The Hindu : BARC developing hydrogen reactor

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 15, 2004

National

National

BARC developing hydrogen reactor

By T.S. Subramanian

CHENNAI, FEB. 14. A Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR) to produce hydrogen is under development at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay. Weighing about half a tonne, it will be ready in about five years. The hydrogen will fuel cars, buses and trucks. The reactor will produce hydrogen — an environment-friendly alternative to petrol and diesel — from water using thermo-chemical means. The reactor can be used as a power-pack to generate electricity in remote-areas that are not connected to the grid. And it can remain unattended for many months. Besides, the CHTR can be used to refine low-grade and oil deposits to high-grade fossil fuel.

According to B. Bhattacharjee, Director, BARC, "We have plans to induct nuclear energy as a primary energy source in the near future, viz nuclear energy as a source of heat for a variety of applications." Hence, BARC was developing the "innovative reactor." The physics design of this reactor has been finalised. "Detailed design of various reactor systems such as simulation and modelling of passive power regulation system and heat pipes are in progress," he said.

The Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Anil Kakodar, said: "The CHTR will open up new routes for energy applications which may become important in the future. It is from this point of view that we have started this development. First, we will make a small reactor which will operate at low power (100 KWth) and test out the materials" out of which the reactor would be made. It will essentially be made of ceramic materials. They would be carbide-coated and silicon-carbide-coated. The CHTR's fuel would be thorium-uranium 233, but its chemical form would be different.

At present, he said, the generation of electricity from nuclear energy had become important. Since coal, oil and gas were available in limited quantities, the discovery of alternative sources of energy for non-electrical applications had become important. Such applications included the heat required in the chemical industry and fuel that would power vehicles. While ethanol is being talked of as an alternative fuel for the transportation sector, it is believed that hydrogen will actually emerge as an important alternative fuel to power cars, trucks and so on.

(An Associated Press report datelined February 12, Minneapolis, United States, quoted researchers as saying that "for the first time, they have produced hydrogen from ethanol in a prototype reactor small enough and efficient enough to heat small homes and power cars. The development could help open the way for cleaner-burning technology at home and on the road."

A New York Times report from Washington said the U.S. President, George

W. Bush, promoting hydrogen technology a year ago, had said that a hydrogen car might be available as the first vehicle for a child born in 2003. The report said: "On Monday (February 2), the Energy Department included $318 million for hydrogen technologies and fuel cell cars in its proposed 2005 budget. `Hydrogen is the next frontier; a hydrogen economy is where the world is headed,' said Spencer Abraham, Secretary of Energy.'")

Mr. Kakodkar said: "We see nuclear energy as an abundant source of energy in the future. So we are exploring whether nuclear energy can be used for alternative energy applications, other than the generation of electricity."

Such applications can be developed only when energy is generated at high temperatures. Electricity is generated at 300 degrees Celsius in the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors. But hydrogen production requires 1,000 degrees Celsius. "So we are talking about developing the capability where you get nuclear energy at high temperatures, say 1,000 degrees. As part of that development objective, we are setting up the CHTR," he said.

Swapnesh Kumar Malhotra, Head, Public Awareness Division, the

Department of Atomic Energy, said that hydrogen was talked of as the fuel of the future for transport. The CHTR would break water into molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. This hydrogen could be made to combine with oxygen in the atmosphere to generate heat which would power vehicles.

There would be no emission of smoke; only water vapour would be ejected.

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