A Simulation study of catalytic SO decomposition in heat exchanger reactor

Kubo, Shinji  ; Tanaka, Nobuyuki ; Ohashi, Hirofumi ; Kanagawa, Akihiro*; Imai, Yoshiyuki  ; Kasahara, Seiji  ; Onuki, Kaoru

SO decomposition is common chemical reaction employed by thermochemical water-splitting cycles for hydrogen. This reaction proceeds endothermically in catalytic bed; in heat utilization system of the VHTR, needed heat is provided from high temperature helium gas by heat exchange. To specify sizes and shape of this reactor, the kinetics of SO decomposition reaction was formulated by a Pt catalyst experiments for primary simple and easy in engineering utilization; besides, the ordinary differential equation for catalytic bed, in which the kinetic and heat exchange were considered, were computed. The characteristics length which represented reactor shapes and the required heat transfer area were shown to attain nearly chemical equilibrium.