Hydrogen production by using high-temperature gas-cooled reactors

Abstract

Nuclear energy is a necessary component of a cheap and abundant total primary energy supply where there are no entries from the combustion of carbon and hydrocarbon fuels. This perspective discusses how high-temperature gas-cooled reactors could be developed targeting the production of electricity through advanced ultra-supercritical (AUSC) Rankine cycles and hydrogen through electrolysis (temperatures of the secondary heat transfer fluid <750 °C) as well as hydrogen through direct thermochemical cycles on top of AUSC electricity production (temperatures of the secondary heat transfer fluid 950 to 1000 °C).