Abstract:
The modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR) can provide high temperature process heat. It can be used for various applications such as heavy oil extraction, hydrogen production, industrial steelmaking, and cogeneration in addition to high-efficiency power generation. HTR is also a relatively mature reactor technology among the Generation IV reactor technologies. Due to the challenges of clean energy transformation, the petrochemical industry needs to find high-temperature, sustainable, and stable energy to replace the combustion of fossil fuels as soon as possible. The operating parameters of the HTR reactors can well match the process heat demand of the petrochemical industry, especially the integrated demand for high-pressure steam, both high and low temperature process heat, and electricity. This study takes on the modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor integrated heating system as the research object, establishes an intermediate heat exchanging loop model, and studies the feasible configuration of the recuperate system of the intermediate heat exchanging loop and the influence of different temperature parameters on the performance of the reheat system. The results show that when the high and low process heat loops are configured in parallel, the recuperate system is to be positioned after the steam generator to achieve the highest high temperature process heat temperature, high temperature process heat power, and the lowest level of compression work. At the same time, the compression work of the intermediate heat exchange system is found to decrease with the increase of operating pressure. This study provides a design reference for high temperature gas-cooled reactors for process heat applications