High temperature electrolysis of hydrogen bromide gas for hydrogen production using solid oxide membrane electrolyzer

Using solid oxide membrane, this paper presents the theoretical modeling of the high temperature electrolysis of hydrogen bromide gas for hydrogen production. The electrolysis of hydrogen halides such as hydrogen bromide is an attractive process, which can be coupled to hybrid thermochemical cycles. The high temperature electrolyzer model developed in the present study includes concentration, ohmic, and activation losses. Exergy efficiency, as well as energy efficiency parameters, are used to express the thermodynamic performance of the electrolyzer. Moreover, a detailed parametric study is performed to observe the effects of various parameters such as current density and operating temperature on the overall system behavior. The results show that in order to produce 1 mol of hydrogen, 1.1 V of the applied potential is required, which is approximately 0.8 V less compared to high temperature steam electrolysis under same conditions (current density of 1000 A/m² and temperature of 1073 K). Furthermore, it is found that with the use of the presented electrolyzer, one can achieve energy and exergy efficiencies of about 56.7% and 53.8%, respectively. The results presented in this study suggest that, by employing the proposed electrolyzer, two-step thermochemical cycle for hydrogen production may become more attractive especially for nuclear- and concentrated solar-to-hydrogen conversion applications.     

Assessment of an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle using waste tires for hydrogen and fresh water production

In this paper, an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), which uses waste tires as a feedstock, for power, hydrogen and freshwater production is modeled using both EES and Aspen Plus software packages and assessed thermodynamically. During the study, it is found that tire gasification is a viable solution for leftover tire waste in the world. Furthermore, the novel integration of a multi effect desalination plant, driven by the excess heat from the combined cycle, further increases the systems plant efficiency. The hydrogen production to feed rate ratio is found to be 0.154, which is competitive to high-quality coals, such as Illinois No.6, making waste tires an excellent feedstock to produce hydrogen. The net power production output from the combined cycle is 14.5 MW which was driven by the excess thermal energy of the syngas. The water distillate production rate from the forward flow multi-effect desalination plant at the set conditions is found to be 0.99 kg/s. The systems overall energy and exergy efficiencies obtained are 58.9% and 57.4%, respectively.     

Thermodynamic analysis and optimization of an integrated solar thermochemical hydrogen production system

In this study, thermodynamic analysis of solar-based hydrogen production via copper-chlorine (Cu–Cl) thermochemical water splitting cycle is presented. The integrated system utilizes air as the heat transfer fluid of a cavity-pressurized solar power tower to supply heat to the Cu–Cl cycle reactors and heat exchangers. To achieve continuous operation of the system, phase change material based on eutectic fluoride salt is used as the thermal energy storage medium. A heat recovery system is also proposed to use the potential waste heat of the Cu–Cl cycle to produce electricity and steam. The system components are investigated thoroughly and system hotspots, exergy destructions and overall system performance are evaluated. The effects of varying major input parameters on the overall system performance are also investigated. For the baseline, the integrated system produces 343.01 kg/h of hydrogen, 41.68 MW of electricity and 11.39 kg/s of steam. Overall system energy and exergy efficiencies are 45.07% and 49.04%, respectively. Using Genetic Algorithm (GA), an optimization is performed to evaluate the maximum amount of produced hydrogen. The optimization results show that by selecting appropriate input parameters, hydrogen production rate of 491.26 kg/h is achieved.     

Integrated design of hydrogen production and thermal energy storage functions of Al-Bi-Cu composite powders

In recent years, the hydrolysis of Al-based composite powders to produce hydrogen has become a hot topic in the field of hydrogen energy research. However, the hydrogen generation products of Al-based alloys have not been reasonably utilized. For this purpose, this study proposed a novel research idea to achieve the integrated design of hydrogen production and thermal energy storage functions of Al-based composite powders. Specifically, Al-Bi-Cu composite powders with stable hydrogen production were taken as research objects. The hydrogen was obtained by the reaction of Al-Bi-Cu alloy powders with H₂O for different reaction times, and then the hydrogen generation products were directly sintered at high temperature to obtain Al-Cu alloy based composite phase change thermal energy storage materials. The results indicated that at 50 °C, the hydrogen yield of Al-Bi-Cu alloy powders in 100min, 200min and 400min are 319.9 mL/g, 428.5 mL/g and 665.8 mL/g, respectively. Importantly, the Al-Cu alloy based composite phase change thermal energy storage materials prepared by the hydrogen generation products exhibited an adjustable phase change temperature (577.3 °C ∼ 598.2 °C), high thermal energy storage density (44.1J/g ∼ 153.5J/g), good thermal cycling stability and structural stability.     

