IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v165y2016icp1004-1023.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pilot-scale solar reactor operation and characterization for fuel production via the Zn/ZnO thermochemical cycle

Author

Listed:
  • Koepf, E.
  • Villasmil, W.
  • Meier, A.

Abstract

Successful demonstration and promising characterization of a solar reactor pilot plant for thermal reduction of ZnO as part of a two-step water and CO2 splitting cycle has been accomplished at the 100kWth scale in a 1MW solar furnace. The solar reactor pilot plant was operated for over 97h and achieved sustained reaction temperatures well above 2000K, while demonstrating ZnO dissociation rates as high as 28g/min totaling over 28kg of processed reactant during 13 full days of experimentation. In-situ, high temperature, flow visualization of the quartz window enabled the unimpeded operation of the solar reactor. As many as three consecutive full day experiments were conducted without complication. Solar power delivered to the reaction cavity ranged between 90 and 128kWth, at peak solar concentrations as high as 4671kW/m2. The products Zn and O2 were quenched with Ar(g) and recovered in a filter battery, where collected particles contained molar Zn-content as high as 44%. During experimentation, switching between product collection filter cartridges resulted in 54 unique experiments, where a maximum solar-to-chemical efficiency of 3% was recorded for the solar reactor. Robust characterization of the product quenching device revealed inherent limitations in its effectiveness, and thus solar-to-fuel energy conversion efficiency was limited to 0.24% if it would have been possible to supply 4640Ln/min of Ar(g). Further, only a limitation on available experimental time prohibited the demonstration of significantly higher dissociation rates, achievable with higher ZnO reactant feed rates. While the use of large volumes of quenching Ar(g) to separate the reaction products remains a significant obstacle to achieving higher solar-to-fuel efficiencies, demonstration of solar reactor technology at the pilot-scale represents significant progress toward the realization of industrial-scale solar fuels production.

