Determination of PAR configuration for PWR containment design: A hydrogen mitigation strategy

This paper deals with determination of the minimum number and identification of the best configurations of passive autocatalytic recombiners (PAR) for the effective design of the containment in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). It considers the current design of PAR in the containment of a PWR and for that tries to identify, through a large number of sensitivity analyses, the minimum required number of PARs in different compartments. In this regard, a qualified nodalization has been developed for best estimate modeling by MELCOR integrated code. The developed model includes primary and secondary systems, containment, and related safety systems. A large number of simulations including the plant specific probabilistic safety assessment and success criteria analysis are used to identify the accident scenario with the highest amount of hydrogen production and risk. We first screened postulated accidents based on the PSA results and then based on the deterministic severe accident computations. It is found that the large break loss of coolant accident (LB-LOCA) without emergency core cooling system (ECCS) actuation is the bounding case from the hydrogen hazard point of view. To find the optimal configuration with minimum number of PARs in the containment, 40 different configurations are analyzed for the selected accident for a Westinghouse type PWR. The main finding of this work is identification of the minimum required number of PARs and their best distribution among the associated compartments. The obtained configuration is equally effective for the hydrogen risk mitigation with 36% reduction in the number of PARs in comparison to the base case design. The methodology of the analysis can be used for other plants.     

GASFLOW-MPI: A new 3-D parallel all-speed CFD code for turbulent dispersion and combustion simulations Part II: First analysis of the hydrogen explosion in Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1

The core-melt in Fukushima-Daiichi Unit 1 represents a new class of severe accidents in which combustible gas from core degradation leaked from the containment into the surrounding air-filled reactor building, formed there a highly reactive gas mixture, and exploded 25 h after begin of the station black-out. Since TMI-2 hydrogen safety research and management has focussed on processes and counter-measures inside the containment but the reactor building remained unprotected against hydrogen threats. The code GASFLOW-MPI is currently under development to simulate hydrogen behaviors, including distribution and combustion, for scenarios with containment leakage.This paper describes a first analysis of the hydrogen explosion in Unit 1. It investigates gas dispersion in the reactor building, assuming a leak at the drywell head flange, shows the evolution of a stratified, inhomogeneous H₂–O₂–N₂–steam mixture in the refueling bay, simulates the combustion of the reactive gas mixture, and predicts pressure loads to walls and internal structures of the reactor building. The blast wave propagated essentially sideways, which explains why all side walls were blown out and the ceiling just collapsed onto the floor of the refueling bay. The blast wave propagation into the free environment was also simulated. The over-pressure amplitudes are sufficiently high to cause damage to adjacent buildings and to injure people. The hitherto existing presumption that the blow-out panel of Unit 2 was removed by the Unit 1 explosion can be confirmed which likely prevented a hydrogen explosion in the Unit 2.GASFLOW-MPI provides validated models for the integral simulations of leakage related core-melt scenarios. Furthermore, the code contains extensively tested submodels for catalytic recombiners, igniters and burst foils, which allow design of new hydrogen risk mitigation systems for currently unprotected spaces in reactor buildings.     

Hydrogen Distribution in Nuclear Reactor Containment During Accidents and Associated Heat and Mass Transfer Issues—A Review

Hydrogen generation during the progression of an accident in a nuclear reactor and its release into the containment comprise an important safety concern in the management of severe accidents in nuclear power plants. The distribution of hydrogen within the containment has important bearing on possibility, mode, and consequence of combustion in the containment. Hence, several small- and large-scale facilities have been built to study the distribution of released hydrogen. Further, several numerical studies and intercomparison exercises on hydrogen distribution have been carried out. The present review summarizes the experimental and numerical studies on hydrogen distribution and suggests opportunities for further studies.     

