Sulfur-Iodine thermochemical cycle for hydrogen production

Abstract

The aim of the thesis was to study the Sulfur-Iodine thermochemical cycle for hydrogen production. There were three reactions in this cycle: Bunsen reaction, sulfuric acid decomposition and the hydriodic acid decomposition. The sulfuric acid decomposition required most heat in these three reactions. The thermal efficiency of this cycle mostly affects this section. The HYSYS simulator by Aspen Technologies was used for sulfuric acid decomposition. There were two steps in this section: sulfuric acid concentration and sulfuric acid decomposition. Thus two separate HYSYS simulations, firstly, were built for each of them. Then a whole process simulation was made for analysis. Based on the HYSYS analyses and the statistic of this data, 650°C was found the most suitable temperature for sulfuric acid decomposition with the highest thermal efficiency of 75.11%.