Coupling nuclear and hydrogen-production technologies
Research by a team of experts from the National Nuclear Laboratory shows that powering hydrogen production using nuclear energy could be economically viable
Mark Bankhead, Chemical Modeling Team Manager, explains the background to the research, “Hydrogen and hydrogen-derived alternative liquid fuels are a key enabler for the UK to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Nuclear power can be coupled to different hydrogen-producing technologies. To inform our strategy for demonstrating the value of these technologies by the 2030s, we developed a model that provides insight into their techno-economic performance.
“There are competitive advantages of thermochemical hydrogen production coupled with a High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR), and we know there is more work to do to optimize these technologies and realize the potential of this technology.”
A new way of determining efficiency and costs
In a new approach to determining the economics of these technologies, a ground-breaking mathematical model was constructed which coupled nuclear power to hydrogen-producing technology. The model allows different hydrogen production technologies to be coupled, which means that different scenarios can be compared.
The model was constructed in two parts. First, the physical and chemical processes of different hydrogen production technologies were modeled. This provided a novel method of determining the overall efficiency of these industrial processes by expressing the output of the model as units of hydrogen produced per unit of energy supplied. In the second part of the model, this measure of efficiency was fed into an economic model.
Kate Taylor, a process modeler at NNL, worked on the economic model, says, “In order to determine the selling price of hydrogen, the model combines the cost of building and operating a hydrogen plant with the cost of the electricity and/or heat needed to supply it.
“We also included estimates on how hydrogen-producing technology will improve, and how building a fleet of nuclear reactors will refine our knowledge of coupling nuclear plants to these technologies. We are predicting what will happen in the future based on our current knowledge of technology development. And the predictions are very encouraging.”
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