Spray effect on the behavior of hydrogen during severe accidents by a loss-of-coolant in the APR1400 containment

In order to analyze the effects of the spray activation on the behavior of steam and hydrogen which are produced in the reactor vessel and released into the containment of the APR1400 nuclear power plant during hypothetical severe loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCA), the 3-dimensional CFD code GASFLOW was used. For the two-phase flow with a gas mixture and spray droplets, GASFLOW solves a homogeneous two-phase model which was validated in this study by simulating one of the TOSQAN experiments. The results of the GASFLOW analyses for the LOCAs in the APR1400 show that the spray system can affect the hydrogen distributions in the containment by condensing the steam and it is important to control the spray system carefully during an accident from a hydrogen safety aspect.     

Intrinsic transport and combustion issues of steam-air-hydrogen mixtures in nuclear containments

Understanding local transport behaviour of steam-air-hydrogen mixture inside the containment and associated hydrogen combustion issues are essential to ensure integrity of the nuclear reactor containment in the event of a severe accident. During a severe accident, various mechanisms occurring inside and outside of reactor pressure vessel may lead to generation of steam, and subsequently hydrogen, which eventually gets released in the containment space. Hydrogen may deflagrate in the presence of an ignition source/hot spot depending on local mixture composition of steam-air-hydrogen; this may further lead to flame acceleration, deflagration to detonation transition, and finally to detonation depending upon local conditions and geometric factors, further increasing the internal pressure and temperature of the containment. The fraction of non-condensable gases may also rise due to simultaneous on-going steam condensation, which not only elevates the possibility of hydrogen combustion, but also in turn, affects the eventual local and average steam condensation rates. In this background, this paper reviews the coupled issues between steam condensation, hydrogen transport, hydrogen combustion criteria, location of its sources, and stratification inside reactor containment under plausible severe accident scenarios. Several experiments in the context of containment thermal-hydraulics and hydrogen combustion are elaborated. Looking into the complexity of the problem, necessity to adopt simulation approach is highlighted. Two types of codes, i.e., lumped-parameter (LP) and computational fluid dynamic (CFD), are scrutinized based on their specific applications and limitations. It is inferred that the containment thermal-hydraulics and ensuing safety strategies must address the issue of steam condensation and hydrogen management simultaneously, through a comprehensive and integrated approach.     

Research progress of hydrogen behaviors in nuclear power plant containment under severe accident conditions

Severe accident in a water-cooled nuclear power plant may lead to the production and release of hydrogen. If hydrogen forms flammable gas with air and steam in the containment, it may trigger more serious hydrogen explosion accident, threaten the integrity of the equipment and the containment. The behavioral characteristics of hydrogen under severe accident conditions become primarily responsible for the assessment of combustion risk. This review paper first identifies and describes various key physical phenomena associated to hydrogen behavior in the containment during a severe accident from four main aspects, including the source of hydrogen, hydrogen transport, combustion, and risk mitigation. The typical release process of hydrogen, the combustion limits of hydrogen and main risk mitigation measures are clarified comprehensively. Moreover, representative experimental facilities, related tests and key conclusions are introduced emphatically, which can provide specific guidance for future and ongoing related experimental research. Additionally, through the analysis of corresponding typical simulation studies based on LP method and CFD method, numerical methods suitable for various key phenomena are summarized and recommended. Currently, associated models realized in codes have limitations for predicting hydrogen behavior under certain conditions, which are mainly derived from the coupling effect of complex factors such as condensation, jets, and flame propagation, etc. The applicability and uncertainty of the models in these situations still need to be further evaluated and developed.     

