Abstract
A directly heated $SO_3$ decomposer for the sulfur-iodine and hybrid-sulfur processes has been introduced and analyzed by using a computational fluid dynamics code(CFD) with the CFX 5.7.1. The use of a directly heated decomposition reactor in conjunction with a VHTR allows higher decomposition reactor operating temperature. However, the thermochemical and hybrid hydrogen production processes accompanied with the high temperature and strongly corrosive operating conditions basically have material problems. In order to resolve these problems, we carried out the development of a structural material and equipment design technologies. The results show that the maximum temperature of the structural material (RA330) could be maintained at 800$^{\circ}C$ or less. Also, it can be seen that the mean temperature of the reaction region packed with catalysts in the $SO_3$ decomposition reactor could satisfy the temperature condition of around 850 $^{\circ}C$ which is the target temperature in this study.
