The Department of Energy (DOE) is funding Sandia National Laboratories, as well as other labs, to develop thermochemical cycles for large scale production of hydrogen using high temperature heat sources such as nuclear and solar energy. These cycles can potentially be more efficient than conventional electrolysis and when driven by nuclear or solar energy can produce hydrogen with essentially no carbon emissions. Thermochemical cycles are also at an early stage of development. Lab scale experiments are being designed to demonstrate technical feasibility for the most promising cycles for eventual application to high temperature gas cooled reactors (advanced reactors).
Sandia is part of a US-French team that successfully completed the first-ever demonstration of hydrogen production under prototypic conditions from the sulfur-iodine cycle. Sandia developed a unique bayonet-type heat-exchanger/reactor to decompose sulfuric acid at 850°C. Sulfur dioxide produced by the Sandia section was used in the French reactor to produce a heavy acid phase that was subsequently processed by the General Atomics reactor to produce hydrogen. It was the first demonstration of hydrogen production form the sulfur-iodine cycle at pressure using engineering materials of construction.
Point of Contact:
Paul Pickard,
505-845-3046