Hydrogen production using water cooled reactors

Transcription

1 Hydrogen production using water cooled reactors P. Yvon, P. Carles and F. Le Naour International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 1

2 Summary Energy challenges for the 21st century. Why hydrogen is necessary! French context Hydrogen production processes Why LWRs have to be major contributors Advanced processes using LWRs Conclusions International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 2

3 Energy issues some hard facts 2050: primary energy (Gtep/year) Developing countries: from 0.6 toe/inhab/year in 2000, to 1, 2 or 3 Developed countries: 4.7 toe/inhab/year in 2000 and in 2050 Prevision of the total fossil fuels annual production The climate change : Shall we soon see ice free Antarctica due to massive greenhouse gas emission? Antartic ice sheet was formed about 35 My ago, as CO2 concentration was reduced below 450 ppm by natural climate changes. 1970: 325 ppm Today: 385 ppm Tomorrow :? How do we manage the predictable shortage of fossil fuels which provide 85% of the present worldwide primary consumption of energy? A : High growth (technology driven) B : Modest growth C : Ecologically driven growth Competition!!! International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 3

4 What do we have to do? 1. We have to save energy and improve the energy efficiency everywhere for facing the menace of energy shortage. 2. For facing the CO 2 challenge, it is necessary to phase out the massive use of fossil fuels for electricity production. Substitution of low carbon content sources is mandatory. This has to be done in the next 30 years through : - An increase of the nuclear share - The development of hydroelectricity, solar, wind, (renewables) uses. - The development of CO 2 capture and sequestration when fossil fuels are used 3. For preserving the global economy and safety, it is necessary to anticipate the peak oil by a major change in the transportation model. This has to begin now. International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 4

5 This is motivation for an increase use of nuclear energy Share of each energy source in the world energy demand Coal 25% Biomass 10% Nuclear 6% Oil 35% Other renew ables 1% To increase the share of nuclear energy, one option is to work on increasing the share of nuclear in electricity production but most importantly to promote the increased use of electricity and nuclear heat in transport and industry Hydro 2% Natural Gas 21% An immediate application is hydrogen production International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 5

6 The hydrogen market is growing fast! H 2, is presently a highly valuable chemical reactant 45,5 % 33,6 % + 7% / an 33,6 % 50,7 % ammoniac raffineries 21,9 % (+30% raffinerie) 15,7 % autres Nm 3 ~ 49 Mt Increasing need of H 2 to refine heavier petroleum Higher purity standards for gasoline Nm 3 ~ 57 Mt Large increase in H 2 demand 57 Mt/an = 258 GW HHV H2 International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 6

7 Nuclear Hydrogen Applications Short and midterm new needs Chemical Production Oil Sands Oil Sands Process Heat & H 2 SMR X to Liquids Desalination International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 7

8 Electricity and synthetic fuel economy ELECTRICITY or NUCLEAR HEAT ELECTROLYSIS or THERMO-CHEMISTRY HYDROGEN PRODUCTION ELECTRICITY and HEAT ELECTRICITY BIOMASS HYDROGEN SYNGAS Hydro-Bio-Refinery Plug in Hybrid FUEL International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 8

9 French context 58 PWR Nuclear >80% electricity produced Electricity production has to be regulated via nuclear reactors Expensive investments not used to their fullest Interest to use H 2 production to regulate the electricity production (also ENR) need for a flexible H 2 process International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 9

10 2 possibilities How to regulate the nuclear energy production During off peak hours, production of hydrogen which is transformed immediately to methanol or synthetic fuel using the carbon feedstock available (C, CO 2, biomass, waste, ) During off peak hours, production of hydrogen which is stored and then subsequently used in fuel cells to produce electricity and help meet the demand during peak hours. For France, it could mean the equivalent of a few EPRs for France if all NPP run at full power during their availability time International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 10

11 Charbon 18% Eau : 4% Hydrogen production today - not sustainable ~ 95 % centralized production ~ 95 % fossil resources < 10% of the produced hydrogen on the market Pétrole 30% Gaz naturel 48% Methane reforming World production : 57 Mt/year ou Nm 3 /year CH 4 + H O CO + 3H CH 2 + H H 2O CO ,5 hydrogen production cost ( /kg 4 3,5 3 2,5 2 1,5 1 0, natural gas price ( /MWh) déc mars-07 25/05/ /08/ /10/ déc mars avr juil sept nov.-08 Need for CO 2 free process using abundant feedstock (H 2 O) International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 11

12 Reference process: alkaline electrolysis Limited maximum capacity 760 Nm 3 /h = 9,4 mol/s = 1,6 t/j Electric consumption 4,3 kwh/nm 3 = 347 kj e /mol at 1,8 V The largest electrolyser : 3,4 MW e with a large active surface : 950 m 2 (current density : 2000 A/m 2 ) A mature technology Capacité de production (Nm3/h) , ,25 StatoilHydro IHT atmo IHT pressure Hydrogenics Accagen HYOS (Air Liquide) 5 0,34 Avalence 16 1 PIEL Attractive features Lifetime > 30 ans Hydrogen purity > 99.8% Hydrogen is produced at 30 bars CO 2 free if produced with C0 2 free electricity Easy coupling Source : IHT International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 12

