TY - GEN
T1 - A REACTOR TRAIN SYSTEM FOR EFFICIENT SOLAR THERMOCHEMICAL FUEL PRODUCTION
AU - Patankar, Aniket S.
AU - Wu, Xiao Yu
AU - Choi, Wonjae
AU - Tuller, Harry L.
AU - Ghoniem, Ahmed F.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work has been supported by the Center of Mechanical Engineering Research and Education at MIT and SUSTech.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 by ASME
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Thermochemical redox cycles are a promising route for the production of solar fuels. In this paper we present a novel Reactor Train system for efficient conversion of solar thermal energy to hydrogen. This system is capable of recovering thermal energy from redox materials, which is necessary for achieving high efficiency, but has been difficult to realize in practice. The Reactor Train System overcomes technical challenges of high temperature thermochemical reactors like solid conveying and sealing, while enabling continuous, round-the-clock fuel production and incorporating efficient gas transfer processes and thermal energy storage. The Reactor Train is comprised of several identical reactors arranged in a closed loop and cycling between reduction and oxidation steps. In between these steps, the reactors undergo solid heat recovery in a radiative counterflow heat exchanger. We report a heat recovery effectiveness of 75-82% with a train consisting of 56 reactors and a cycle time of 84 minutes. With ceria as the redox material, 23% of the high temperature thermal energy input is converted to hydrogen, while 49% is recovered as intermediate-temperature heat at 750°C.
AB - Thermochemical redox cycles are a promising route for the production of solar fuels. In this paper we present a novel Reactor Train system for efficient conversion of solar thermal energy to hydrogen. This system is capable of recovering thermal energy from redox materials, which is necessary for achieving high efficiency, but has been difficult to realize in practice. The Reactor Train System overcomes technical challenges of high temperature thermochemical reactors like solid conveying and sealing, while enabling continuous, round-the-clock fuel production and incorporating efficient gas transfer processes and thermal energy storage. The Reactor Train is comprised of several identical reactors arranged in a closed loop and cycling between reduction and oxidation steps. In between these steps, the reactors undergo solid heat recovery in a radiative counterflow heat exchanger. We report a heat recovery effectiveness of 75-82% with a train consisting of 56 reactors and a cycle time of 84 minutes. With ceria as the redox material, 23% of the high temperature thermal energy input is converted to hydrogen, while 49% is recovered as intermediate-temperature heat at 750°C.
KW - Heat Recovery
KW - Solar Fuels
KW - Thermochemical cycle
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124477116&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1115/IMECE2021-69716
DO - 10.1115/IMECE2021-69716
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85124477116
T3 - ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Proceedings (IMECE)
BT - Energy
PB - American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
T2 - ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, IMECE 2021
Y2 - 1 November 2021 through 5 November 2021
ER -