The Japan Atomic Energy Agency said it plans to start producing clean hydrogen using heat from its High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) in Ibaraki Prefecture close to Tokyo by 2028.
The agency said it sought authorization to do so on March 27 from the Nuclear Regulation Authority. The project would mark the world’s first use of a nuclear reactor to produce hydrogen.
The gas is regarded as key to realizing carbon neutrality because it can be stored and transported, and no carbon dioxide (CO2) is emitted when electric power and heat are extracted.
The national nuclear research and development agency is hoping to start producing hydrogen at the HTTR, an experimental high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), in the second half of fiscal 2028.
There are hopes that HTGRs can produce hydrogen in voluminous amounts on a stable basis because heat at higher temperatures can be extracted from an HTGR compared with a light-water reactor, which is the mainstream nuclear reactor.
JAEA officials said they plan to set up the hydrogen production plant near the HTTR so high-temperature heat can reach the facility through underground piping.
Even so, the process to produce hydrogen at the plant will involve CO2 emissions. The JAEA is also conducting a separate study on hydrogen production methods that would not involve CO2 emissions.
The government has high hopes a demonstration HTGR, which would be bigger than the HTTR, will start operating in the second half of the 2030s.
JAEA officials said they hope to first establish a technology for connecting the HTTR with the hydrogen production plant before going on to draw on that knowledge to develop a demonstration HTGR.
Source: FuelCellWorks.Com
