Development of a zero-dimensional dynamic simulator of a power conversion system with a high-temperature gas reactor

The HTTR-GT/H2 plant is a nuclear power cogeneration plant for hydrogen production. The hydrogen production is based on the thermochemical sulfur-iodine cycle able to produce about 30 NM3/h of hydrogen and 15 Nm(3)/h of oxygen. The power conversion system consists of a Bryton-cycle helium gas turbine designed to produce 1 MWe electric of power output, and the source of heat is the high temperature engineering test reactor designed by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. In this work, a preliminary dynamic simulator for the power conversion system was developed. The plant simulator couples the dynamics of the nuclear reactor, the internal heat exchanger, and plant components, such as heat exchangers, coolers, recuperators, compressors, and turbines. Despite the simplicity of modeling, the use of zero-dimensional models showed a good agreement with the reported values, being 0.67% of difference for reactor's power, 0.22% of difference for the coolant outlet temperature, and the differences of the conversion system components compared to the reference ranges between 0.0 and 0.26%.

Automated summary

The HTTR-GT/H2 plant is a nuclear power cogeneration plant for hydrogen production based on the sulfur-iodine cycle, with a power conversion system using a Bryton-cycle helium gas turbine. A preliminary dynamic simulator for the power conversion system was developed, showing good agreement with reported values for reactor power, coolant outlet temperature, and conversion system components.