Thermo-economic analysis and optimization of the very high temperature gas-cooled reactor-based nuclear hydrogen production system using copper-chlorine cycle

An improved very high temperature gas-cooled reactor (VHTR) and copper-chlorine (Cu–Cl) cycle-based nuclear hydrogen production system is proposed and investigated in this paper, in order to reveal the unknown thermo-economic characteristics of the system under variable operating conditions. Energy, exergy and economic analysis method and particle swarm optimization algorithm are used to model and optimize the system, respectively. Parametric analysis of the effects of several key operating parameters on the system performance is conducted, and energy loss, exergy loss, and investment cost distributions of the system are discussed under three typical production modes. Results show that increasing the reactor subsystem pressure ratio can enhance the system's thermo-economic performance, and the total efficiencies and cost of producing compressed hydrogen from nuclear energy are respectively lower and higher than that of generating electricity. When the system operates at the maximum hydrogen production rate of 403.1 mol/s, the system's net electrical power output, thermal efficiency, exergy efficiency, and specific energy cost are found to be 38.77 MW, 39.3%, 41.26%, and 0.0731 $/kW·h, respectively. And when the system's hydrogen production load equals to 0, these values are respectively calculated to be 177.25 MW, 50.64%, 53.29%, and 0.0268 $/kW·h. In addition, more than 90% of the system's total energy losses are caused by condenser and Cu–Cl cycle, and about 50–60% of the system's total exergy destructions occur in VHTR. About 60% and 30% of the system's specific energy cost are respectively caused by the equipment investment and the system operation & maintenance, and the investment costs of VHTR and Cu–Cl plant are the system's main capital investment sources.