2026 and the Case for Co-location of Biorefineries with Advanced Nuclear

The Big Players

Below is a list of companies in the space who are active in project development.

Planned and Under Construction⁶

• NuScale Power – SMR (Small Modular Reactor) Pressurized LWR – NRC approved.
  • First facility construction in eastern Idaho (at INL) (600MW facility) is planned, under the supervision of Utah Association of Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) and DOE (this facility would produce low-quality steam) – Commercial operation planned 2026⁷
  • Projects contingent on success of ID-INL facility⁸
    • Canada – Ontario Power Generation/Bruce Power L.P.
    • EU – Romania Societatea Nationala Nuclear Electrica SA 720MW
    • Middle East – Jordan Atomic Energy Commission – desalination focus
    • Asia – Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction

• ThorCon – MSR (Molten Salt Reactor)⁹
  • First facility under construction in Indonesia (3.5GW, in 500MW modules)
    • The first 500MW module is proposed to be on the grid by 2026/2027, a notably aggressive timeline.
    • Using ship manufacturer to build reactor cans
• GE-Hitachi Nuclear – PRISM MSR Fast Reactor^10-15
  • ABWR Advanced Boiling Water Reactor – 1.4GW in operation in Japan since 1996
  • BWRX-300
• Advanced Reactor Concepts^{16, 17}
  • ARC-100 Reactor 100MW MSR Fast Reactor, project in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada – tentatively breaking ground 2026
• Westinghouse (50% of world’s nuclear facilities)^{18, 19}
  • AS-1000 (Gen III+ pressurized water) reactors are all around the world, new construction in UK
  • Fast reactor, SMR, and micro reactors in development
• TerraPower^20-22
  • Traveling Wave Reactor (TWR) design tentatively operational by 2026 (before troubles began between TerraPower and their Chinese partner GE-Hitachi).
  • MSR development partnership w/ Southern Company
  • Process Heat – current application Coal to C-fiber
• Orano TN²³
  • NUHOMS spent fuel high-heat dissipative dry storage tech install at Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Company, Wolf Creek, Kansas
• Holtec²⁴
  • SMR-160 system in plans in Ukraine… date operational not specified, but by the trend we might suggest…2026
• Kalpakkam, India³⁶
  • PFBR (Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor), 500 MW, construction nearly complete – startup to achieve criticality planned for 2020
• EU GoFastR³⁶
  • ALLEGRO GFR, 75 MW, Construction in Eastern EU planned to start early 2020’s
• ENEA³⁶
  • ALFRED LFR, 300 MW, Construction in Mioveni, Italy planned to start early 2020’s
• SCK-CEN^36,37
  • MYRRHA LFR, 55MW, will tentatively be built and online in Belgium by 2027

“Advanced” Facilities in Operation²⁵:

• SFR’s:
  • (2) Beloyarsk, Russia
• Generation III+ PWR’s:
  • (2) Haiyang, China
  • (2) Sanmen, China
  • (1) Leningrad, Russia
  • (1) Rustov, Russia
• HTTR (High Temperature engineering Test Reactor)
  • (1) Ibaraki, Japan⁴⁷

Alternative Applications of Nuclear – Case Studies

In order to demonstrate feasibility of using significant portions of heat generated at a nuclear power facility for applications other than electricity generation, in this next section we will walk through some case studies. The most prevalent auxiliary application of heat throughout the history of nuclear power generation has been for desalination. Much of the research and commercial operations have occurred in Kazakhstan, Russia, Japan, and India. Desalination technologies selected to make use of this heat have included reverse osmosis (RO), Multi-Stage Flash distillation (MSF), Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) / thermal vapor compression (TVC), and Hybrid Thermal Membrane Plants (combining RO with MSF or MED)²⁶.

The World Nuclear Association carried out a review on the history of nuclear desalination²⁶. One notable case study was the BN-350 fast reactor in Kazakhstan which produced 80,000m3/day of potable water for 27 years starting in 1966. This was a 750 MWt plant that produced 136 MWe, using the rest of the energy for MED desalination. Numerous others are described in this review – mostly operating from the 2000’s onward. The review also lists more than a dozen SMR desalination projects currently in development. The BN-350 is a good example of a project where early planning allowed for dramatic changes in heat use allocation – more than two thirds used for desalination.

District Heating seems to have been used mostly in Northern Eurasia, cold places where populations might not be located too far from these facilities. One facility in Novovoronezh, Russia provided 75% of the heat for the town of 30,000 between 1964 and 1988²⁷. Another example is the Beznau facility in Switzerland – providing district heat to much of Döttingen⁴⁸.  These examples demonstrate auxiliary heat sink infrastructure has been done before, and can be done again.

The Catch

Large-scale nuclear facility construction requires lots of concrete and steel, and changes land use and albedo of a large land area. Even with a 60-year operating life, this yields a non-zero CI score. The US median CI of Gen II nuclear power is 12 g-CO2/kWh – one of the lowest in stationary power generation, only beat by wind, having a CI of 11 g-CO2/kWh, (as compared with 820 g-CO2/kWh from coal). We would anticipate lower CI’s for Gen IV reactors. Further, the capacity cost of electrical power generation and H2-kg/day generation for nuclear might be greater than for solar or wind with a PEM-electrolyzer for H2 production. Because of this, it might be best to co-locate with a nuclear facility rather than develop one yourself.

Summary

Although it is important to maintain tight focus on the feedstocks consumed and the product markets our technologies address, finding creative new ways of integrating with other corners of the clean energy space holds much opportunity. Let’s think of these facilities as our power plant, steam plant, and steam-methane or autothermal reformer (H2 production). Planning with nuclear technologists early will allow us to make use of this tremendous opportunity, and work through the logistics of co-location before these nuclear facilities are in the ground.

