• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.119-123
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• 2005

The thermochemical splitting of water has been proposed as a clean method for hydrogen production. The IS process is one of the thermochemical water splitting processes using iodine and sulfur as reaction agents. HI decomposition procedure to obtain hydrogen is one of the key operations in the process, because equilibrium conversion of HI is low (22% at $450^{\circ}C$). The silica membranes prepared by CVD. method were applied to the decomposition reaction of HI vapor. The permeation characteristics of hydrogen and nitrogen belong to the Knudsen flow pattern.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.413-426
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• 2009

Nuclear energy plays an important role in world energy production by supplying 6% of the world's current total electricity production. However, 86% of the energy consumed worldwide to produce industrial process heat, to generate electricity and to power the transportation sector still originates in fossil fuels. To cope with dwindling fossil fuels and climate change, it is clear that a clean alternative energy that can replace fossil fuels in these sectors is urgently required. Clean hydrogen energy is one such alternative. Clean hydrogen can play an important role not only in synthetic fuel production but also through powering fuel cells in the anticipated hydrogen economy. With the introduction of the high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) that can produce nuclear heat up to $950^{\circ}C$ without greenhouse gas emissions, nuclear power is poised to broaden its mission beyond electricity generation to the provision of nuclear process heat and the massive production of hydrogen. In this paper, the features and potential of the HTGR as the energy source of the future are addressed. Perspectives on nuclear heat and hydrogen applications using the HTGR are discussed.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.571-577
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• 2020

Thermal analysis was performed for a cold box of a hydrogen liquefaction pilot plant with 0.5 ton/day capacity. The pilot plant has adopted a hydrogen liquefaction process using two-stage helium Brayton cycle with precooling of liquid nitrogen. The cold box for hydrogen liquefaction has generally vacuum insulation but inevitable heat invasion by conduction and radiation exists. The heat loads were calculated for cold box internals according to multilayer insulation emissivity. Total heat load of 181.7 W is estimated for emissivity of 0.03 considered in field condition.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.442-454
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• 2021

The porous transport layer (PTL) is essential to effectively remove oxygen and hydrogen gas from the electrode surface at high current density operation conditions. In this study, the effect of PTL with different characteristics such as pore size, pore gradient, interfacial coating was investigated by multi-layered sintered mesh. A water electrolysis single cell of active area of the 34.56 cm² was constructed, and IV performance and impedance analysis were conducted in the range of 0 to 2.0 A/cm². It was confirmed that the multi-layered sintered mesh PTL, which have an average pore size of 25 to 57 ㎛ and a larger pore gradient, removed bubbles effectively and thus seemed to improve IV performance. Also, it was confirmed that the catalytic metals such as Ni, NiMo coating on the PTL reduced activation overpotential, but increased mass transport overpotential.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.1227-1228
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• 2006

The electrochemical properties of novel metal powders were investigated for the electrode materias of polymer electrolyte memebrane electrolysis. Two types of Pt black and $IrO_2$ powder electrodes were hot-pressed on the polymer electrolyte membrane to form membrane electrode assembly. The galvanodynamic polarization methode was used to characterize the electrochemical properties of both electrodes. From the experimental results, we concluded that the $IrO_2$ powder electrode exhibits better electrochemical performance than Pt black as cathode material for the electrolysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.214-220
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• 2019

Thermochemical cycles have been predominantly used for energy transformation from heat to stored chemical free energy in the form of hydrogen. The thermochemical cycle based on uranium (UTC), proposed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been considered as a better alternative compared to other thermochemical cycles mainly due to its safety and high efficiency. UTC process includes three steps, in which only the first step is unique. Hydrogen production apparatus with hectogram reactants was designed in this study. The results showed that high yield hydrogen was obtained, which was determined by drainage method. The results also indicated that the chemical conversion rate of hydrogen production was in direct proportion to the mass of $Na_2CO_3$, while the solid product was $Na_2UO_4$, instead of $Na_2U_2O_7$. Nevertheless the thermochemical cycle used for hydrogen generation can be closed, and chemical compounds used in these processes can also be recycled. So the cycle with $Na_2UO_4$ as its first reaction product has an advantage over the proposed UTC process, attributed to the fast reaction rate and high hydrogen yield in the first reaction step.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2007