Assessment of thermal performance improvement of GT-MHR by waste heat utilization in power generation and hydrogen production

The Gas Turbine Modular Helium Reactor (GT-MHR) uses two compression stages to compress the helium and a pre-cooler and an intercooler to reduce the compressors inlet temperature, that dissipate around 308.36 MW_th at the design operational conditions. This dissipated thermal energy can be used as an energy source to produce hydrogen. An energy analysis is conducted for a proposed system that includes GT-MHR combined with Organic Rankine Cycle (GT-MHR/ORC) and a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer (GT-MHR/ORC-PEM) for hydrogen production. The optimum operating parameters values of the new cycle are obtained using the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software. Thermal efficiency has been improved from 48.6% for the simple GT-MHR cycle to 49.8% for the new combined (GT-MHR/ORC-PEM) cycle including hydrogen production at a rate of 0.0644 kg/s at the same operating conditions. However, the thermal efficiency for the combined GT-MHR/ORC was higher and reaches 50.68%. Moreover, a parametric study is carried out over a wide range of some operating conditions such as turbine inlet temperature, Compressor pressure ratio and compressor inlet temperature to investigate their effect on the new cycle performance. Results revealed that increasing the low-pressure compressor inlet temperature increases the amount of hydrogen produced while decreasing thermal efficiencies for the three cycles. Furthermore, increasing compressor pressure ratio reduces the mass flow rate of hydrogen produced util it reaches a minimum value then it starts to increase slightly, on the contrary, an opposite relationship is observed between thermal efficiencies and compressor pressure ratio. Moreover, at low compressor pressure ratio, the rate of hydrogen produced increases with increasing turbine inlet temperature; however, it decreases by increasing the turbine inlet temperature at high compressor pressure ratio. Nevertheless, a direct correlation is noticed between thermal efficiencies and turbine inlet temperature.     

Development and thermodynamic assessment of a novel solar and biomass energy based integrated plant for liquid hydrogen production

In this paper, a combined power plant based on the dish collector and biomass gasifier has been designed to produce liquefied hydrogen and beneficial outputs. The proposed solar and biomass energy based combined power system consists of seven different subplants, such as solar power process, biomass gasification plant, gas turbine cycle, hydrogen generation and liquefaction system, Kalina cycle, organic Rankine cycle, and single-effect absorption plant with ejector. The main useful outputs from the combined plant include power, liquid hydrogen, heating-cooling, and hot water. To evaluate the efficiency of integrated solar energy plant, energetic and exergetic effectiveness of both the whole plant and the sub-plants are performed. For this solar and biomass gasification based combined plant, the generation rates for useful outputs covering the total electricity, cooling, heating and hydrogen, and hot water are obtained as nearly 3.9 MW, 6584 kW, 4206 kW, and 0.087 kg/s in the base design situations. The energy and exergy performances of the whole system are calculated as 51.93% and 47.14%. Also, the functional exergy of the whole system is calculated as 9.18% for the base working parameters. In addition to calculating thermodynamic efficiencies, a parametric plant is conducted to examine the impacts of reference temperature, solar radiation intensity, gasifier temperature, combustion temperature, compression ratio of Brayton cycle, inlet temperature of separator 2, organic Rankine cycle turbine and pump input temperature, and gas turbine input temperature on the combined plant performance.     

Canadian advances in the copper–chlorine thermochemical cycle for clean hydrogen production: A focus on electrolysis

