Experimental investigation of par device for hydrogen recombination in reko-4 facility

Abstract

The Fukushima accident has proved that passive safety systems in reactors are necessary to avoid hydrogen accumulation. One of these systems are PAR (passive autocatalytic recombiner) to remove the hydrogen gases inside the containment in case of an accident. This paper aims to investigate a PAR device with catalyst sheets to calculate the hydrogen consumption, determine the temperature distribution, and PAR performance in the test facility. Test series were carried out in the test facility REKO-4 under atmospheric pressure and natural flow conditions. For the test purposes, hydrogen between 2.0 and 6.0 vol.% was injected into the vessel with the volumetric flow, 1.9 m3/h. The first rise in the temperature of the PAR inlet was found after 100 seconds of first hydrogen injection, this result demonstrated that hydrogen consumption started. The results from the test series show that the PAR device can remove hydrogen and the PAR performance can be determined from the test results.