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Hydrogen and Steam Generators, Desalinator

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The Hydrogen Economy
Journal Items

A New Look at the Hydrogen Economy, April 9, 1918:  http://theenergycollective.com/roger-arnold/2430631/a-new-look-at-the-hydrogen-economy 

Member

EngineerPoet

April 10, 2018 13:25

 

I am reminded of the “four miracles” required for the hydrogen economy:

1.  Generating it.
2.  Shipping it.
3.  Storing it.
4.  Utilizing it.

Above from: Hydrogen Generation from Aluminum Pellets - Technical Overview.pdf

 

Hydrogen produces NO CO2.  (Click to Enlarge. Click again to zoom in and out.)

Japanese presentation of Hydrogen's potential applications.  (Click to Enlarge. Click again to zoom in and out.)

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Thermochemical cycle [From]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_production 

Thermochemical cycles combine solely heat sources (thermo) with chemical reactions to split water into its hydrogen and oxygen components. The term cycle is used because aside from water, hydrogen and oxygen, the chemical compounds used in these processes are continuously recycled. If electricity is partially used as an input, the resulting thermochemical cycle is defined as a hybrid one.

The sulfur-iodine cycle (S-I cycle) is a thermochemical cycle processes which generates hydrogen from water with an efficiency of approximately 50%. The sulfur and iodine used in the process are recovered and reused, and not consumed by the process. The cycle can be performed with any source of very high temperatures, approximately 950 °C, such as by Concentrating solar power systems (CSP) and is regarded as being well suited to the production of hydrogen by high-temperature nuclear reactors, and as such, is being studied in the High Temperature Test Reactor in Japan. There are other hybrid cycles that use both high temperatures and some electricity, such as the Copper–chlorine cycle, it is classified as a hybrid thermochemical cycle because it uses an electrochemical reaction in one of the reaction steps, it operates at 530 °C and has an efficiency of 43 percent.

Source of extreme high temperature, high wattage, industrial electric heating elements  https://www.kanthal.com/en/ 

(Above) A ThorCon dual reactor installation is good for 250 + 250 megaWatts maximum. Not all that big when you consider the heat load presented by
chemical water splitting and energy needed to control catalytic hydrocarbon molecule joining. Fortunately, both hydrogen and oxygen can be stored for later use.
See below to get an idea of how heat flows inside and between fuel molecules while burning.

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Gas-to-Molten Salt Liquid heat transmission system.

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Nuclear Steam Generator

The NuScale is a "bridge" reactor, having aspects of both third and fourth generation reactors. It is a 50 megaWatt(e) conventional 550°F, water cooled reactor. Not really enough heat or power to do much beyond take an Energy Park beyond it's pilot plant stage. Additional NuScale 50 mW(e) reactors can be added to an initial NuScale site at modest cost but it would take 10 to match the electrical output of a ThorCon pair and they would be still be limited to 500°F, way below the maximum temperature demand of a thermochemical hydrogen generator.

The ThorCon is a 500 megaWatt(e) 1,300°F, molten salt cooled reactor. Lots of heat packing a lot of power. Enough for a serious sized money-making Energy Park.

The most likely ThorCon design would be a secondary salt distribution manifold capable of sending the desalinator, hydrogen generator, and steam generator 100% of the secondary salt it is designed to need. This keeps a double buffer (fuelsalt-to-secondary salt and secondary salt-to-solar salt) between the steam, hydrogen, and desalinator loads and the fuelsalt.

The steam output system would have to be designed to accommodate both electrical generation and site heat demands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_generator_(nuclear_power)   

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Nuclear Flash Desalinator

How a flash distillation system works:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-stage_flash_distillation 

Solaris Water Midstream, WaterBridge Resources LLC, and Oilfield Water Logistics  - Cleaning fracking waste water in arid areas.

The above diagram illustrates the idea but not the machine for removing tons of CO2 per day from seawater.

The air in the first few stages of a flash distiller is rich with the CO2 that was earlier absorbed by seawater.

Massive nuclear powered cheap desalination for agricultural purposes could both restore groundwater aquifers and reduce sea level rise.
California's central valley comes to mind.  According to the table above, the weight ratio of CO2 to seawater is 11,111 to 1.

Shoaiba flash distiller and power station, Saudi Arabia.  Can consume two small oil tankers of oil per day.
This is why ThorCon's molten salt nuclear reactor is being suggested.         

Multi-Stage Flash Desalination Plant at Jebel Ali G Station, Dubai.  Notice the extensive use of tubular equipment shapes.

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