Hydrogen is a clean energy carrier that can help mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if it is used to replace fossil fuels for power production. One way to produce hydrogen on a large scale is through the use of water splitting thermochemical cycles such as the hybrid copper chlorine (Cu–Cl) cycle. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ltd. (CNL) chose to develop the Cu–Cl cycle because the highest temperature required by this cycle is about 530 °C, compatible with the Canadian Super Critical Water Reactor (SCWR) or some small modular reactors (SMR). The on-going effort at CNL is to demonstrate a fully integrated Cu–Cl cycle at laboratory scale with a hydrogen production rate of 50 L/h. Some recent experimental results of the electrolysis step, one of the main steps of the cycle, are discussed in this paper.The anode reaction of CuCl oxidation was investigated using a three-electrode electrochemical cell. Half-cell experiments found that CuCl oxidation did not require noble metals as catalyst. The CuCl oxidation on carbon was found to be a mass-transfer controlled process. Hence the limiting current density increased with increasing turbulence on the electrode surface. Increasing the CuCl concentration and the solution temperature also resulted in higher limiting current densities. A current density of 0.53 A/cm² was achieved for a 1.0 M CuCl solution at 80 °C.Single cells with electrode areas up to 100 cm² were used to establish the operating conditions for the electrolysis step. The effects of flow rate, temperature, and current density on the cell voltage were studied. A hydrogen production rate of 50 L/h was successfully achieved at 0.4 A/cm² in a 2.0 M CuCl solution at 80 °C. The electrolysis step is fully developed for integration in a laboratory-scale demonstration of the Cu–Cl cycle.     

Thermodynamic and exergy evaluation of an innovative hydrogen liquefaction structure based on ejector-compression refrigeration unit,cascade multi-component refrigerant system,and Kalina power plant

Considerable recent ecological and energy concerns have aroused the exploitation of sustainable resources and cost-effective production of green energy carriers such as liquid hydrogen. Despite the remarkable merits of the multi-component refrigerant cycle in enhancing the hydrogen liquefaction process efficiency, it contributes to problematic controllability, increasing investment costs. Moreover, it is not easily possible to keep the composition share of refrigerants in case of leakage. This paper develops an innovative integrated structure for liquid hydrogen production, which benefits from the compression-ejector unit and six cascade multi-component refrigerant cycles in the pre-cooling and liquefaction stages. The Kalina power generation uses wasted heat in the integrated system. A power of 595.6 MW is necessary to produce 22.34 kg/s liquid hydrogen, resulting in specific energy consumption (SEC) of 7.405 kWh/kg LH2 and a coefficient of performance (COP) of 0.103. Besides, the COP of the compression-ejector refrigeration cycle is 0.8682, and the thermal efficiency of the Kalina cycle is 0.1228. The exergy efficiencies of the proposed structure and the ejector-compression refrigeration cycles are 0.2359 and 0.6462, respectively. Heat exchangers take the lion's share of exergy destruction with 39.55%, followed by gas turbines (27.92%) and compressors (21.81%). Based on sensitivity analysis, with the pressure increase in the secondary stream of Ejector1, the SEC increases by 7.435 kWh/kgLH2, and the COP of the ejector-compression refrigeration cycle decreases by 0.8242. As the pressure rises in the Kalina cycle, the SEC declines to a low of 7.4135 kWh/kg LH2 at 26 bar, then increases with pressure.     

Transient simulation of a solar-based hydrogen production plant with evacuated tube collector and ejector refrigeration system

This article is a careful examination of an energy poly-generation unit integrated with an evacuated solar thermal tube collector. A proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis unit is used for hydrogen production, an ejector refrigeration system (ERS) is utilized for cooling demand, and a heater unit is used for heating demand. All sub-systems are validated by considering recent articles. Cooling and heating demand, as well as the net output power are calculated. The modeled poly-generation system's exergy and energy efficiency are maximized by considering the inlet temperature of the heat exchanger and primary pressure of the ejector with the parametric evaluation of the system. The proposed poly-generation set-up can produce cooling load, heating load, and hydrogen with amounts of 5.34 kW, 5.152 kW, and 63 kg/year, respectively. Based on these values, the energy ef?ciency, and exergy ef?ciency are computed to be 64.14%, and 49.62%, respectively. Higher energy and exergy ef?ciencies are obtained by reducing high pressure of the refrigeration cycle or decreasing the temperature outlet of an auxiliary heater. The heat exchanger and thermal energy storage unit have the highest cost rate among all system components with 73,463 $ and 46,357, respectively. Parametric study indicates that the main determinative elements in the total cost rate of the system are the heater, and the solar collector.     

