Options for helium circulation in a hydrogen production plant VHTR-Si: thermal-economic comparative

The technologies that take advantage of the heat of nuclear reactors of IV generation are of great interest, due to their high energy efficiencies and to their strong economic potential. An example of these technologies is the sulfur-iodine process coupled to a nuclear reactor of high temperature cooled by helium. In this process heat is transferred from the nuclear reactor to the chemical plant by means of two cycles of helium interconnected by an intermediate heat exchanger. The first, denominated primary cycle of cooling, removes the heat of the nuclear reactor, transferring to the secondary cycle to be distributed to equipment s in the chemical plant. The pass of the helium gas through the equipment s that compose each one of the cycles, implies pressure losses that should be compensated necessarily by re-compression to maintain a stable state in the system, causing the energy consumption, usually rejected in the energy analyses. When to this energy is added the energy required in the hydrogen plant: energy required by the pumping systems, will decrease the efficiency of the nucleus-chemical complex, increasing the even cost of the hydrogen. In this work, three options to supply the compression energy and pumping (CEP) to the system are proposed, and these are analyzed thermodynamic and economically. The results indicate that to consider the CEP in the economic analysis increases between 1.5 and 3% the even cost of the hydrogen, and that the option with more energy efficiency is not necessarily the best for the nucleus-chemical complex. (Author)