Development of the Technology for Nuclear Production of Hydrogen

Hydrogen is a clean energy and must be produced by means of primary energy. To use nuclear energy for producing hydrogen in commercial scale is a promising way in the future. High temperature gas cooled reactor(HTGR) can generate electricity with high efficiency and provide high temperature process heat, therefore, it is most suitable for hydrogen production. Two hydrogen production processes, thermochemical cycle and high temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE), could be used for coupling with HTGR. These processes are being investigated in many countries, such as the United States, Japan, France, Canada and China. The nuclear power is rapidly developing in China. The construction of 200 MWe HTGR-PM demonstration plant has been started. In the meantime, the nuclear production of hydrogen processes are being developed in Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology(INET), Tsinghua University. The both processes, S-I thermochemical cycle and HTSE, have been successfully verified in laboratory scale in 2009.