Evaluation of reaction kinetics for the catalyst used in PCRD and study of channel affect on the same

Hydrogen mitigation strategies have gained importance for Nuclear reactors owing to damage caused to integrity of reactor containment by hydrogen fire in three major nuclear accidents of Three Miles Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. One promising technology for hydrogen mitigation is deploying Passive Catalytic Recombiner Devices (PCRDs). Principle involved here is recombining hydrogen released during accident with oxygen from ambient air inside reactor containment on catalyst surface to form steam. Present work focuses on experimental evaluation of reaction kinetics associated with hydrogen-oxygen recombination on surface of indigenous PCRD catalyst developed for Indian Nuclear Power Plants. Behavior of catalyst plates stacked in parallel inside PCRD has also been evaluated. This effect is due to difference in migration mechanisms of reactants and products to and from the catalyst surface. Overall affect has been empirically approximated as single step Arrhenius equation. This is significant in modelling of PCRDs for faster containment analysis using CFD.     

Continuous detonation combustion of ternary “hydrogen–liquid propane–air” mixture in annular combustor

Experiments are performed on continuous detonation combustion of ternary hydrogen–liquid propane–air mixture in a large-scale annular combustor 406 mm in outer diameter with an annular gap of 25 mm. Liquid propane is fed into the combustor at the time when sustained continuous-detonation combustion of hydrogen–air mixture is attained therein. Mass flow rates of hydrogen, propane and air in the experiments ranged from 0.1 to 0.5 kg/s (hydrogen), 0.1 to 0.5 kg/s (propane), and 5 to 12 kg/s (air). Continuous-detonation combustion of liquid propane in air is obtained for the first time due to addition of hydrogen rather than due to enrichment of air with oxygen. Combustor operation with a single continuously rotating detonation wave (DW) for about 0.1 s has been obtained when the flow rates of propane and air remained constant while the flow rate of hydrogen was rapidly decreasing.     

Thermodynamic and thermoeconomic assessment of hydrogen production employing an efficient multigeneration system based on rich fuel combustion

The recent development of distributed multigeneration energy systems is changing the focus of producing different energy vectors from large centralized plants to local energy systems. A novel multigeneration system is designed in the present work to supply domestic energy demands of power, hydrogen and heating. The proposed system mainly consists of a supercritical CO₂ cycle, a gas turbine equipped with a rich-fueled combustion chamber, a membrane for hydrogen separation and a water-gas shift reactor. Feeding the combustion chamber with a rich fuel mixture leads to the availability of a significant hydrogen amount in the products, which can be separated and stored. Thermodynamic analysis revealed that the highest irreversibility belongs to the combustion chamber, which is responsible for almost half of total exergy destruction. The cost of the produced hydrogen is estimated to be 2.2–6.8 $/kg for a natural gas price of 9.51 $/GJ and equivalence ratios of 2.9–1.65. The overall energy and exergy efficiencies, hydrogen production rate, total system cost rate, and cost of produced electricity are found to be 75.1%, 58.9%, 40.6 kg/h, 222 $/h and 51 $/MWh, respectively, assuming an equivalence ratio of 2.     

Design study of an AnSBBR for hydrogen production by co-digestion of whey with glycerin: Interaction effects of organic load,cycle time and feed strategy

An anaerobic sequencing batch biofilm reactor (AnSBBR) treating a mixture of dairy industry wastewater and biodiesel production wastewater (co-digestion of whey with glycerin) was applied to hydrogen production. The influence of fed-batch and batch mode, cycle time and interactions effects between influent concentration and cycle time (2, 3 and 4 h) over the organic loading rate were assessed in order to obtain a sensitivity analysis for important operational variables to the reactor. It was possible to find an optimal cycle time of 3 h with an influent concentration of 7000 mgCOD L^?1 (molar productivity 129.0 molH₂ m^?3 d^?1 and yield 5.4 molH₂ kgCOD^?1). Reactor operation in fed-batch mode allowed higher hydrogen production rates. Increasing the influent concentration (with a constant cycle time) was better for the hydrogen production process than decreasing the cycle length (with a constant influent concentration), which means that these two parameters have different weights in the organic loading rate. The best operational conditions produce hydrogen via acetic, butyric and valeric acids similarly. The system is able to produce 1.3 kJ per gram of COD applied.     

