Parametric study of sulfuric acid decomposer for hydrogen production

Authors

Valery Ponyavin, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Yitung Chen, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Taha Mohamed, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Mohamed Trabia, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Anthony Hechanova, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Merrill Wilson, Ceramatec, Inc.Follow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2008

Publication Title

Progress in Nuclear Energy

Volume

50

Issue

2-6

First page number:

427

Last page number:

433

Abstract

It is proposed to use a ceramic high-temperature heat exchanger as a sulfuric acid decomposer for hydrogen production within the sulfur–iodine thermo-chemical cycle portion of the hydrogen production process. In this cycle, hot helium from a nuclear reactor is used to heat the SI (sulfuric acid) feed components (H₂O, H₂SO₄, SO₃) to obtain appropriate conditions for the SI decomposition reaction. The inner walls of the SI decomposition channels of the decomposer are coated by a catalyst to decompose sulfur trioxide into sulfur dioxide and oxygen. The heat exchanger and decomposer are made of silicon carbide (SiC).

A three-dimensional computational model is developed to investigate fluid flow, heat transfer, chemical reaction, and stress analysis within the decomposer. Fluid/thermal/chemical analysis of the decomposer is conducted using FLUENT software. Thermal results of this analysis are exported to ANSYS software to perform a probabilistic failure analysis. Effects of using various channel geometries of the decomposer are investigated.

Keywords

Ceramics; Chemical decomposition; Decomposition (Chemistry); Heat exchangers; Heat transfer; Heat — Transmission; Silicon carbide; Stress analysis; Weibull probabilistic failure analysis

Disciplines

Ceramic Materials | Chemical Engineering | Chemistry | Computer-Aided Engineering and Design | Inorganic Chemistry | Materials Science and Engineering

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited

Publisher Citation

Valery Ponyavin, Yitung Chen, Taha Mohamed, Mohamed Trabia, Anthony E. Hechanova, Merrill Wilson, Parametric study of sulfuric acid decomposer for hydrogen production, Progress in Nuclear Energy, Volume 50, Issues 2–6, March–August 2008, Pages 427-433, ISSN 0149-1970, 10.1016/j.pnucene.2007.11.026. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149197007001710)

Repository Citation

Ponyavin, V., Chen, Y., Mohamed, T., Trabia, M., Hechanova, A., Wilson, M. (2008). Parametric study of sulfuric acid decomposer for hydrogen production. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 50(2-6), 427-433.