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Energy Neutral Phosphate Fertilizer Production Using High Temperature Reactors - A Philippine Case Study

 

Nils Haneklaus1, Rolando Reyes2, Wendy G. Lim2,
Estrellita U. Tabora2, Botvinnik L. Palattao2, Christina Petrache2,
Edmundo P. Vargas2, KazuhikoKunitomi3, HirofumiOhashi3, NariakiSakaba3,
HiroyukiSato3, MinoruGoto3, XingYan3, Tetsuo Nishihara3, Harikrishnan Tulsidas4,
Frederik Reitsma4, Sandor Tarjan5, Karthikkeyan Sathrugnan5,
Radojko Jacimovic6, Nahhar Al Khaledi7, Brian K. Birky8, and Ewald Schnug9
1University of California, Department of Nuclear Engineering,
4118 Etcheverry Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-1730 USA
2Department of Science and Technology- Philippine Nuclear Research Institute,
Nuclear Materials Research, Commonwealth Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines
3Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Hydrogen and Heat Application Research Center, 4002 Narita-cho, Oarai-machi, Higashi-ibaraki-gun, Ibaraki 311-1393 Japan
4International Atomic Energy Agency, Division of Nuclear Power, VIC, PO Box 100, 1400 Vienna, Austria
5International Atomic Energy Agency, Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, 2444 Seibersdorf, Austria
6Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamovacesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
7Radiation Protection Department, Mubarak Al Kabir Street,
PO Box 16087, 35851 Qadeseyah, Kuwait
8Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute,
1855 West Main Street, Bartow, FL 33830-7718 USA
9Braunschweig University of Technology, Department of Life Sciences,
Pockelstraße 14, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

ABSTRACT

The Philippines may profit from extracting uranium (U) from phosphoric acid during fertilizer production in a way that the recovered U can be beneficiated and taken as raw material for nuclear reactor fuel. Used in a high temperature reactor (HTR) that provides electricity and/or process heat for fertilizer processing and U extraction, energy-neutral fertilizer production, an idea first proposed by Haneklaus et al.,is possible. This paper presents a first case study of the concept regarding a representative phosphate fertilizer plant in the Philippines and exemplary HTR designs (HTR50S and GTHTR300C) developedby the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). Three different arrangements (version I-III), ranging from basic electricity supply to overall power supply including on site hydrogen production for ammonia conversion, are introduced and discussed.
 

INTRODUCTION

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently proposed a Coordinated Research Project (CRP) that among other issues aims to assess whether or not energy neutral mineral processing is technically and economically feasible (Haneklaus et al. 2014a). Phosphate rock contains considerable amounts of naturally occurring uranium (U) (Schnug and Haneklaus 2013) . . . . . [DOWNLOAD FULLTEXT HERE]

 

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