Modelling of aluminum-fuelled power plant with steam-hydrogen enthalpy utilization

Present paper is devoted to the modelling of aluminum-fuelled power plants which employ an aluminum-water reactor for hydrogen and heat production. We considered two new schemes for power plants with aluminum-water reactors producing high-temperature steam-hydrogen mixture: a power plant with a steam-hydrogen turbine, condenser and air-hydrogen fuel cell and a power plant with a steam-hydrogen turbine, combustion chamber and steam-gas turbine. Parameters of the aluminum-water reactor described in the paper correspond to those of the recently developed and tested aluminum-water reactor: pressure – 15 MPa, temperature – 600 K, steam to hydrogen mass ratio – 40. It was shown that the electrical efficiency can be increased from 12% to 25–30% for the power plant with an air-hydrogen fuel cell and to 18–25% for that with a combustion chamber and steam-gas turbine. The total efficiency of such power plants can reach 80%. Moreover, the efficiency of aluminum-fuelled power plants can be further increased by heat regeneration or heat transfer to the secondary circuit. The proposed calculation method provides high accuracy and can be used to predict the performance of power plants with aluminum-water reactors under different operation conditions. In general, the proposed method can be used to simulate utilization of the enthalpy of high-temperature steam-hydrogen mixture from various sources.     

Cost assessment and evaluation of various hydrogen delivery scenarios

In this paper, performance and cost assessment studies, including the stages of hydrogen storage, transmission and distribution of three different hydrogen delivery pathways are undertaken comparatively. The produced hydrogen is stored under different temperatures and pressures and then transported to the nearby cities for distribution. In addition, three different methods for the transportation of the produced hydrogen to the distribution centers are studied, which are as transportation for hydrogen by the pressurized tanks, cryogenic liquid hydrogen tanker and the gas pipelines. Moreover, the transmission options from the distribution center to the target consumer are also examined for three different conditions. As a result, the hydrogen production capacity, the levelized cost of energy distribution (in $/kg), the infrastructure costs (truck, tanker number, gas line costs, etc.) for the selected transmission scenario are calculated. Furthermore, the environmental impact (greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions) and some application parameters of the proposed system (e.g., number of hydrogen fuel stations and the distance between the stations, length of the distribution lines, etc.) are also determined. The highest levelized cost of delivery is obtained as 8.02 $/kg H₂ for the first scenario whereas the lowest cost is obtained as 2.73 $/kg H₂ for the third scenario.     

Investigation of the interaction between intermediates from gasification of biomass in supercritical water: Formaldehyde/formic acid mixtures

Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) is a promising technology for converting wet biomass and waste into renewable energy. While the fundamental mechanism involved in SCWG of biomass is not completely understood, especially hydrogen (H₂) production produced from the interaction among key intermediates. In the present study, formaldehyde mixed with formic acid as model intermediates were tested in a batch reactor at 400 °C and 25 MPa for 30 min. The gas and liquid phases were collected and analyzed to determine a possible mechanism for H₂ production. Results clearly showed that both gasification efficiency (GE) and hydrogen efficiency (HE) increased with addition of formic acid, and the maximum H₂ yield reached 17.92 mol/kg with a relative formic acid content of 66.67% in the mixtures. The total organic carbon removal rate and formaldehyde conversion rate also increased to 67.33% and 89.81% respectively. The reaction pathways for H₂ formation form mixtures was proposed and evaluated, formic acid promoted self-decomposition of formaldehyde to generate H₂, and induced a radical reaction of generated methanol to produce more H₂.     

