Journal
PROGRESS IN NUCLEAR ENERGY
Volume 137, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.pnucene.2021.103772
Keywords
Nuclear energy; Hydrogen production; Thermochemical cycle; Membrane reactor; Silica membrane
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Hydrogen production from nuclear energy through the thermochemical water-splitting iodine-sulfur (IS) process shows promise as a clean energy solution. A membrane reactor with closed-end silica membrane was designed to explore its potential for hydrogen production via the decomposition of hydrogen iodide (HI), achieving successful equilibrium shift and high conversion rates.
Hydrogen production from nuclear energy has attracted considerable interest as a clean energy solution to address the challenges of climate change and environmental sustainability. With respect to the large-scale and economical production of hydrogen using nuclear energy, the thermochemical water-splitting iodine-sulfur (IS) process is a promising method. The IS process uses sulfur and iodine compounds to decompose water into its elemental constituents, hydrogen and oxygen, by using three coupled chemical reactions: the Bunsen reaction; sulfuric acid decomposition; and hydrogen iodide (HI) decomposition. The decomposition of HI is the efficiency-determining step of the process. In this work, a membrane reactor with a silica membrane closed on one end was designed, and its potential for hydrogen production from HI decomposition was explored. In the reactor-module design, only one end of the membrane tube was fixed, while the closed-end of the tube was freely suspended to avoid thermal expansion effects. The closed-end silica membranes were prepared for the first time by a counter-diffusion chemical vapor deposition of hexyltrimethoxysilane. In application, HI conversion of greater than 0.60 was achieved at a decomposition temperature of 400 degrees C, which is three times greater than the equilibrium conversion (0.20). Thus, the membrane reactor with closed-end silica membrane was shown to produce a successful equilibrium shift in the production of hydrogen via HI decomposition in the thermochemical IS process.
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