GE Global Research, Entergy Nuclear, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have begun a project to study the feasibility of large scale hydrogen production using alkaline electrolysis powered by existing nuclear power plants. This project is funded by the DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology as part of the National Hydrogen Initiative.

In the study, the team will focus on the technical and economic requirements of the existing industrial hydrogen market. This market consumes over 7 million tons of hydrogen a year in the United States at a value of more than $16 billion.

Liquid water alkaline electrolysis is a well-established technology for the production of hydrogen. Alkaline electrolysis based on nuclear power would bring benefits of energy security, price stability, and greenhouse gas emission reduction in the near term. An infrastructure developed to serve the industrial hydrogen market would also serve any future transportation fuel market.

The capability of alkaline electrolysis to meet the needs of the industrial hydrogen market will be evaluated based on GE's low-cost alkaline electrolyzer technology, which was developed in part under the DOE Hydrogen Fuel Cell Infrastructure Technology program. As the cost of electricity is a major component of electrolysis hydrogen cost, Entergy Nuclear will study potential scenarios for pricing power contracts to industrial electrolyzer operators. It is expected that the low cost of nuclear power compared to fossil fuel based generation, combined with the capital cost reductions made possible by the GE electrolyzer technology, will make this method of hydrogen generation competitive with current methods based on fossil fuel reforming.

Entergy Nuclear will also assess the regulatory and environmental impact of producing hydrogen from existing nuclear plants, considering the impact of the chemical processes necessary for electrolysis as well as siting hydrogen generating and storage equipment.

NREL's Hydrogen Analysis team previously developed the H2A model, which is the nationally accepted standard model for hydrogen production and delivery cost analysis. NREL will perform the economic analysis, coordinating the electricity pricing information provided by Entergy and operational data from the GE electrolyzer. Using this data, NREL will assess the feasibility of hydrogen production using nuclear power and will make a further recommendation to the DOE regarding the next steps towards large-scale demonstration.

The project began in October 2006 and will run for two years. By March of 2007 the team expects to have studied the various market segments and determined the high level product and pricing requirements. Demonstration of the concept electrolyzer performance and development of industrial scale conceptual plant designs will follow.

Acknowledgment: This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy under Award Number DE-FC07-06ID14789