Heat Recovery
The majority of the world’s hydrogen is currently produced through steam methane reformation which produce carbon dioxide and contributes to global warming. Promising alternatives for sustainable hydrogen production are thermochemical cycles in which the overall water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen is achieved through a series of reactions. The cycle can work in conjunction with high-temperature industrial processes such a Gen 4 nuclear reactors, cement plants, and steel mills. As these reactions occur at high temperatures of around 500°C which can result in a large loss of high-quality heat, the work being done at the i-FuELs laboratory is looking at ways to capture that heat to make the cycle more efficient. The team is using both simulations and practical experiments with thermal imaging equipment to explore this phenomenon.