钠冷快堆制氢工艺及经济性研究

Research on Hydrogen Production Process andEconomy of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor

“双碳”目标下,氢能将成为未来能源体系的重要组成部分。钠冷快堆具有反应堆出口温度高、热效率高等优点,可同时提供大规模制氢所需的电力和热能。本文对钠冷快堆匹配制氢工艺进行研究,研究显示在零碳排放目标下匹配的制氢工艺为铜-氯热化学循环制氢与常规电解制氢。利用国际原子能机构开发的制氢经济评价程序HEEP对百万千瓦快堆(CFR1000)耦合常规电解、热化学循环制氢成本进行了经济性分析,并基于GIF开发的四代堆经济评价软件G4-ECONS V3.0校核验证。计算结果显示,CFR1000耦合常规电解制氢成本为3.05美元/kg,耦合热化学循环热电联产的制氢成本为4.83美元/kg。钠冷快堆投资比将随着未来规模化建造后逐渐降低,利用钠冷快堆制氢具有广阔的应用前景。

With the aim of“carbon peaking”and“carbon neutrality”in China,hydrogen energy will play a crucial role of in the future.The third-generation nuclear power(GEN-Ⅲ)features a relatively low reactor outlet temperature,with the primary application of its generated electric energy to direct electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen.In contrast,the fourth-generation nuclear power(GEN-Ⅳ)has higher thermal efficiency and reactor outlet temperature.Considering the matching of reactor outlet temperature with the hydrogen production process,cogeneration can be employed to effectively reduce the cost of hydrogen production.Sodium-cooled fast reactor(SFR)is one of the GEN-Ⅳreactors,which has the advantage of high reactor outlet temperature,high efficiency and high-tech maturity,and can provide the thermal power and electrical energy for the hydrogen production process.SFR also have advantages of proliferation of nuclear fuel and burn long-lived radioactive nuclides.The closed fuel cycle formed by the development of fast reactors and pressurized water reactors can effectively achieve the sustainable development of nuclear energy.Hydrogen production could be considered in the design of the next generation million kilowatts-level fast reactor(CFR1000),making the hydrogen production process more economical and reduction of carbon emissions,simultaneously.Considering the reactor outlet temperature and the aim of zero-carbon emission during the hydrogen production process,the results reveal that the most suitable hydrogen production methods for SFR are the thermo-chemical cycle(copper-chlorine cycle)and conventional electrolysis.For conventional electrolysis,hydrogen production efficiency is relatively low,but the technology maturity is much higher compared with the other methods.For the thermo-chemical cycle(copper-chlorine cycle),technology maturity is relatively low but has higher hydrogen production efficiency,which could make the hydrogen production process more economical in the future.Based on the hydrogen economic evaluation program HEEP(V2021)which was developed by the IAEA,an economic study on the hydrogen production cost per kilograms of CFR1000 was conducted,which was verified by the fourth-generation reactor economic evaluation software G4-ECONS V3.0 developed by GIF.The cost of the hydrogen production by conventional electrolysis coupled with the CFR1000 is 3.05$/kg,and the cost of hydrogen production process coupled with the thermo-chemical cycle is 4.83$/kg.However,with the investment ratio reduction of SFR,and the potential impact of carbon sinks in the future,the cost of hydrogen production will be further explored.HEEP calculation results show that a decrease in the overnight investment of CFR1000 could significantly reduce the cost of hydrogen production.Overall,SFR shows great promise in the field of hydrogen production in the future.