HyPEP FY-07 Report: Initial Calculations of Component Sizes, Quasi- Static, and Dynamics Analyses

The Very High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (VHTR) coupled to the High Temperature Steam Electrolysis (HTSE) process is one of two reference integrated systems being investigated by the U.S. Department of Energy and Idaho National Laboratory for the production of hydrogen. In this concept a VHTR outlet temperature of 900 °C provides thermal energy and high efficiency electricity for the electrolysis of steam in the HTSE process. In the second reference system the Sulfur Iodine (SI) process is coupled to the VHTR to produce hydrogen thermochemically. This report describes component sizing studies and control system strategies for achieving plant production and operability goals for these two reference systems. The optimal size and design condition for the intermediate heat exchanger, one of the most important components for integration of the VHTR and HTSE plants, was estimated using an analytic model. A partial load schedule and control system was designed for the integrated plant using a quasi-static simulation. Reactor stability for temperature perturbations in the hydrogen plant was investigated using both a simple analytic method and a dynamic simulation. Potential efficiency improvements over the VHTR/HTSE plant were investigated for an alternative design that directly couples a High Temperature Steam Rankin Cycle (HTRC) to the HTSE process. This work was done using the HYSYS code and results for the HTRC/HTSE system were compared to the VHTR/HTSE system. Integration of the VHTR with SI process plants was begun. Using the ASPEN plus code the efficiency was estimated. Finally, this report describes planning for the validation and verification of the HYPEP code. iv v CONTENTS 1.