13 Process adapted to intermittent production Most of the cost is the energy consumption Can be up and running in 10 mn But if alcaline electrolysis were to replace the current production processes we would need 309 GWe so off peak hour production will not fill all the needs A few drawbacks A production cost higher than the production cost from fossil resources 2,6 /kg for electricity only (on the basis of 54 /MWh e HT price for the industrial electricity in France, 01/01/2007) A low overall efficiency due to the low efficiency of power conversion Incentive to develop more efficient processes International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 13

14 Advanced processes : replace part of e - by Q O 2 H C HTR 850 C H 2 SO 4 Decomposition SO 2 H 2 SO 4 Concentration H 2 0 HI 330 C Decomposition I 2 HI Vaporization H 2 H2SO4 H 2 O SO C I/S Bunsen Reaction H 2 O 100 C Hybrid sulfur SO 2 O 2 HTSE Cu-Cl International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 14

15 Nuclear heat source Because of its high outlet temperatures, VHTR is the natural candidate for coupling to a hydrogen production process France U.S.A. Japan China Euratom countries GEN IV Switzerland South Africa South Korea Canada However other GEN IV systems can also be considered such as SFR, SCWR, GFR International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 15

16 Deployment in the near term All these advances processes are still in the development stages : in all cases, lab scale experiments are producing at best a few hundred grams of hydrogen/hour All the GEN IV systems are also in the development stages and even for the more mature systems (SFR and HTR), industrial deployment is not expected before 2030 Also there has been no significant experience of coupling nuclear reactors to industrial processes Coupling the advanced processes to the GEN IV systems can be the solution of the future but to address the current needs, we have to rely on the existing industrial reactors, at first with proven processes and later with more advanced processes International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 16

17 2 OH - ½O 2 + H e - 2 H e - H OH - High Temperature Steam Electrolysis (HTSE) ΔH dissociation = W e + TΔS dissociation HTSE is a way to decrease H 2 cost by using heat instead of electricity Efficiency of electrolyser increases with the temperature (improve thermodynamic conditions and improve kinetics) Gases can be heated from heat recuperation Energy required for: Water vaporization (low temperature) Electrolyser itself HTSE can be coupled to an LWR International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 17

18 HTSE From materials & components to stacks to plants Components Materials, Processes & Behavior Seals leak management Stacks Integration, Tests & Modeling H2 Prod.Plant System & Techno-economy Interconnects coatings Corrosion of materials High temperature sealing Management of connection Stack development Specific benches and procedures /kg Ceramic Cells Innovative materials New processes to enhance the cells area Modelling Multi physics Design tool / tonne H Nuclear + SMR SMR Nuclear / thermocycles Nuclear + SMR + Capture SMR + Capture Coal Solar + SMR Coal + Capture Solar photocatalysis Thermal cracking Hydroelectric Solar biomass Nuclear / electrolysis Tidal Wind Solar PV International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 18

19 HTSE 5 different designs in progress at CEA Derived SOFC design Robust design Feasibility demonstrated on 6 cells stack 20 cells test planed at the begin of 2009 Original coaxial design Flexible design (no stress on cells) Feasibility in progress High power possibility (cell 600 cm²) Very compact design Design very compact (possibility of 2MW/m3 power) Feasibility demonstrated (reliability on 3 tests) 20 cell test planned during this year International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 19

20 The hydrogen production strategy at CEA CEA is engaged in an ambitious program covering all of the hydrogen technologies (production, storage, distribution, safety, codes & standards, fuel cells, ) A major milestone mid 2009 was the down selection to one advanced process : HTSE massive H2 Production (nuclear & HT solar) IS R&D LSP Bunsen loop Westinghouse R&D LSP Westinghouse Low Temperature cycles R&D Selected Process R&D HTSE R&D LSP process LSP HTSE PEPI MW prototype process PROHYTEC Indust. Renewable / H2 coupling R&D Renewable H2 Production H2 Bioprocess R&D MYRTE - Corsica 200 kw Réu Island 2 MW LSP Bio H2 Indust. International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 20

21 Conclusions Oil peak and GHG emissions drive the need for clean hydrogen production There is a large established market for H 2 For the near term, hydrogen will likely be used as an intermediate to produce synthetic fuels from carbon source (C, CO 2, biomass, waste, ) Hydrogen economy and the use of hydrogen as a energetic vector can happen but is a longer term goal Hydrogen production can be used to regulate the electricity production and to make full use of intermittent energy sources Advanced processes are being developed most of them require reactors also being developed. This could be an answer in the long term, but we have to act now and therefore use the industrial reactors of today. Low temperature electrolysis is a mature and clean (if electricity is CO 2 free) process which can be used immediately. Other electrolysis advanced processes could provide alternative solutions in the next 10 years. International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 21

22 BACK UP International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 22

23 Daily variation January 9th electric load (GW) time of day International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 23

24 Monthly variation January ,27 2,54 3,81 5,08 6,35 7,63 8,9 10,2 11,4 12, ,3 16,5 17,8 19,1 20,3 21,6 22,9 24,1 25,4 26, ,2 30,5 time of month International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 24 e le c tric lo a d (G W )

25 Yearly variation ,9 29,8 44,7 59,6 74,5 89, time of year International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 25 electric load (GW)

26 Initial idea : Hydrogen Economy ELECTRICITY or NUCLEAR HEAT ELECTROLYSIS or THERMO-CHEMISTRY HYDROGEN PRODUCTION BIOMASS CO + H 2 H 2 PURE HYDROGEN Fuel cell and hydrogen International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges for Water Cooled Reactors in the 21 st Century 26