HTGR Knowledge Base

Conference Article: Process heat supply requirements on HTGRs

Abstract

Since it has been claimed that the MHTGR is competitive with coal in producing electricity, the MHTGR must be competitive in producing process heat. There is a huge process heat market and there are quite a number of processes where the industrial MHTGR = HTRI could supply the necessary process heat and energy. However, to enhance its introduction on the market and to conquer a reasonable share of the market, the HTRI should fulfill the following major requirements: Unlimited constant and flexible heat supply, no secondary heat transport system at higher temperatures and low radioactive contamination level of the primary helium. Unlimited constant and flexible heat supply could be achieved with smaller HTRIs having heat generation capacities below 100 MW-th. The process heat generated by smaller HTRIs need not be more expensive since the installed necessary heat supply redundancy is smaller and the excess power density lower. The process heat at elevated temperatures generated by a HTRI with a secondary heat transfer system is much more expensive due to the additional investment and operating cost as well as the reduced helium temperature span available. For some processes, the HTRI is not able to cover the total process heat requirement while other processes can consume only part of the heat offered. These limitations could be reduced by using higher core outlet and inlet temperatures or both. Due to the considerably lower heat transfer rates and the resulting larger heat transfer areas in process plants, the diffusion of nuclear activity at elevated temperatures may increase so that a more efficient helium cleaning system may be required.

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Reference:

Technical committee meeting on design requirements, operation and maintenance of gas-cooled reactors. San Diego, CA (USA). 21-23 Sep 1988

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria). International Working Group on Gas-Cooled Reactors

IWGGCR--19, pp:24-29