A Study On The Dynamic Behavior Of A Sulfur Trioxide Decomposer For A Nuclear Hydrogen Production

摘要

The sulfur-iodine thermochemical water-splitting cycle (S-I cycle) is one of the most promising technologies for mass H_2 production. The S-I cycle is generally divided into three sections, one of which involves a H_2SO_4 concentration and decomposition. In the sulfuric acid processing section (Section 2), H_2SO_4 is decomposed into H_2O and SO_3, and then the produced SO_3 is further decomposed into SO_2 and O_2, which takes place in a H_2SO_4 decomposer and a SO_3 decomposer, respectively. The SO_3 decomposition requires heat of a high temperature and this suggests a heat-exchanger type reactor. To understand the temperature profiles and chemical reactions through a SO_3 decomposer, a dynamic model was developed by considering the heat and material balances in partial differential forms. A model was used to size the decomposer to a proposed design basis and it was also applied to simulate the responses corresponding to the changes of the operation conditions such as increased or decreased flow rates.