Hydrogen production from solar energy powered supercritical cycle using carbon dioxide

A hydrogen production method is proposed, which utilizes solar energy powered thermodynamic cycle using supercritical carbon dioxide (CO₂) as working fluid for the combined production of hydrogen and thermal energy. The proposed system consists of evacuated solar collectors, power generating turbine, water electrolysis, heat recovery system, and feed pump. In the present study, an experimental prototype has been designed and constructed. The performance of the cycle is tested experimentally under different weather conditions. CO₂ is efficiently converted into supercritical state in the collector, the CO₂ temperature reaches about 190 °C in summer days, and even in winter days it can reach about 80 °C. Such a high-temperature realizes the combined production of electricity and thermal energy. Different from the electrochemical hydrogen production via solar battery-based water splitting on hand, which requires the use of solar batteries with high energy requirements, the generated electricity in the supercritical cycle can be directly used to produce hydrogen gas from water. The amount of hydrogen gas produced by using the electricity generated in the supercritical cycle is about 1035 g per day using an evacuated solar collector of 100.0 m² for per family house in summer conditions, and it is about 568.0 g even in winter days. Additionally, the estimated heat recovery efficiency is about 0.62. Such a high efficiency is sufficient to illustrate the cycle performance.     

Design and thermodynamic modeling of a renewable energy based plant for hydrogen production and compression

In the examined paper, a solar and wind energy supported integrated cycle is designed to produce clean power and hydrogen with the basis of a sustainable and environmentally benign. The modeled study mainly comprises of four subsystems; a solar collector cycle which operates with Therminol VP1 working fluid, an organic Rankine cycle which runs with R744 fluid, a wind turbine as well as hydrogen generation and compression unit. The main target of this work is to investigate a thermodynamic evaluation of the integrated system based on the 1st and 2 nd laws of thermodynamics. Energetic and exergetic efficiencies, hydrogen and electricity generation rates, and irreversibility for the planned cycle and subsystems are investigated according to different parameters, for example, solar radiation flux, reference temperature, and wind speed. The obtained results demonstration that the whole energy and exergy performances of the modeled plant are 0.21 and 0.16. Additionally, the hydrogen generation rate is found as 0.001457 kg/s, and the highest irreversibility rate is shown in the heat exchanger subcomponents. Also, the net power production rate found to be 195.9 kW and 326.5 kW, respectively, with organic Rankine cycle and wind turbine. The final consequences obtained from this work show that the examined plant is an environmentally friendly option, which in terms of the system's performance and viable, for electrical power and hydrogen production using renewable energy sources.     

Feasibility study for hydrogen production using hybrid solar power in Algeria

Hydrogen demand as a clean energy is one of the new energy challenges in the future. Being a very controlled technology, the water electrolysis is more efficient at high temperature level than at low one. This is because of the use of thermal energy which is less expensive than the use of electricity power to produce the hydrogen; the chemical reaction is more activated in these conditions. In this paper, the feasibility of hydrogen production at high temperature electrolyser, using a hybrid solar resource, thermal energy (parabolic trough concentrators) to produce high temperature, steam water and photovoltaic energy for electricity requirements of the HTE, is presented. The described here-after presented in this document guarantees the production of an important quantity of hydrogen at 900 °C. The production rate depends on geographic position, on climatic conditions and on sun radiation. The optimization of the process is strongly related to what preceded these three parameters. Then, we suggest the set up construction in any region allowing maximum extraction of energy based in our simulation results.     

Thermo-environ study of a concentrated photovoltaic thermal system integrated with Kalina cycle for multigeneration and hydrogen production

Unlike steam and gas cycles, the Kalina cycle system can utilize low-grade heat to produce electricity with water-ammonia solution and other mixed working fluids with similar thermal properties. Concentrated photovoltaic thermal systems have proven to be a technology that can be used to maximize solar energy conversion and utilization. In this study, the integration of Kalina cycle with a concentrated photovoltaic thermal system for multigeneration and hydrogen production is investigated. The purpose of this research is to develop a system that can generate more electricity from a solar photovoltaic thermal/Kalina system hybridization while multigeneration and producing hydrogen. With this aim, two different system configurations are modeled and presented in this study to compare the performance of a concentrated photovoltaic thermal integrated multigeneration system with and without a Kalina system. The modeled systems will generate hot water, hydrogen, hot air, electricity, and cooling effect with photovoltaic cells, a Kalina cycle, a hot water tank, a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer, a single effect absorption system, and a hot air tank. The environmental benefit of two multigeneration systems modeled in terms of carbon emission reduction and fossil fuel savings is also studied. The energy and exergy efficiencies of the heliostat used in concentrating solar radiation onto the photovoltaic thermal system are 90% and 89.5% respectively, while the hydrogen production from the two multigeneration system configurations is 10.6 L/s. The concentrated photovoltaic thermal system has a 74% energy efficiency and 45.75% exergy efficiency, while the hot air production chamber has an 85% and 62.3% energy and exergy efficiencies, respectively. Results from this study showed that the overall energy efficiency of the multigeneration system increases from 68.73% to 70.08% with the integration of the Kalina system. Also, an additional 417 kW of electricity is produced with the integration of the Kalina system and this justifies the importance of the configuration. The production of hot air at the condensing stage of the photovoltaic thermal/Kalina hybrid system is integral to the overall performance of the system.     

