Parametric study of sulfuric acid decomposer for hydrogen production

摘要

It is proposed to use a ceramic high-temperature heat exchanger as a sulfuric acid decomposer for hydrogen production within the sulfur-iodine thermo-chemical cycle portion of the hydrogen production process. In this cycle, hot helium from a nuclear reactor is used to heat the SI (sulfuric acid) feed components (H_2O, H_2SO_4, SO_3) to obtain appropriate conditions for the SI decomposition reaction. The inner walls of the SI decomposition channels of the decomposer are coated by a catalyst to decompose sulfur trioxide into sulfur dioxide and oxygen. The heat exchanger and decomposer are made of silicon carbide (SiC). A three-dimensional computational model is developed to investigate fluid flow, heat transfer, chemical reaction, and stress analysis within the decomposer. Fluid/thermal/chemical analysis of the decomposer is conducted using FLUENT software. Thermal results of this analysis are exported to ANSYS software to perform a probabilistic failure analysis. Effects of using various channel geometries of the decomposer are investigated.