Nuclear Systems for Hydrogen Production: State of Art and Perspectives in Transport Sector

Abstract

A technologically feasible transition towards a realistic and sustainable hydrogen economy (i.e. on large scale and without carbon dioxide emissions) could be made through the use of nuclear energy. In fact, nowadays hydrogen production methods without the employment of fossil fuel represent only a low share of the total production; but the use on large scale of hydrogen produced by “carbon-based” sources is neither environmentally nor economically meaningful.In the present paper, besides a deep evaluation of the state of art of hydrogen production methods via nuclear source, it has been proposed an energy scenario analysis (based on the hydrogen produced by the thermo-chemical Iodine-Sulfur process fed by High Temperature Gas Reactor (HTGR) included in a symbiotic nuclear fuel cycle), focused on the China region, that would meet the sustainability criteria in both the energy and environmental domains for transport sector.