Conceptual design, process integration, and optimization of a solar Cu Cl thermochemical hydrogen production plant

Abstract A conceptual design of a solar Cu Cl thermochemical cycle with the capacity of 6000 kg day −1 was presented. To enhance thermal efficiency, the heat recovery within Cu Cl thermochemical hydrogen production cycle was proposed using the pinch analysis to design a heat exchanger network that recovers heat between hot and cold streams. This improves +10.2% in the thermal efficiency of the cycle compared to previous designs. The reformed cycle was assumed to be coupled to a solar installation that provides the required thermal energy for the cycle. For further improvement, the conceptual design was considered as the base case and four optimization scenarios were conducted on that. Three objective functions, including energy efficiency, exergy efficiency and the unit cost of hydrogen were optimized in three single-objective and one multi-objective scenario. Comprehensive thermodynamic, solar thermal, and exergoeconomic models were employed to obtain objective functions. Reaction temperatures, the number of the solar collectors, and volume of the solar storage tank were selected as design variables. The best alternative to five systems (one base case and four optimized systems) were selected using the TOPSIS method. It was found that thermal efficiency-optimized system has the preference over other four systems. It had 49.83% thermal efficiency, 58.23% exergetic efficiency and 6.33 $ kg −1 for produced hydrogen.

[1]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Development of a four-step Cu–Cl cycle for hydrogen production – Part I: Exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental analyses , 2016 .

[2]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Efficiency analysis of a hybrid copper-chlorine (Cu-Cl) cycle for nuclear-based hydrogen production , 2009 .

[3]  G. Naterer,et al.  Cost analysis of a thermochemical Cu–Cl pilot plant for nuclear-based hydrogen production , 2008 .

[4]  Murat Ozturk,et al.  Thermodynamic and thermoeconomic analyses of a geothermal energy based integrated system for hydrogen production , 2017 .

[5]  A. Sohani,et al.  Modeling and multi-objective optimization of an M-cycle cross-flow indirect evaporative cooler using the GMDH type neural network , 2016 .

[6]  Klaus D. Timmerhaus,et al.  Plant design and economics for chemical engineers , 1958 .

[7]  M. Rosen,et al.  Hydrogen production using high temperature nuclear reactors: Efficiency analysis of a combined cycle , 2016 .

[8]  I. Dincer,et al.  Review and evaluation of hydrogen production methods for better sustainability , 2015 .

[9]  Hoseyn Sayyaadi,et al.  Multi-objective optimization of a recuperative gas turbine cycle using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm , 2011 .

[10]  M Momirlan,et al.  Current status of hydrogen energy , 2002 .

[11]  Michele A. Lewis,et al.  Evaluation of alternative thermochemical cycles-part III further development of the Cu-Cl cycle. , 2009 .

[12]  Greg F. Naterer,et al.  Thermal design of a solar hydrogen plant with a copperchlorine cycle and molten salt energy storage , 2011 .

[13]  A. Hepbasli,et al.  Comparative assessment of various chlorine family thermochemical cycles for hydrogen production , 2016 .

[14]  Hoseyn Sayyaadi,et al.  Efficiency enhancement of a gas turbine cycle using an optimized tubular recuperative heat exchanger , 2012 .

[15]  G. Naterer,et al.  Direct contact heat transfer from molten salt droplets in a thermochemical water splitting process of hydrogen production , 2016 .

[16]  Mujid S. Kazimi,et al.  Efficiency of hydrogen production systems using alternative nuclear energy technologies , 2006 .

[17]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Comparative energy and exergy analyses of two solar-based integrated hydrogen production systems , 2015 .

[18]  Wei Wu,et al.  Economic evaluation of a kinetic-based copperchlorine (CuCl) thermochemical cycle plant , 2016 .

[19]  G. Naterer,et al.  Comparison of molten salt heat recovery options in the Cu–Cl cycle of hydrogen production , 2011 .

[20]  Michele A. Lewis,et al.  Evaluation of alternative thermochemical cycles - Part I the methodology. , 2009 .

[21]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Development of a four-step Cu–Cl cycle for hydrogen production – Part II: Multi-objective optimization , 2016 .

[22]  B. Kroposki,et al.  Renewable hydrogen production , 2008 .

[23]  Greg F. Naterer,et al.  Thermochemical hydrogen production with a copper-chlorine cycle. I: oxygen release from copper oxychloride decomposition , 2008 .

[24]  Hoseyn Sayyaadi,et al.  Multi-objective approach in thermoenvironomic optimization of a benchmark cogeneration system , 2009 .

[25]  S. E. Hosseini,et al.  Hydrogen production from renewable and sustainable energy resources: Promising green energy carrier for clean development , 2016 .

[26]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Determining parameters of heat exchangers for heat recovery in a Cu–Cl thermochemical hydrogen production cycle , 2012 .

[27]  M. Orhan.  Energy, exergy and cost analyses of nuclear-based hydrogen production via thermochemical water decomposition using a copper-chlorine (Cu-CI) cycle , 2008 .

[28]  R. Selbas,et al.  A review of solar based hydrogen production methods , 2016 .

[29]  Greg F. Naterer,et al.  Equilibrium conversion in Cu–Cl cycle multiphase processes of hydrogen production , 2009 .

[30]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Recent Canadian advances in nuclear-based hydrogen production and the thermochemical Cu–Cl cycle , 2009 .

[31]  G. Naterer,et al.  Process integration of material flows of copper chlorides in the thermochemical Cu–Cl cycle , 2016 .

[32]  M. J. Moran,et al.  Thermal design and optimization , 1995 .

[33]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Solar thermochemical plant analysis for hydrogen production with the copper—chlorine cycle , 2010 .

[34]  D. Yogi Goswami,et al.  Principles of Solar Engineering , 1978 .

[35]  Ke Liu,et al.  Comprar Hydrogen and Syngas Production and Purification Technologies | Warren Strober | 9780471719755 | Wiley , 2010 .

[36]  Andreas Poullikkas,et al.  A comparative overview of hydrogen production processes , 2017 .

[37]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Heat recovery from molten CuCl in the Cu–Cl cycle of hydrogen production , 2010 .

[38]  Chunshan Song,et al.  Hydrogen and Syngas Production and Purification Technologies , 2010 .

[39]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Exergoeconomic analysis of a thermochemical copper–chlorine cycle for hydrogen production using specific exergy cost (SPECO) method , 2010 .

[40]  Ursula Eicker,et al.  Solar technologies for buildings , 2003 .