About SFC

Ross and Joel started SFC with the goal of meaningfully contributing towards the deployment of biorefinery technology. SFC can assist with technology selection, preliminary project development, 3rd party review (unlicensed), and mechanical and process engineering services.

Learn more at www.fuelsconsulting.com

About What Is Nuclear

Nick Touran is Founder of What Is Nuclear – an education and advocacy organization which aims to enlighten the public about the capabilities of nuclear energy so that society may embrace it as an improvement in many aspects over current energy sources

Check them out at WhatIsNuclear.com

Appendix:

B.O.T.E Profit Analysis

Revenue Opportunities

• Value of RFS-2 D3 RIN: $0.50/gal-diesel
• Value of LCFS Credit: $200/MT-CO2-avoided (the following calculations derive LCFS credit value from the MT-CO2 avoided/gallon fuel produced*$200)²⁹

Carbon-Free Electricity Profitability Analysis Example for Renewable Diesel (Soybean Oil)^30-35

• A. Imported Energy, Process Heat
  • Average Renewable Diesel CI:
    • 25 g-CO2/MJ * 130 MJ/gallon = 3,250 g-CO2/gallon
  • Average Renewable Diesel Hydrotreating CI Contribution:
    • 0.03 g-CO2/MJ = 4 g-CO2/gallon (CA-GREET reference – most of CI attributable to feedstock production, and catalyst production)
  • → $0.0008/gal LCFS credit value…not worth the nominal cost of electricity (using electricity – which is more expensive than natural gas heat, and paying for REC’s on that electricity)
• B. Hydrogen Consumption
  • H2 Requirement:
    • 39 kg-H2/ton-VegOil*(1ton/287gallon)*(1 gal RenDiesel/0.9gal VegOil)=0.15kg-H2/gal-RD
    • (0.15kg-H2/gal-RD)*(9kg-CO2/kg-H2(using SteamMethaneReforming)) = 1.35kg-CO2/gallon
  • → $0.27/gal LCFS credit value
  • $0.7/kg-H2*(0.15kg-H2/gal-RenDiesel) = $0.11/gal-RenDiesel (H2 Cost)
  • → $0.17/gal-RenDiesel Profit Potential

Carbon-Free Electricity Profitability Analysis Example for 20MGPY Gasification and FT Synth. (MSW)^{30,31,35,38-43}

• Average FT Liquids Diesel CI:
  • 15.0-37.5 g-CO2/MJ * 130 MJ/gallon = 1,950-4,875 g-CO2/gallon
• Natural Gas + Imported Power CI Contribution:
  • 68.9 g-CO2/MJ * 130 MJ/gallon = 8,950 g-CO2/gallon (*MSW as feedstock has CI Contribution of -303.8 g-CO2/MJ in avoided emissions of uncaptured landfill gas)
• → $1.79/gallon LCFS credit value ($35.8M value)
• Assumed cost of electricity+Natural gas = $10M
• Imported Energy Replacement = ~$25M profit potential/yr
• H2 Requirement: A. Reduce CO Consumed in FT-WGS, B. Increase H2:CO ratio (increase product yield)
  • A. → if Raw syngas is 1.5:1 H2:CO and needs to go to 2.1:1 by WGS (increase H2 by 40%, save 28.5% of CO that would have been spent in WGS)
    • 20mgpy*(6.71/2.21)kg/gal*(1kg-syngasl/0.75kg-fuel)*(1kg-MSW/0.3kg-syngas) ~=300ktpy-MSW
    • 300ktpy-MSW*((2000/2.21)kg/ton)*(0.3kg-syngas/1kg-MSW)*(1.5kmol-H2*2.02kg/kmol)/((1.5kmol-H2*2.02kg/kmol)+(1mol-CO*28kg/kmol))*40% additional H2 = 1,600tpy H2 added → @$0.7/kg = $1.12M (Cost of H2)
      • If 28.5% of CO lost (→ CO2) is avoided (and if CO only makes 25% of raw syngas), ~0.30kg-CO/gallon =  0.48kg-CO2/gallon avoided from venting
        • ~$0.10/gallon LCFS credit ($2M value)
      • Product yield increases by ~1.5Mgpy (by avoided CO loss)
        • $3/gal = $4.5M value
      • A. $5.4M profit potential
  • B. Increase Post-WGS syngas H2 by 42% (to get 3:1 H2:CO)
    • 2400tpy H2 added ($1.7M (cost of H2))
    • Product yield increases by ~700kgpy
      • $3/gal = $2.1M value
      • B. $400k profit potential
• Imported Energy + Hydrogen (A. + B.) = ~$30M/yr profit potential

Bottom-Up Analysis

Cost of natural gas: $2.22/MMBTU (Dec 2019 US Spot)

Energy content of natural gas: 1.03 Mcf/MMBTU

Carbon intensity of natural gas: 53kg-CO2/Mcf (~53kg-CO2/MMBTU)

LCFS Value CH4 replacement with carbon-neutral energy: $10.6/Mcf (or MMBTU)

Cost of electricity: $0.08/kWh

Energy unit conversion: 3412 BTU/kWh (theoretical)

Carbon intensity of electricity: 0.45 Mg-CO2/MWh (2018 US total Avg)²⁸

LCFS Value of electricity replacement with carbon-neutral energy: $90/MWh

References

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24. Holtec SMR-160, https://holtecinternational.com/2019/06/11/holtec-energoatom-and-sstc-enter-into-a-trilateral-consortium-partnership-to-advance-the-smr-160-nuclear-reactor-for-deployment-across-ukraine/
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