Project management - Organisation of the work (Management Committees, progress reviews and communications), relations with the European Community, dissemination and contacts with other European projects, progress reports and regular progress meetings.

The optimisation of the whole Sulfur-Iodine cycle (S_I) – S_I cycle flow-sheets issued at various times of the project, to give theoretical descriptions of the process, that will be used for the industrial scale-up activities (coupling to reactor, component sizing and cost analysis), taking into account the theoretical and experimental improvements found during the project.

Vapour Liquid Equilibrium (VLE) analysis - Improvement of the vapour liquid equilibrium model of the HIx (HI/I2/H2O) system, for a better knowledge and improvement of the H2 production part of the S_I cycle production rate of hydrogen (partial pressure measurements of gases needed, mainly by the mean of mass or optical spectrometry methods).

· Review of membrane Separation Techniques - Exploratory research into alternative, low energy separation techniques relevant to the S_I process, to be used in the HIx separation steps ; membrane distillation and pervaporation, already used to separate azeotropes successfully, will be assessed as a technique to concentrate the HI solution.

· Experimental study of membrane distillation and pervaporation of HIx - Experiments at a laboratory scale, evaluation of the separation performances of selected membranes (partial pressures in the vapour will be measured by optical means, measurements similar to those of SP3).

Sulphuric Acid Decomposition - Direct decomposition of H2SO4 in a solar furnace located in Cologne (up to 25 kW), at temperatures up to 1100 - 1200 °C; indirect heating in tube type reactor using a catalyst will also be performed, applying VHTR nuclear reactor temperature (850-900°C). Process simulations and assessment of the feasibility of scale-up at a commercial scale (including safety and costs evaluations).

Assessment of the Hybrid-Sulphur (Westinghouse) cycle (WH) - Study of the technical feasibility of a solar and hybrid (solar and nuclear) operation of the WH process (thermo-chemical and electrolysis steps), including industrial scale-up, safety aspects during normal and transient operation and economic potential, in comparison with the S_I process.