• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.111-122
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• 2007

The current energy supply system is burdened by environmental and supply problems. The concept of a hydrogen economy has been actively discussed worldwide. KAERI has set up a plan to demonstrate massive production of hydrogen using a VHTR by the early 2020s. The technological gap to meet this goal was identified during the past few years. The hydrogen production process, a process heat exchanger, the efficiency of an I/S thermochemical cycle, the manufacturing of components, the analysis tools of VHTR, and a coated particle fuel are key areas that require urgent development. Candidate NHDD plant designs based on a 200 MWth VHTR core and I/S thermochemical process have been studied and some of analysis results are presented in this paper.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 1989

The sulfur-iodine thermochemical water splitting process of GA(General atomic) cycle was studied to produce hydrogen from water by $H_2-I_2-SO_2$ reactions. The experimental scale was 500g based on iodine. The reaction took 100 minutes, products could be separated two liquid phases due to their density difference:HI solution had a density of 2.39~2.61g/cc, and $H_2SO_4$ solution had 1.37~1.38g/cc. The condition of reaction was when weight ratio of $I_2/H_2O$ was 2/1 resulting in good phase separation and productivity.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.768-774
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• 2014

SI process is a thermochemical process producing hydrogen by decomposing water while recycling sulfur and iodine. Various technologies have been developed to improve the efficiency on Section III of SI process, where iodine is separated and recycled. EED(electro-electrodialysis) could increase the efficiency of Section III without additional chemical compounds but a substantial amount of $I_2$ from a process stream is loaded on EED. In order to reduce the load, a crystallization technology prior to EED is considered as an $I_2$ removal process. In this work, $I_2$ particle sinking behavior was modeled to secure basic data for designing an $I_2$ crystallizer applied to $I_2$-saturated $HI_x$ solutions. The composition of $HI_x$ solution was determined by thermodynamic UVa model and correlation equations and pure properties were used to evaluate the solution properties. A multiphysics computational tool was utilized to calculate particle sinking velocity changes with respect to $I_2$ particle radius and temperature. The terminal velocity of an $I_2$ particle was estimated around 0.5 m/s under considered radius (1.0 to 2.5 mm) and temperature (10 to $50^{\circ}C$) ranges and it was analyzed that the velocity is more dependent on the solution density than the solution viscosity.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.459-466
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• 2014

SI Cyclic process is one of the thermochemical hydrogen production processes using iodine and sulfur for producing hydrogen molecules from water. VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor) can be used to supply heat to hydrogen production process, which is a high temperature nuclear reactor. IHX (Intermediate Heat Exchanger) is necessary to transfer heat to hydrogen production process safely without radioactivity. In this study, the strategy for the optimum design of IHX between SI hydrogen process and VHTR is proposed for various operating pressures of the reactor, and the different cooling fluids. Most economical efficiency of IHX is also proposed along with process conditions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2009

Nuclear hydrogen production using high temperature heat of a very high temperature reactor(VHTR) is one of the most attractive ways of mass hydrogen production without greenhouse gas emission. In many countries, sulfur-iodine(S-I) thermochemical process and high temperature steam electrolysis(HTSE) process are being investigated. In such processes, corrosion behavior of Intermediate heat exchanger materials are the most critical issues. Especially in a HTSE system, several heat exchangers will be facing hot steam conditions. In this paper, the status of high temperature corrosion researches in hot steam and supercritical water conditions are reviewed in view of the implication to HTSE conditions. Based on the review, test condition and plan of the hot steam corrosion of the candidate materials are formulated and described in some details along with the schematics of the test set-up. The test results and subsequent evaluation will be used in development of a interface system between the HTSE hydrogen production system and the VHTR.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.507-515
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• 2015

HI decomposition reaction requires a catalyst for the efficient production of hydrogen as a key reaction for hydrogen production in sulfur-iodine thermochemical water-splitting (SI) cycle. As a catalyst used in the reaction, the performance of platinum catalyst is excellent. While, the platinum catalyst is not economical. Therefore, studies of a nickel catalyst that could replace platinum have been carried out. In this study, the characteristics of the catalytic HI decomposition on the amount of loaded nickel (Ni = 0.1, 0.5, 1, 3, 5, 10 wt%) were investigated. As the supported Ni amount increased up to 3 wt%, HI decomposition was found to increase in linear proportion. However, the conversion of $Ni/Al_2O_3$ catalyst loaded above 3 wt% was not linear. It was thought that the different HI decomposition characteristics was caused in the size and metal dispersion of Ni particles of catalyst. The physical property of catalyst before and after HI decomposition reaction was characterized by BET, chemisorption, XRD and SEM analysis.