Suggested Citation

  • Koepf, E. & Villasmil, W. & Meier, A., 2016. "Pilot-scale solar reactor operation and characterization for fuel production via the Zn/ZnO thermochemical cycle," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1004-1023.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:165:y:2016:i:c:p:1004-1023
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.12.106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261915016797
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.12.106?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Agrafiotis, Christos & Roeb, Martin & Sattler, Christian, 2015. "A review on solar thermal syngas production via redox pair-based water/carbon dioxide splitting thermochemical cycles," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 254-285.
    2. Baxter, J.F. & Husted, R.R. & Williams, L.O., 1975. "Future hydrogen production methods," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 155-164, April.
    3. Alonso, Elisa & Romero, Manuel, 2015. "Review of experimental investigation on directly irradiated particles solar reactors," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 53-67.
    4. Abanades, Stéphane & Charvin, Patrice & Flamant, Gilles & Neveu, Pierre, 2006. "Screening of water-splitting thermochemical cycles potentially attractive for hydrogen production by concentrated solar energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(14), pages 2805-2822.
    5. Dell, R. M. & Bridger, N. J., 1975. "Hydrogen--The ultimate fuel," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 1(4), pages 279-292, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Taixiu & Liu, Qibin & Lei, Jing & Sui, Jun & Jin, Hongguang, 2018. "Solar-clean fuel distributed energy system with solar thermochemistry and chemical recuperation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 380-391.
    2. Mohsen Fallah Vostakola & Babak Salamatinia & Bahman Amini Horri, 2022. "A Review on Recent Progress in the Integrated Green Hydrogen Production Processes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-41, February.
    3. Hyun-Seok Cho & Tatsuya Kodama & Nobuyuki Gokon & Selvan Bellan & Jong-Kyu Kim, 2021. "Development of Synthesis and Fabrication Process for Mn-CeO 2 Foam via Two-Step Water-Splitting Cycle Hydrogen Production," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Alvarez Rivero, M. & Rodrigues, D. & Pinheiro, C.I.C. & Cardoso, J.P. & Mendes, L.F., 2022. "Solid–gas reactors driven by concentrated solar energy with potential application to calcium looping: A comparative review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Liu, Taixiu & Bai, Zhang & Zheng, Zhimei & Liu, Qibin & Lei, Jing & Sui, Jun & Jin, Hongguang, 2019. "100 kWe power generation pilot plant with a solar thermochemical process: design, modeling, construction, and testing," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Mao, Yanpeng & Gao, Yibo & Dong, Wei & Wu, Han & Song, Zhanlong & Zhao, Xiqiang & Sun, Jing & Wang, Wenlong, 2020. "Hydrogen production via a two-step water splitting thermochemical cycle based on metal oxide – A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    7. Nicodemus, Julia Haltiwanger, 2018. "Technological learning and the future of solar H2: A component learning comparison of solar thermochemical cycles and electrolysis with solar PV," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 100-109.
    8. Guo, Yongpeng & Chen, Jing & Song, Hualong & Zheng, Ke & Wang, Jian & Wang, Hongsheng & Kong, Hui, 2024. "A review of solar thermochemical cycles for fuel production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 357(C).
    9. Gao, Yibo & Mao, Yanpeng & Song, Zhanlong & Zhao, Xiqiang & Sun, Jing & Wang, Wenlong & Chen, Guifang & Chen, Shouyan, 2020. "Efficient generation of hydrogen by two-step thermochemical cycles: Successive thermal reduction and water splitting reactions using equal-power microwave irradiation and a high entropy material," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    10. Rahul R. Bhosale & Sayma Akhter & Ram B. Gupta & Rajesh V. Shende, 2023. "Utilization of MnFe 2 O 4 Redox Ferrite for Solar Fuel Production via CO 2 Splitting: A Thermodynamic Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-17, July.
    11. Gabriel Zsembinszki & Aran Solé & Camila Barreneche & Cristina Prieto & A. Inés Fernández & Luisa F. Cabeza, 2018. "Review of Reactors with Potential Use in Thermochemical Energy Storage in Concentrated Solar Power Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-23, September.
    12. Lidor, A. & Fend, T. & Roeb, M. & Sattler, C., 2021. "High performance solar receiver–reactor for hydrogen generation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1217-1232.
    13. Miguel Castro Oliveira & Muriel Iten & Henrique A. Matos, 2022. "Review of Thermochemical Technologies for Water and Energy Integration Systems: Energy Storage and Recovery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, June.
    14. Koepf, E. & Alxneit, I. & Wieckert, C. & Meier, A., 2017. "A review of high temperature solar driven reactor technology: 25years of experience in research and development at the Paul Scherrer Institute," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 620-651.
    15. Yadav, Deepak & Banerjee, Rangan, 2018. "A comparative life cycle energy and carbon emission analysis of the solar carbothermal and hydrometallurgy routes for zinc production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 577-602.
    16. Rahul R. Bhosale, 2020. "Terbium oxide‐based solar thermochemical CO2 splitting cycle: A thermodynamic investigation," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 10(4), pages 703-714, August.
    17. Rahul R. Bhosale & Shelby Adams & Zachary Allen & Gabrielle Bennett & Edvinas Berezniovas & Taylor Bishop & Michael Bonnema & Sequoia Clutter & Ryan Fagan & Jordan Halabrin & Mason Hobbs & Daniel Hunt, 2024. "Assessing the Viability of GeO 2 /GeO Redox Thermochemical Cycle for Converting CO 2 into Solar Fuels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-21, March.
    18. Stéphane Abanades, 2022. "Redox Cycles, Active Materials, and Reactors Applied to Water and Carbon Dioxide Splitting for Solar Thermochemical Fuel Production: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-28, September.