Steam reforming of methanol,ethanol and glycerol over nickel-based catalysts-A review

Depletion of non-renewable energy sources such as coal and natural gas is paving the way to generate alternative energy sources. Hydrogen, a very promising alternative energy has the highest energy density (143 MJ/kg) compared to any known fuel and it has zero air pollution due to the formation of water as the only by-product after combustion. Currently, 95% of hydrogen is produced from non-renewable sources. Hydrogen production from renewable sources is considered a promising route for development of sustainable energy production. Steam reforming of renewable sources such as methanol, ethanol and glycerol is a promising route to hydrogen production. This review covers steam reforming of these three alcohols using Ni-based catalysts with different supports. Chemistry of the steam reforming reactions is discussed. Hydrogen yield depends on operating conditions, the nature of active metal and the catalyst support. Supports play an important role in terms of hydrogen selectivity and catalyst stability because of their basic characteristics and redox properties. Synthesis of suitable catalysts that can suppress coke formation during reforming is suggested.     

Application of catalytic membrane reactor for pure hydrogen production by flare gas recovery as a novel approach

In the present study, application of catalytic membrane reactor as a novel approach for the flare gas recovery is proposed. A comprehensive two-dimensional non-isothermal model has been constructed to evaluate the performance of flare gas recovery process in the membrane reactor. The model is developed by taking into accounts the main chemical kinetics, heat and mass transfer phenomena and hydrogen permeation in the radial direction across a Pd–Ag membrane. The model predictions are validated based on different experimental results reported in literature. The impact of reactor operating conditions on the recovery process such as temperature and pressure, feed molar ratio and sweep gas ratio are investigated and discussed. The modeling results confirm that the flare gas conversion and hydrogen recovery improves with increasing the operating temperature, pressure and sweep ratio as a consequence of increasing the driving force for H₂ permeation through membrane. The environmental consideration revealed that by application of catalytic membrane reactor for the flare gas recovery of Asalouyeh gas processing plant (Iran), not only the equivalent mass of greenhouse gases emission reduces from 2179 kg/s to 36 kg/s, but also, 12.7 kg/s pure hydrogen will be produced by flare gas recovery at 750 K, 5 bar, sweep ratio of 5 and feed molar ratio of 4.     

Experimental investigation of solar assisted hydrogen production from water and aluminum

Sustainable production of hydrogen at high capacities and low costs is one the main challenges of hydrogen as a future alternative fuel. In this paper, a new hydrogen production system is designed and fabricated to investigate hydrogen production using aluminum and solar energy. Numerous experiments are performed to evaluate the hydrogen production rate, quantitatively and qualitatively. Moreover, correlations between the total hydrogen production volume over time and other parameters are developed and the energy efficiency and conversion ratio of the system are determined. Also, a method is developed to obtain an optimal and stable hydrogen production rate based on system scale and consumed materials. It is observed that at low temperatures, the hydrogen production volume, efficiency and COP of the system increase at a higher sodium hydroxide molarity. In contrast, at high temperatures the results are vice versa. The maximum hydrogen production volume, hydrogen production rate, reactor COP and system efficiency using 0.5 M NaOH solution containing 3.33 g lit^?1 aluminum at 30 °C are 6119 mL, 420 mL min^?1, 1261 mL H₂ per 1 g of Al, and 16%, respectively.     

Performance evaluation of a photoelectrochemical hydrogen production reactor under concentrated and non-concentrated sunlight conditions

In this paper, we present the experimental performance evaluations of a newly developed photoelectrochemical (PEC) reactor for the production of hydrogen under no-light and concentrated solar radiation conditions. With a newly developed experimental setup, the solar light is concentrated about ten times, and the spectrum is divided using cold mirrors for better sunlight utilization. The photoelectrochemical reactor is examined at different applied potentials and the hydrogen production quantities are measured. Copper oxide, which is used as a light-sensitive material, is electrochemically coated on the cathode metal plate to increase the rate of hydrogen evolution under illumination. The present experiments are conducted to investigate the variation of reactor performance with intensified light conditions and the obtained results are compared with the dark conditions. The results of this study reveal that the hydrogen evolution rate was 41.34 mg/h for concentrated light measurement and 34.73 mg/h for no-light measurements at 2.5 V applied potential. The corresponding photocurrent generated under concentrated light at 2.5 V is found to be 0.63 mA/cm². Under the concentrated sunlight, the hydrogen production rates increase considerably which is led by the positive effect of the photocurrent contribution.     

