Preliminary Cost Estimation of Nuclear Hydrogen Production

Abstract

Hydrogen is an environmentally attractive fuel that has the potential to replace fossil fuels, but contemporary hydrogen production primarily based on fossil fuels is not practically economical. To achieve the hydrogen economy, it is very important to produce a massive amount of hydrogen in a clean, safe and efficient way. Nuclear hydrogen production would allow massive production of hydrogen at an economic price while avoiding the release of carbon dioxide. Therefore, it could become the enabling technology to achieve the hydrogen economy.

A Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) with an outlet coolant temperature of 950 ° is considered as an efficient reactor to couple with the thermo-chemical Sulfur Iodine (SI) cycle to achieve the hydrogen economy.

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) is developing thermo-chemical hydrogen production process called SI cycle  utilizing  the heat from the VHTR with outlet coolant temperature up to 950 °, which is considered as an efficient reactor for the hydrogen production.

KAERI's research focuses on the development of the key technologies required for the realization of a nuclear hydrogen production economy. The key technologies comprise development of computational tools and methodologies to analyze the nuclear reactor systems, development of materials and components, development of TRISO coated particle fuel fabrication technology, and development of the SI process.

A preliminary study of cost estimates on the VHTR with SI cycle plant for the nuclear hydrogen production was performed from the perspective of Levelized Unit Hydrogen Production Cost(LUHC). The VHTR equipment costs and SI equipment costs were based on benchmarking GT-MHR and H2-MHR, respectively.

G4-ECONS developed by EMWG of GIF was appropriately modified to calculate the LUHC for the nuclear hydrogen production plant, assuming 36 months of plant construction time, 5 % of annual interest rate and 12.6 % of fixed charge rate.

The result indicated estimated hydrogen production cost could be competitive with current techniques of hydrogen production from fossil fuels if CO2 capture and sequestration is required.

The parametric study was done with a modified G4-ECONS for the major factors that would affect the hydrogen production cost. The result indicated that the fixed charge rate and electricity costs have a more significant influence on hydrogen production cost than the construction time.