Studies On Nuclear Hydrogen Production By Steam Coal Gasification In Argentina

G. G. FOUGA; D. NASSINI; H.E.P.NASSINI; ANA ESTER BOHE

Viena

Encuentro; Technical Meeting to Examine the Role of Nuclear Hydrogen Production in the Context of the Hydrogen Economy; 2017

In the present framework of worldwide reevaluation of nuclear energy, thehydrogen production using nuclear energy is receiving a great attention, since the demand of hydrogen is rapidly increasing as a result of decreased availability of light crude oils that do not require extra H2 for conversion to gasoline, with a corresponding increased use of heavy crude oils that require massive amounts of H2 for conversion to gasoline.Furthermore, if the cost goals for automotive fuel cells are reached, the transportation sector may be also fueled by H2 in the near future in which case the H2 consumption is expected to grow one of two orders of magnitude over a period of several decades. The current and projected H2 demands are sufficient to justify massive investments in new methods to produce H2 that would be more cost-efficient than the actual large-scale production methods.Coal gasification technologies offer the potential of a cleaner and more efficient energy than conventional combustion processes. Nuclear coal gasification is a process that uses nuclear energy for providing indirect heating to the gasification reactors, in order to replace the partial combustion of the feed material that is needed to drive the endothermic gasification reactions, contributing then to the saving of fossil fuel resources and lowering the specific carbon emissions to the environment.Argentina is presently exploring the application of nuclear coal gasification technologies to domestic solid fuel materials such as a low-rank coal extracted from the Río Turbio minefield, asphaltites and petroleum residues. Since the chemical composition, the heating value and, then, the future use of the synthesis gas produced by the gasification process are strongly dependent on the solid fuel composition and rank, the gasification technology to be applied should be primarily matched to the properties of the feed material available for gasification.In this framework, a comprehensive research program is being implemented to characterize the behaviour of our domestic solid fuels under typical gasification conditions,with the objective of identifying the most suitable gasification process to be implemented for nuclear hydrogen production. The research program comprises both theoretical andexperimental studies on laboratory scale which were designed to provide the necessary information about the fundamental mechanisms and kinetics of gasification reactions, as a previous step for a further scaling up of experimental facilities.In order to simulate properly the gasification conditions occurring in a large-scale commercial gasifier and, then, achieve the kinetics/mechanism of the gasification, it is essential to reproduce, at least: (1) the rapid heating of solid fuel particles, and (2) the gasconvection around individual particles with definable intensity. The experimental approach followed to achieve both objectives is the so-called two-stages experiments in which the gasification reactivities are measured on char samples prepared in a previous pyrolysis step