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SUMMARY Issues related to equipment scale‐up and process simulation are described for a thermochemical cycle driven by nuclear heat from Canada's proposed Generation IV reactor (Super‐Critical Water‐Cooled Reactor; SCWR), which is a CANDU derivative using supercritical water cooling. The copper–chlorine (Cu‐Cl) cycle has been identified by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited as the most promising cycle for thermochemical hydrogen production with SCWR. Water is decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen through intermediate Cu‐Cl compounds. This article outlines the challenges and design issues of hydrogen production with a Cu‐Cl cycle coupled to Canada's nuclear reactors. The processes are simulated using the Aspen Plus process simulation code, allowing the cycle efficiency and possible efficiency improvements to be examined. The results are useful to assist the development of a lab‐scale cycle demonstration, which is currently being undertaken at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in collaboration with numerous partners. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper presents recent advances by an international team of five countries -Canada, U.S., China, Slovenia and Romania -on the development and scale-up of the copper chlorine (Cu-Cl) cycle for thermochemical hydrogen production using nuclear or solar energy. Electrochemical cell analysis and membrane characterization for the CuCl/HCl electrolysis process are presented. Constituent solubility in the ternary CuCl/HCl/H2O system and XRD measurements are reported in regards to the CuCl2 crystallization process. Materials corrosion in high temperature copper chloride salts and performance of coatings of reactor surface alloys are examined. Finally, system integration is examined, with respect to scale-up of unit operations, cascaded heat pumps for heat upgrading, and linkage of heat exchangers with solar and nuclear plants.