Argonne Models Alternate Hydrogen-production Technique

S.A. Lottes and R.W. Lyczkowski - Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL

A major US-based research initiative is looking at ways to make hydrogen a major transportation fuel that could largely replace fossil fuels. A first step is to find the most cost-efficient way to generate this hydrogen from domestic feedstocks without creating unnecessary greenhouse gases and yet be economically viable.

Among the hydrogen-production methods under study are several that involve electrolysis and thermochemical cycles.

A team at Argonne National Laboratory is using COMSOL Multiphysics to better understand and determine if calcium bromide hydrolysis is the method of choice for part of one of these cycles. Here, they have had to model the chemical reactions occurring at the interface between two phases as influenced by turbulent fluid dynamics.