Nuclear Production of Hydrogen, Fourth Information Exchange ...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Session 5: Economics and market analysis of hydrogen production and use
Chairs: Franck Carré (CEA), Jan van Erp (ANL)
Economics and market analysis are the basis for assessing the commercial viability of new technologies
and for deciding to support their development up to commercialisation. This includes:
• the assessment of economic competitiveness with alternative technologies;
• the assessment of whether deployment and operational risks are acceptable in today’s
business context.
Economic and market analyses presented in this session appropriately complement previous
technical sessions and address crucial aspects that will determine which processes of nuclear hydrogen
production will be developed beyond lab-scale experiments and may be ultimately commercialised.
They contribute in particular to orient decisions to be taken in 2009 about the selection of hydrogen
production process to be tested with the NGNP and about the creation of a consortium to support the
next phases of the project.
In order to address these important issues the panel of speakers in this session gathered a group
of distinguished representatives of varied organisations involved in such analyses: industry (Entergy,
AREVA), national laboratories (FZJ, DOE/INL-ANL, CEA) and universities (Stanford, MIT, TIT).
Dan Keuter (Entergy) presented “a utility perspective about nuclear hydrogen production”. As the
second largest nuclear/operator in the United States, Entergy supports the expanded use of nuclear
energy beyond the traditional application of electricity generator. This is motivated by both supporting
national energy policy goals (reduction of oil imports and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions) but
also by the fact that Entergy’s nuclear power plants in the Southwest of the United States are located
in a region crossed by a hydrogen pipeline.
Entergy’s evaluations of hydrogen production processes currently lead to the following vision:
• Unless progresses are made in conventional electrolysis, it is not likely to compete with steam
methane reforming for the bulk of the market.
• HTGR with advanced hydrogen production processes appear to be competitive with steam
methane reforming even without the added benefit of being emission-free.
With its experience of economically viable business ventures, Entergy has supported the
development of HTGR for years for their potential to expand the application of nuclear energy to
broader energy marketplace. Entergy’s evaluations also indicate that HTGR can compete with premium
fossil fuels in supplying process heat for industrial processes. In conclusion, Entergy believes that
nuclear hydrogen production is of vital importance for the United States’ energy security and that this
will make business opportunities emerge.
Jerome Gosset (AREVA) presented the results of an economic comparison made by AREVA on
nuclear hydrogen production processes. The study emphasises the merits and readiness of alkaline
electrolysis for producing nuclear hydrogen in time to mitigate climate change. The cost of hydrogen
produced under such conditions already affords producing economically viable synthetic fuels
(typically USD 140/bl vs. USD 120/bl with hydrogen produced by traditional steam methane reforming).
High-temperature steam electrolysis at 800-950°C offers prospects of improved technical and economic
performances in the medium term. Candidate reactor technologies able to power such high-temperature
electrolysis include a high-temperature reactor at 600°C with an electric superheating. However,
the high temperature does not significantly reduce the need of electrolysis for electric power (3.2 vs.
4 kWh/Nm 3 ) thus leading to reduced margins for competitiveness with alkaline electrolysis. Moreover
making high-temperature steam electrolysis industrially viable calls for significant research and
development to overcome current materials issues and the subsequent low reliability of present solid
oxide electrolysers. In conclusion, AREVA states that technologies exist today to de-carbonise
transportation massively from well to wheel through a variety of applications.
Karl Verfondern (FZJ) presented a vision of solar and nuclear energy as significant carbon-free
high-temperature heat sources (800-1 000°C) to produce hydrogen by steam methane reforming,
thermochemical cycles or hybrid cycles. Reference is made to the Abengoa concentration solar plant
in Spain (10 + 20 MWe). Operating the steam methane reforming process with a solar heat source
14 NUCLEAR PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN – © OECD/NEA 2010