Nuclear production of hydrogen development in the Federal Republic of Germany

For a long time hydrogen has been used in industry and today is mainly produced from hydrocarbons. Hydrogen is used in the gas supply, chemical industry, oil industry and in the metallurgical industry. Hydrogen obtained from nuclear energy can contribute to the future energy supply as well as take over functions which today are filled by natural gas and mineral oil.Based on these properties, and under the assumption of economical production, hydrogen can attain a wide spectrum of uses, especially as an energy carrier for heat supply in industry, and for household and private consumption; as a raw material for the chemical industry, for the synthesis of hydrocarbons and for the production of ammonia; as hydrogen in the oil industry and for coal reprocessing; as a reducing agent in the metallurgical industry (especially in the steel industry); and as a fuel for transportation (mainly for aircraft). The actual methods for production of hydrogen and the methods for the refinement of coal make linking with nuclear energy possible by the allocation of the process energies necessary for the process of conversion. These are mainly process steam and process heat.A further possibility for the production of hydrogen is the thermochemical process. In this process the feeds are water and nuclear energy, the products are hydrogen and oxygen. The nuclear energy is used in the form of high-temperature heat, for example from high-temperature reactors. The process is comprised of a series of chemical reactions, which represent in total the reaction of water splitting.