Sookmyung’s research team proposes an eco-friendly hydrogen production using a small modular reactor
- Views 51
- Writer SMU
- 작성일 2024-04-11
A research team led by Professor Kyung-tae Park of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Professor Ji-young Shin and Professor Woo-seong Park of the Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering has proposed a hydrogen production process that is both economical and environmentally friendly by using a small modular reactor (SMR) and high-temperature steam electrolysis. When the technology is commercialized, it is expected to usher in a new era of clean hydrogen production, which is essential for building a hydrogen economy ecosystem.
The results of this research, conducted at the request of Hyundai Engineering, is to be officially published on August 15
in Energy Conversion and Management (IF = 11.533, within the top 3% in mechanics), an internationally renowned academic journal. In the paper, Jung-min Lee, a graduate student in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, participated as the lead author, Hyundai Engineering Department Manager Sang-il Lee, Manager Deok- hoon Gye, and Manager Hyun-jae Park as the participating authors, and Professor Kyung-tae Park, Professor Ji-young Shin, and Woo-seong Park as the corresponding authors.
Hydrogen has recently attracted attention as a clean energy to replace fossil fuels, but according to its production method, it is divided into green hydrogen that emits no carbon dioxide, blue hydrogen that emits carbon dioxide but captures it, and gray hydrogen that emits carbon dioxide. Currently, about 95% of hydrogen produced in Korea is gray
hydrogen as by-product hydrogen from fossil fuels (naphtha cracking or natural gas reforming, etc.).
Based on this, this research team proposed a hydrogen production process using a next-generation small nuclear reactor and high-temperature steam electrolysis, and performed environmental and technological economic evaluation of the process. As a result, when both heat and electricity are supplied from the next-generation small modular reactor, the unit cost of hydrogen production was $5.02/kg H2, and the CO2 emission was 0.36 kg/kg H2. It achieved an outstanding price competitiveness by reducing the production cost while reducing carbon dioxide emissions to the same extent as the hydrogen production method using renewable energy.
- <The next-generation small modular reactor and high-temperature steam electrolysis combined process proposed by the research team>
For eco-friendly hydrogen energy, it was an important task to build a distributed base hydrogen production facility because of the high production cost and transportation cost. The results of this study are expected to help solve these problems. Professor Kyung-tae Park said, “As the EU recently included nuclear power in the taxonomy, using next-
generation small modular reactor for distributed hydrogen production can be a viable alternative,” and "It is still more expensive than the government's current target of 3,000 won per kg of hydrogen, but we expect it to go down gradually as the level of technology develops in the future.” A Hyundai Engineering official said, “Through this research, we have proven that nuclear power reactors can contribute to the production of clean hydrogen as a next-generation high-temperature gas.”
*Source: https://e.sookmyung.ac.kr/en/news/sm-news.do?mode=view&articleNo=83351