen from nuclear energy. The objective is to compare the hydrogen production costs via high temperature electrolysis or via thermochemical cycles, which are nowadays the two main routes for the long term production of hydrogen without greenhouse effect, both from the technical and economical points of view. A first comparison of thermochemical cycles has already been done. From this analysis, it appears that, based on known data, the hybrid S process (also call the Westinghouse process) is probably today the most economical friendly, but that possible improvements are limited because of the electrolytic part of the process. However, the integral thermochemical I-S (iodine-sulphur) cycle developed by General Atomics in the 1970s could become much more interesting if some improvements could be done in the flowsheet. In this paper, we focus on the most critical and pertinent areas which are, from our point of view, R&D efforts in order to reach the goal of the most precise evaluation of the potentialities of the I-S process.