Renewable hydrogen production concepts from bioethanol reforming with carbon capture

This paper is assessing the hydrogen production from bioethanol at industrial scale (100000 Nm³/h hydrogen equivalent to 300 MW thermal) with carbon capture. Three carbon capture designs were investigated, one based on pre-combustion capture using chemical gas–liquid absorption and two based on chemical looping (one based on syngas and one using direct bioethanol looping). The carbon capture options were compared with the similar designs without carbon capture. The designs were simulated to produce mass and energy balances for quantification of key performance indicators. A particular accent is put on assessment of reforming technologies (steam and oxygen-blown autothermal reforming) and chemical looping units, process integration issues of carbon capture step within the plant, modelling and simulation of whole plant, thermal and power integration of various plant sub-systems by pinch analysis. The results for chemical looping designs (either syngas-based or direct bioethanol) show promising energy efficiency coupled with total carbon capture rate.     

Evaluation of the thermodynamic analysis of hydrogen production from a middle-temperature intensity solar collector,a case study

In today, the basic necessity for the economic and social development of countries is to have a cheap, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly energy source. For this reason, renewable energy sources stand out as the most important key. Solar energy-based multi-energy generation systems are one of the most important options among the current scenarios to prevent global warming. In this presented study, electricity and hydrogen production from a solar collector with medium temperature density is investigated. In this system, 34 pipes evacuated tube solar collector (ETSC) is used for thermal energy generation, organic Rankine cycle (ORC) for electricity generation, and Proton exchanger membrane electrolyzer (PEMe) for hydrogen production. In addition, the energy and exergy efficiencies of the whole system calculated as 51.82% and 16.30%, respectively. Moreover, the amount of hydrogen obtained in PEM is measured as 0.00527 kg/s.     

Methanol production using hydrogen from concentrated solar energy

Concentrated solar thermal technology is considered a very promising renewable energy technology due to its capability of producing heat and electricity and of its straightforward coupling to thermal storage devices. Conventionally, this approach is mostly used for power generation. When coupled with the right conversion process, it can be also used to produce methanol. Indeed methanol is a good alternative fuel for high compression ratio engines. Its high burning velocity and the large expansion occurring during combustion leads to higher efficiency compared to operation with conventional fuels. This study is focused on the system level modeling of methanol production using hydrogen and carbon monoxide produced with cerium oxide solar thermochemical cycle which is expected to be CO₂ free. A techno-economic assessment of the overall process is done for the first time. The thermochemical redox cycle is operated in a solar receiver-reactor with concentrated solar heat to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide as the main constituents of synthesis gas. Afterwards, the synthesis gas is turned into methanol whereas the methanol production process is CO₂ free. The production pathway was modeled and simulations were carried out using process simulation software for MW-scale methanol production plant. The methanol production from synthesis gas utilizes plug-flow reactor. Optimum parameters of reactors are calculated. The solar methanol production plant is designed for the location Almeria, Spain. To assess the plant, economic analysis has been carried out. The results of the simulation show that it is possible to produce 27.81 million liter methanol with a 350 MW_th solar tower plant. It is found out that to operate this plant at base case scenario, 880685 m² of mirror's facets are needed with a solar tower height of 220 m. In this scenario a production cost of 1.14 €/l Methanol is predicted.     