    19. Shuai, Yong & Zhang, Hao & Guene Lougou, Bachirou & Jiang, Boshu & Mustafa, Azeem & Wang, Chi-Hwa & Wang, Fuqiang & Zhao, Jiupeng, 2021. "Solar-driven thermochemical redox cycles of ZrO2 supported NiFe2O4 for CO2 reduction into chemical energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    20. Rahul R. Bhosale, 2020. "Estimation of solar‐to‐fuel energy conversion efficiency of a solar driven samarium oxide‐based thermochemical CO2 splitting cycle," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 10(4), pages 725-735, August.
    21. Solé, Aran & Falcoz, Quentin & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Neveu, Pierre, 2018. "Geometry optimization of a heat storage system for concentrated solar power plants (CSP)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 227-235.
    22. Yan, J. & Zhao, C.Y., 2016. "Experimental study of CaO/Ca(OH)2 in a fixed-bed reactor for thermochemical heat storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 277-284.
    23. Liu, Xiufeng & Hong, Hui & Jin, Hongguang, 2017. "Mid-temperature solar fuel process combining dual thermochemical reactions for effectively utilizing wider solar irradiance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P2), pages 1031-1039.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Koepf, E. & Alxneit, I. & Wieckert, C. & Meier, A., 2017. "A review of high temperature solar driven reactor technology: 25years of experience in research and development at the Paul Scherrer Institute," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 620-651.
    2. Gabriel Zsembinszki & Aran Solé & Camila Barreneche & Cristina Prieto & A. Inés Fernández & Luisa F. Cabeza, 2018. "Review of Reactors with Potential Use in Thermochemical Energy Storage in Concentrated Solar Power Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Yadav, Deepak & Banerjee, Rangan, 2016. "A review of solar thermochemical processes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 497-532.
    4. Abanades, Stéphane & André, Laurie, 2018. "Design and demonstration of a high temperature solar-heated rotary tube reactor for continuous particles calcination," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1310-1320.
    5. Villafán-Vidales, H.I. & Arancibia-Bulnes, C.A. & Riveros-Rosas, D. & Romero-Paredes, H. & Estrada, C.A., 2017. "An overview of the solar thermochemical processes for hydrogen and syngas production: Reactors, and facilities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 894-908.
    6. Liu, Xiangyu & Zhang, Hao & Hong, Hui & Jin, Hongguang, 2020. "Experimental study on honeycomb reactor using methane via chemical looping cycle for solar syngas," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    7. Alonso, Elisa & Pérez-Rábago, Carlos & Licurgo, Javier & Gallo, Alessandro & Fuentealba, Edward & Estrada, Claudio A., 2017. "Experimental aspects of CuO reduction in solar-driven reactors: Comparative performance of a rotary kiln and a packed-bed," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 665-673.
    8. Dizaji, Hossein Beidaghy & Hosseini, Hannaneh, 2018. "A review of material screening in pure and mixed-metal oxide thermochemical energy storage (TCES) systems for concentrated solar power (CSP) applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 9-26.
    9. Alvarez Rivero, M. & Rodrigues, D. & Pinheiro, C.I.C. & Cardoso, J.P. & Mendes, L.F., 2022. "Solid–gas reactors driven by concentrated solar energy with potential application to calcium looping: A comparative review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Guo, Yongpeng & Chen, Jing & Song, Hualong & Zheng, Ke & Wang, Jian & Wang, Hongsheng & Kong, Hui, 2024. "A review of solar thermochemical cycles for fuel production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 357(C).
    11. Stéphane Abanades, 2022. "Redox Cycles, Active Materials, and Reactors Applied to Water and Carbon Dioxide Splitting for Solar Thermochemical Fuel Production: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-28, September.
    12. Lucía Arribas & José González-Aguilar & Manuel Romero, 2018. "Solar-Driven Thermochemical Water-Splitting by Cerium Oxide: Determination of Operational Conditions in a Directly Irradiated Fixed Bed Reactor," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-15, September.
    13. Fuqiang, Wang & Lanxin, Ma & Ziming, Cheng & Jianyu, Tan & Xing, Huang & Linhua, Liu, 2017. "Radiative heat transfer in solar thermochemical particle reactor: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 935-949.
    14. Massimo Moser & Matteo Pecchi & Thomas Fend, 2019. "Techno-Economic Assessment of Solar Hydrogen Production by Means of Thermo-Chemical Cycles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-17, January.
    15. Linga Reddy, E. & Biju, V.M. & Subrahmanyam, Ch., 2012. "Production of hydrogen and sulfur from hydrogen sulfide assisted by nonthermal plasma," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 87-92.
    16. Bailera, Manuel & Lisbona, Pilar & Romeo, Luis M. & Espatolero, Sergio, 2017. "Power to Gas projects review: Lab, pilot and demo plants for storing renewable energy and CO2," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 292-312.
    17. Aasadnia, Majid & Mehrpooya, Mehdi, 2018. "Large-scale liquid hydrogen production methods and approaches: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 57-83.
    18. Beltrán-Gastélum, M. & Salazar-Gastélum, M.I. & Félix-Navarro, R.M. & Pérez-Sicairos, S. & Reynoso-Soto, E.A. & Lin, S.W. & Flores-Hernández, J.R. & Romero-Castañón, T. & Albarrán-Sánchez, I.L. & Para, 2016. "Evaluation of PtAu/MWCNT (Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes) electrocatalyst performance as cathode of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 446-455.
    19. Christopher L. Muhich & Brian D. Ehrhart & Ibraheam Al-Shankiti & Barbara J. Ward & Charles B. Musgrave & Alan W. Weimer, 2016. "A review and perspective of efficient hydrogen generation via solar thermal water splitting," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(3), pages 261-287, May.
    20. Perez-Enciso, Ricardo & Gallo, Alessandro & Riveros-Rosas, David & Fuentealba-Vidal, Edward & Perez-Rábago, Carlos, 2016. "A simple method to achieve a uniform flux distribution in a multi-faceted point focus concentrator," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 115-124.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:165:y:2016:i:c:p:1004-1023. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.