An Automotive Intelligent Catalyst that Contributes to Hydrogen Safety for the Decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1FD)

Hirohisa Tanaka; Sayaka Masaki; Takuro Aotani; Kohei Inagawa; Sogo Iwata; Tatsuya Aida; Tadasuke Yamamoto; Tomoaki Kita; Hitomi Ono; Keisuke Takenaka; Masashi Taniguchi; Daiju Matsumura; Ernst-Arndt Reinecke

doi:10.4271/2022-01-0534

March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent Giant Tsunami caused insufficient nuclear reactor cooling at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1F), resulting in a catastrophe of hydrogen explosion. The development of long-term safe storage technology for high-dose radioactive fuel debris collected by the decommissioning of nuclear power plants is an urgent issue. Inside the storage canister, strong radiation from fuel debris decomposes water to generate hydrogen and oxygen. The research and development have been proceeding in order to secure safety by simply placing a catalyst in the canister for oxidizing hydrogen and returning it into water.

The catalyst is called a Passive Autocatalytic Recombiner (PAR), and unlike catalysts for chemical plants, it is required to have robustness that can maintain its activity for more than 30 years in an environment where temperature, humidity, gas concentration, etc. cannot be controlled. Here, it is expected that “An Intelligent Catalyst” for automotive emissions control exhibits excellent performance even in such a harsh environment.

The intelligent catalyst is the nanostructure designed perovskite catalyst that has the rejuvenating function instead of preventing aging. Its unique properties were published in “Nature”. The perovskite-type intelligent catalyst has been reported in many SAE Papers since 1993, and it was the enthusiastic discussions at the SAE Annual Meetings that refined and perfected this technology.

Here, the authors express their gratitude and emphasize that the technology developed as a catalyst for automobiles is expected to be useful not only in other industries but also as a relief technology from the national crisis.

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An Automotive Intelligent Catalyst that Contributes to Hydrogen Safety for the Decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (1FD) 2022-01-0534

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