Process development of a solar-assisted multi-production plant: Power,cooling, and hydrogen

Multi-production is a practical approach to boost the efficiency of energy conversion systems by utilizing waste energy to producing more commodities in comparison to conventional single output plants. Solar energy is a vast source of energy that has the potential to be employed for different purposes. Therefore, in this research, a solar-driven multi-production system of power, cooling, and hydrogen generation is proposed and evaluated for being implemented in the city of Bandar-Abbas. The overall system is evaluated by calculating the exergy efficiency and exergy destruction rate of each equipment of the multi-production system. Based on the obtained results, heat exchangers, valves and drums, and splitters monitor to be the most exergy destructive equipment compared to other equipment in the multi-production system. In overall, the designed multi-production system reaches the overall energy efficiency of 90.77% and the overall exergy efficiency of 92.19%. In addition, the coefficient of performance is 0.39 for the absorption refrigeration cycle of the designed multi-production system. In overall, the designed system is able to produce 4.36 MW of electricity, 1.65 MW of cooling load, and 2026 kg/h of hydrogen generation at 80.86°C and 2068 kPa.     

Energy and exergy analyses of a solar based hydrogen production and compression system

In this study, a solar thermal based integrated system with a supercritical-CO₂ (sCO₂) gas turbine (GT) cycle, a four-step Mg–Cl cycle and a five-stage hydrogen compression plant is developed, proposed for applications and analyzed thermodynamically. The solar data for the considered solar plant are taken for Greater Toronto Area (GTA) by considering both daily and yearly data. A molten salt storage is considered for the system in order to work without interruption when the sun is out. The power and heat from the solar and sCO₂-GT subsystems are introduced to the Mg–Cl cycle to produce hydrogen at four consecutive steps. After the internal heat recovery is accomplished, the heating process at required temperature level is supplied by the heat exchanger of the solar plant. The hydrogen produced from the Mg–Cl cycle is compressed up to 700 bar by using a five-stage compression with intercooling and required compression power is compensated by the sCO₂-GT cycle. The total energy and exergy inputs to the integrated system are found to be 1535 MW and 1454 MW, respectively, for a 1 kmol/s hydrogen producing plant. Both energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall system are calculated as 16.31% and 17.6%, respectively. When the energy and exergy loads of the receiver are taken into account as the main inputs, energy and exergy efficiencies become 25.1%, and 39.8%, respectively. The total exergy destruction within the system is found to be 1265 MW where the solar field contains almost 64% of the total irreversibility with a value of ～811 MW.     

Thermodynamic evaluation of hydrogen and electricity cogeneration coupled with very high temperature gas-cooled reactors

Hydrogen production using thermal energy, derived from nuclear reactor, can achieve large-scale hydrogen production and solve various energy problems. The concept of hydrogen and electricity cogeneration can realize the cascade and efficient utilization of high-temperature heat derive for very high temperature gas-cooled reactors (VHTRs). High-quality heat is used for the high-temperature processes of hydrogen production, and low-quality heat is used for the low-temperature processes of hydrogen production and power generation. In this study, two hydrogen and electricity cogeneration schemes (S1 and S2), based on the iodine-sulfur process, were proposed for a VHTR with the reactor outlet temperature of 950 °C. The thermodynamic analysis model was established for the hydrogen and electricity cogeneration. The energy and exergy analysis were conducted on two cogeneration systems. The energy analysis can reflect the overall performance of the systems, and the exergy analysis can reveal the weak parts of the systems. The analysis results show that the overall hydrogen and electricity efficiency of S1 is higher than that of S2, which are 43.6% and 39.2% at the hydrogen production rate of 100 mol/s, respectively. The steam generators is the components with the highest exergy loss coefficient, which are the key components for improving the system performance. This study presents a theoretical foundation for the subsequent optimization of hydrogen and electricity cogeneration coupled with VHTRs.     

Enhanced CANDU reactor with heat upgrade for combined power and hydrogen production

Nuclear energy is considered a key alternative to overcome the environmental issues caused by fossil fuels. It offers opportunities with an improved operating efficiency and safety for producing power, synthetic fuels, delivering process heat and for multigeneration applications. The high-temperature nuclear reactors, although possess great potential for integration with thermochemical water-splitting cycles for hydrogen production, are not yet commercially established. Current nuclear reactor designs providing heat at relatively low temperature can be utilized to produce hydrogen using thermochemical cycles if the temperature of their thermal heat is increased. In this paper, a hybrid chemical-mechanical heat pump system is proposed for upgrading the heat of the Enhanced CANDU (EC6) reactor design to the quality required for the copper-chlorine (Cu–Cl) hybrid thermochemical water splitting cycle operating at 550–600 °C. A modification to the heat pump is proposed to bring the heat to temperature higher than 650 °C with operating coefficient of performance estimated as 0.65.