Title: Study of Bunsen reaction in agitated reactor operating in counter current mode for iodine-sulphur thermo-chemical process

Authors: A. Shriniwas Rao; S. Sujeesh; Nafees A. Vakil; H.Z. Fani; A. Sanyal; P.K. Tewari; L.M. Gantayet

Addresses: Chemical Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai-400085, India ' Chemical Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai-400085, India ' Chemical Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai-400085, India ' Chemical Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai-400085, India ' Chemical Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai-400085, India ' Chemical Engineering Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai-400085, India ' Beam Technology Development Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai-400085, India

Abstract: The iodine-sulphur (IS) thermo-chemical process is being studied as a potential process for production of hydrogen by water splitting. It consists of three chemical reactions: 1) Bunsen reaction, which is the acid production step, 2) sulphuric acid decomposition to produce oxygen; 3) hydrogen iodide decomposition to produce hydrogen. In this work, a detailed parametric study of the Bunsen reaction is presented, which was carried out in agitated reactor (ABR) in counter current mode of operation. Experiments have been carried out in the reactor at different temperatures by varying the sulphur dioxide (SO²) flow rate and partial pressure of SO². Bunsen reaction rate and SO² conversion are calculated experimentally from feed rate and scrubbing rate of SO². It has been observed that the reaction rate and SO² conversion increase with increase in SO² flow, increase in SO² partial pressure and decrease in temperature. 'Tanks-in-series' model, one of the non-ideal reactor models, has been proposed to describe the ABR reaction system. The model has been validated with experimental results. This approach can be useful for the design and scaling up of the agitated reactor.

Keywords: iodine-sulphur process; thermo-chemical cycle; heterogeneous Bunsen reaction; continuous stirred tank reactors; CSTR; plug flow reactors; PFR; agitated Bunsen reactors; ABR; average reaction rate; hydrogen production; water splitting; sulphuric acid decomposition; hydrogen iodide decomposition; modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNHPA.2016.078424

International Journal of Nuclear Hydrogen Production and Applications, 2016 Vol.3 No.1, pp.12 - 31

Received: 15 Dec 2014
Accepted: 13 Mar 2015
Published online: 17 Aug 2016 *

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