OAK B188 High Efficiency Generation of Hydrogen Fuels using Nuclear Power Annual Report August 2000 - July 2001. Currently no large scale, cost-effective, environmentally attractive hydrogen production process is available for commercialization nor has such a process been identified. Hydrogen is a promising energy carrier, which potentially could replace the fossil fuels used in the transportation sector of our economy. Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion are thought to be responsible for global warming. The purpose of this work is to determine the potential for efficient, cost-effective, large-scale production of hydrogen utilizing high temperature heat from an advanced nuclear power station. The benefits of this work will include the generation of a low-polluting transportable energy feedstock in an efficient method that has little or no implication for greenhouse gas emissions from a primary energy source whose availability and sources are domestically controlled. This will help to ensure energy for a future transportation/energy infrastructure that is not influenced/controlled by foreign governments. This report describes work accomplished during the second year (Phase 2) of a three year project whose objective is to ''define an economically feasible concept for production of hydrogen, by nuclear means, using an advanced high temperature nuclear reactor as the energy source.'' The emphasis of the first year (Phase 1) was to evaluate thermochemical processes which offer the potential for efficient, cost-effective, large-scale production of hydrogen from water, in which the primary energy input is high temperature heat from an advanced nuclear reactor and to select one (or, at most, three) for further detailed consideration. Phase 1 met its goals and did select one process, the sulfur-iodine process, for investigation in Phases 2 and 3. The combined goals of Phases 2 and 3 were to select the advanced nuclear reactor best suited to driving the selected thermochemical process and to define the selected reactor and process to the point that capital costs, operating costs and the resultant cost of hydrogen can be estimated. During original contract negotiation, it was necessary to reduce work scope to meet funding limits. As a result, the reactor interface and process will not be iterated to the point that only hydrogen is produced. Rather, hydrogen and electricity will be co-generated and the hydrogen cost will be stated as a function of the electricity sales price.