Experimental and numerical investigations of hydrogen jet fire in a vented compartment

Hydrogen fires may pose serious safety issues in vented compartments of nuclear reactor containment and fuel cell systems under hypothetical accidents. Experimental studies on vented hydrogen fires have been performed with the HYKA test facility at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) within Work Package 4 (WP4) - hydrogen jet fire in a confined space of the European HyIndoor project. It has been observed that heat losses of the combustion products can significantly affect the combustion regimes of hydrogen fire as well as the pressure and thermal loads on the confinement structures. Dynamics of turbulent hydrogen jet fire in a vented enclosure was investigated using the CFD code GASFLOW-MPI. Effects of heat losses, including convective heat transfer, steam condensation and thermal radiation, have been studied. The unsteady characteristics of hydrogen jet fires can be successfully captured when the heat transfer mechanisms are considered. Both initial pressure peak and pressure decay were very well predicted compared to the experimental data. A pulsating process of flame extinction due to the consumption of oxygen and then self-ignition due to the inflow of fresh air was captured as well. However, in the adiabatic case without considering the heat loss effects, the pressure and temperature were considerably over-predicted and the major physical phenomena occurring in the combustion enclosure were not able to be reproduced while showing large discrepancies from the experimental observations. The effect of sustained hydrogen release on the jet fire dynamics was also investigated. It indicates that heat losses can have important implications and should be considered in hydrogen combustion simulations.     

Effect of cell immobilization,hematite nanoparticles and formation of hydrogen-producing granules on biohydrogen production from sucrose wastewater

This study investigated the effect of granules formation, hematite nanoparticles and biofilm carriers on biohydrogen production from sucrose wastewater in continuous stirring tank reactors operated at 12 h HRT, pH of 5.5 and 35 °C. Granular-based bioreactor was subjected to acid incubation period for 24 h by shifting the pH from 5.5 to 3. Before application of the acid incubation, hydrogen-producing granules (HPGs) diameter and hydrogen production rate (HPR) of 0.5 mm and 4.3 L/L.d, respectively were measured at 10 g-sucrose/L. Application of acid incubation enhanced the granulation process, where the particle size increased to 2.8 mm and higher HPR of 7.8 L/L.d was obtained. Higher sucrose concentration (15–30 g?L) enhanced HPGs diameter and increased the HPR. At 10 g-sucrose/L, addition of hematite nanoparticles increased the HPR to 5.9 L/L.d higher than 3.87 L/L.d measured in control reactor. Biofilm-based reactor showed HPR of 2.48 L/L.d lower than the control reactor.     

Scaling effects of vented deflagrations for near lean flammability limit hydrogen-air mixtures in large scale rectangular volumes

Combustion-generated overpressures in nuclear containment buildings during a severe accident may be relieved by venting gases to adjacent compartments through relief panels or existing openings to avoid compromising a containment breach. Experimental studies on the dynamics of vented hydrogen-air combustion were extensively performed using vessels varied in shape and size at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. In this paper, the scaling effects are examined for near lean flammability hydrogen-air mixtures (6–12 vol.% H₂) with tests performed in rectangular volumes (25, 57 and 120 m³) with a scaled vent area (A_v/V^2/3) of 0.02–0.05 under both initially quiescent and fan-induced turbulent conditions. This study has found that the maximum peak overpressure of all quiescent tests are dominated by the acoustic coupled effect for the hydrogen concentration greater than 8 vol.%, and the acoustic effect becomes insignificant under turbulent conditions. The measured peak over-pressures are generally over-predicted for the quiescent tests and better predicted for the turbulent tests by the well-known Bradley–Mitcheson and Molkov correlations.