Efficiency of hydrogen production systems using alternative nuclear energy technologies

• Main Author: Tan, Weiyang.
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/47598
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

It is assumed that the primary energy carrier in the modern industrial world is electricity; consequently the product from nuclear power plant is electricity. However, this assumption may not hold ground as the society progresses into the future. According to governments and industries reports, hydrogen may be the primary energy carrier by 2050. With nuclear energy playing an increasing part in the total world energy consumption due to the greenhouse effect and the depletion of fossil fuels, the importance of efficient and low cost hydrogen production from nuclear plants is mounting. Thus, hydrogen not only serves as an economical fuel but also as a environmentally friendly fuel source. Hydrogen can be produced centrally from a mixture of clean coal and fossil fuels, nuclear power, and large-scale renewables. In this project we focus mainly on production of hydrogen using nuclear technologies. Nuclear power can produce hydrogen in many ways. With the evolution of nuclear energy’s role in hydrogen production, many methods have been invented. Among these are electrolysis of water, use of nuclear heat in steam reforming of natural gas, high-temperature electrolysis of steam using nuclear reactors and high-temperature thermochemical production using nuclear heat. These nuclear energy technologies used to produce hydrogen will be studied in detail. The fundamentals of the nuclear energy technologies and specifically their efficiency in production of hydrogen will be studied and explored in this Thesis.