Study on control characteristics for HTTR hydrogen production system with mock-up test facility

The Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute has a demonstration test plan of a hydrogen production system by steam reforming of methane coupling with the High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR). Prior to the coupling of a hydrogen production plant with the HTTR, simulation tests with a mock-up test facility of the HTTR hydrogen production system (HTTR-H2) is underway. The test facility is a 1/30-scale of the HTTR-H2 and simulates key components downstream from an intermediate heat exchanger of the HTTR. The main objective of the simulation tests is the establishment and demonstration of control technology, focusing on the mitigation of a thermal disturbance to the reactor by a steam generator (SG) and on the controllability of the pressure difference between the helium and process gases at the reaction tube in a steam reformer (SR). It was confirmed that the fluctuation of the outlet helium gas temperature at the SG and the pressure difference in the SR can be controlled within the allowable range for the HTTR-H2 in the case of the system controllability test for the fluctuation of chemical reaction. In addition, a dynamic simulation code for the HTTR-H2 was verified with the obtained test data.