Solar energy conversion to hydrogen was carried out via a two-step thermochemical water splitting using metal oxide redox pair. To simulate the solar radiation, a 7 kW short arc Xe-lamp was used. Partially reduced iron oxide and cerium oxide have the water splitting ability, respectively. So, $Fe_3O_4$ supported on $CeO_2$ was selected as the active material. $Fe_3O_4/CeO_2$(20 wt/80 wt%) was prepared by impregnation method, then the active material was washcoated on the ceramic honeycomb monolith made of mullite and cordierite. Oxygen was released at the reduction step($1673{\sim}1823\;K$) and hydrogen was produced from water at lower temperature($873{\sim}1273\;K$). The result demonstrate the possibility of the 2-step thermochemical water splitting hydrogen production by the active material washcoated monolith. And hydrogen and oxygen was produced separately without any separation process in a monolith installed reactor. But the SEM and EDX analysis results revealed that the support used in this experiment is not suitable due to the thermal instability and coating material migration.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.490-498
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• 2019

The intermittent electric power supply of renewable energy can have extremely negative effect on power grid, so long-term and large-scale storage for energy released from renewable energy source is required for ensuring a stable supply of electric power. Power to gas which can convert and store the surplus electric power as hydrogen through water electrolysis is being actively studied in response to increasing supply of renewable energy. In this paper, we proposed the novel concept of hydrogen liquefaction process combined with pre-cooling process using the liquid air. It is that hydrogen converted from surplus electric power of renewable energy was liquefied through the hydrogen liquefaction process and vaporization heat of liquid hydrogen was conversely recovered to liquid air from ambient air. Moreover, Comparisons of specific energy consumption (kWh/kg) saved for using the liquid air pre-cooling was quantitatively conducted through the performance analysis. Consequently, about 12% of specific energy consumption of hydrogen liquefaction process was reduced with introducing liquid air for pre-cooling and optimal design point of helium Brayton cycle was identified by sensitivity analysis on change of compression/expansion ratio.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.228.2-228.2
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• 2010

In this work, the hydrogen production costs of the nuclear energy sources are estimated in the necessary input data on a Korean specific basis. G4-ECONS was appropriately modified to calculate the cost for hydrogen production of HTE process with Very High Temperature nuclear Reactor (VHTR) as a thermal energy source rather than the LUEC (Levelized Unit Electricity Cost). The general ground rules and assumptions follow G4-ECONS. Through a preliminary study of cost estimates, we wished to evaluate the economic potential for hydrogen produced from nuclear energy, and, in addition, to promptly estimate the hydrogen production costs for an updated input data for capital costs. The estimated costs presented in this paper show that hydrogen production by the VHTR could be competitive with current techniques of hydrogen production from fossil fuels if $CO_2$ capture and sequestration is required. Nuclear production of hydrogen would allow large-scale production of hydrogen at economic prices while avoiding the release of $CO_2$. Nuclear production of hydrogen could thus become the enabling technology for the hydrogen economy. The major factors that would affect the cost of hydrogen were also discussed.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.688-696
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• 2011

Hydrogen is one of the few long-term sustainable clean energy carriers, emitting only water as by-products during its combustion or oxidation. The use of fossil fuels to produce hydrogen makes large amount of carbon dioxide (>7 kg $CO_{2}$/kg $H_{2}$) during the reforming processes. Hydrogen production can be environmentally benign only if the energy and the resource to make hydrogen is sustainable and renewable. Biomass is an attractive alternative to fossil fuels for carbon dioxide because of the hydrogen can be produced by conversion of the biomass and the carbon dioxide formed during hydrogen production is consumed by biomass generation process. Hydrogen production using solar energy also attracts great attention because of the potential to use abundance natural energy and water.