India building new reactor to power hydrogen economy

Chennai:

India will have hydrogen-fuelled cars in the near future as the country’s scientists are working on a fourth generation Very High-powered Temperature reactor, according to a top nuclear expert.

He said the reactor would produce hydrogen for fuel using high-temperature steam electrolysis, which breaks apart the bonds of water molecules.

Sources told Express the reactor is in the design stage and the process is more energy-efficient than existing hydrogen production methods.

“Under its high temperature reactor programme, currently India is developing a Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR) as a technology demonstrator for associated technologies. In addition, several design options for a 600 MWth Innovative High.Temperature Reactor for commercial hydrogen production are also being evaluated,” the director of Bhaba Atomic Research Centre director Ratan Kumar Sinha said.

“Initial studies carried out indicate selection of pebble bed reactor core with either lead or molten salt-based coolant. These would be finalised after carrying out further studies. Many of the technologies developed for CHTR would be utilised for this reactor,” Sinha said in his paper ‘Advanced Nuclear Reactor Systems – An Indian Perspective’.

“There are plans to setup engineering laboratories for carrying out research and development related to reactor components, coolant technologies, reactor safety, fuel and material development, and other aspects related to such high temperature reactors,” he added.

Scientists feel that nuclear energy assisted hydrogen production is expected to play a significant role and the development of technologies related to high temperature nuclear reactors is an important step in this direction.

Interestingly, this technology will boost India’s dreams of being a hydrogen economy and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and solve some of the negative effects of using hydrocarbon fuels where the carbon is released to the atmosphere.

According to a study, global demand for hydrogen is forecast to expand 3.5 percent per annum through 2013 to 478 billion cubic meters. In value terms, this represents $29.3 billion in captive consumption and $20.8 billion in merchant gas. Growth in hydrogen demand will benefit from strong activity in the petroleum sector, where increasing demand for low sulfur fuels in response to stricter environmental regulations will increase the amount of hydrogen required to produce them.