EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS ON SULPHURIC ACID DECOMPOSITION IN SULPHUR-IODINE CYCLE FOR THERMOCHEMICAL HYDROGEN PRODUCTION

Thermochemical cycles are a very attractive way to obtain hydrogen by water splitting reaction without produces greenhouse gases. The so-called Sulphur-Iodine cycle is one of the most investigated cycles. The decomposition of H₂SO₄ to produce SO₂ is the reaction with the highest energy demand in the S-I cycle and it shows a large kinetic barrier. In this paper we present some experimental results on the thermal dissociation of sulphuric acid and we compare them with numerical simulations. The effect of ferric oxide (Fe₂O₃), used as catalyst, have been tested to evaluate its effect on the dissociation efficiency at various temperatures. When catalyst is used, a large onset temperature decrease for the activation of this reaction has been achieved