Optimization and comparison of two improved very high temperature gas-cooled reactor-based hydrogen and electricity cogeneration systems using iodine-sulfur cycle

To enrich the existing research methods and content, two improved very high temperature gas-cooled reactor and iodine-sulfur (I–S) cycle-based nuclear hydrogen and steam and helium gas turbines electricity cogeneration systems, including the series connection system (SCS) and the parallel connection system (PCS), are proposed and studied. The energy and exergy analysis methods are used to model these two systems, and Aspen Plus is adopted to build the I–S hydrogen production system. The energy consumption and thermal efficiency of the I–S system are analyzed in detail, and the parametric optimization of two improved systems is performed using particle-swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Lastly, the performance comparison of the two systems under different operating conditions is conducted. The simulation results show that more than 99% of the energy consumption of the I–S system is occupied by H₂SO₄ section and HIx section, and the system's thermal efficiency is estimated to be in the range of 17.7%–43.3%. After using an internal heat exchange network, a conservative thermal efficiency of 23.7% is achieved. The optimization results show that under zero hydrogen production load, the proposed PCS and SCS can respectively achieve the net electrical power outputs of 172.8 MW and 125.7 MW, the global thermal efficiencies of 49.36% and 35.91%, and the global exergy efficiencies of 51.94% and 37.79%. With the increase of hydrogen production load, the global efficiencies of both systems decrease significantly, but the decreasing rate of PCS is faster than that of SCS. In addition, the performance comparison results indicate that when the hydrogen production load is small or the intermediate heat exchanger's primary side helium outlet temperature is close to the reactor inlet temperature, the PCS would be a better option than the SCS.