Parametric Analysis and Optimization of Nuclear Assisted Electrolytic Hydrogen Production System for On-site Applications

The use of compact water electrolyser units as an alternative source of hydrogen to the high pressure hydrogen cylinder banks used at present in nuclear and thermal power reactors for turbo-generator rotor cooling applications has been analysed in this work. Financial metrics have been used for assessment of the technology substitution in the nuclear industry in India, primarily by comparing the levelised costs of onsite hydrogen generation in small generators and storage with the cost of commercially available hydrogen derived from fossil fuels in large centralized plants. Technical and cost data as available in literature have been used in this study to establish the economic considerations of such a substitution, using costing models developed in-house. The levelised hydrogen cost ranges from $ 2.62 to $ 5.47/kg H2 over the range of parameters used in this study. Capital cost accounts for 40 to 55% of the cost of hydrogen. The long term best case scenario can enable production of hydrogen at $ 1.35/kg H2 at the scales considered for this specific application. For low pressure and small volumes of hydrogen to be stored as buffer for such an arrangement, the storage costs don’t seem to affect the overall cost of the integrated production and storage system to any significant extent.