Modeling of a novel high-temperature solar chemical reactor

Meier, Anton; Ganz, J.; Steinfeld, Aldo

doi:10.1016/0009-2509(96)00217-5

Cited by 51 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…As the energy conversion and heat recovery efficiency greatly depend on the efficiency of the reduction step, a significant effort must be dedicated to solar reactor design and optimization. Some of earlier studies dealt with solar reactor modelling for high-temperature thermochemical applications [4,5,6]. Two-step redox cycle based on zinc oxide (ZnO) is a promising candidate for thermochemical fuel production and energy conversion due to its high energy storage density and fuel productivity potential (15 mmolH2/gZn) compared to other metal oxides such as tin oxide, iron oxide, or manganese oxide [1,7,8,11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Modeling and Optimization of an Entrained Particle-flow Thermochemical Solar Reactor for Metal Oxide Reduction

et al. 2015

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The endothermic thermochemical process of metal oxide reduction in an indirectly-irradiated particle-laden flow solar reactor was modeled and analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool Ansys-Fluent. CFD modeling includes chemically reactive multiphase flow including solid-gas interactions, radiation heat transfer among particles, inner reactor walls and gas phase, and particle surface reaction chemical kinetics. A novel indirect heating cavity-type tubular solar reactor designed for continuous metal oxide reduction was simulated for predicting the temperature distribution profiles and benchmarked with onsun testing results under similar conditions. Further, design optimization on cavity size was performed for the targeted reaction temperature with enhanced handling capacity. A 50 mm cavity height was found to be suited for required temperature of above 1900 K for zinc oxide thermal reduction. Prior to reaction kinetics implementation, the study of inert particle case was carried out to understand the influence of particle heating on thermal profile. Finally, reactive particle-laden flow was simulated using Eulerian-Lagrangian combined approach. The chemical conversion efficiency of the ZnO reduction process and the solar-tochemical energy conversion efficiency were also calculated for varied inlet particle mass flow rates. BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer review by the scientific conference committee of SolarPACES 2014 under responsibility of PSE AG 948 J.P. Muthusamy et al. / Energy Procedia 69 ( 2015 ) 947 -956

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Modeling and Optimization of an Entrained Particle-flow Thermochemical Solar Reactor for Metal Oxide Reduction

et al. 2015

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“…As the heat recovery efficiency highly depends on the efficiency of the reduction step, a significant effort must be dedicated to its design and optimization. Some of earlier studies dealt with solar reactor modelling [1,2,3]. In order to avoid particle deposition and to obtain uniform heating of particles, rotating cavity receives are generally employed [3,4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Investigation of a Metal-oxide Reduction Reactor for Thermochemical Energy Storage and Solar Fuel Production

Muthusamy¹,

Calvet²,

Shamim³

2014

Energy Procedia

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The optimum design of a thermochemical reactor involves complex phenomena such as radiation heat and mass transfer, reaction kinetics, and fluid-solid interactions which makes the process to be cumbersome. The computational modelling using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an important tool to study, analyse, interpret and optimize such a complex system. The present study has developed a CFD model using Ansys-Fluent 14.0. The model employs the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach with the chemical reactions for a vertical axis thermochemical reactor for Zinc oxide reduction process. The conversion efficiency and temperature distributions for Zinc oxide reduction estimated by the CFD results have been validated with the published results by the PROMES CNRS laboratory (France) for a horizontal reactor design. The effect of particle size and gravity with a view to adapt it for a vertical beam-down solar concentrator have been analysed in the present study. It was observed that smaller particles provide higher surface area for enhanced heat transfer. Gravitational effects turned to be significant as the particle size increases. The model will assist in the effort of developing an efficient solar chemical reactor, for innovative thermochemical energy storage systems or fuel production, which will be tested at the Masdar Institute's beam down research facility.

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“…In order to scale up solar reactor parameters as the reactor volume, maximum working temperature, physicochemical properties of the construction materials and the reactants and temperature distribution have to be optimized, taking into account the heat transfer characteristics, the reaction rates and the transient phenomena due to the random conditions of the solar flux. Relatively few studies have deal with solar reactor modeling and simulation (Abanades et al, 2007;Agrafiotis et al, 2007;Petrasch and Steinfeld, 2007;Kogan et al, 2007;Palumbo et al, 2004;Meier et al, 1996). Some of those studies have been focused on radiative heat transfer within particle suspension exposed to concentrated solar radiation, included, steady state models based on the discrete ordinates methods, Monte Carlo (MC) methods and transient models based on the MC and Rosseland approximations and diffusion approach (Evans et al, 1987;Miller and Koenigsdorff, 1991;Mischler and Steinfeld, 1995;Hirsch and Steinfeld, 2004b;Osinaga et al, 2004;Lipinski and Steinfeld, 2004;Dombrovsky, 2002;Dombrovsky et al, 2007;Klein et al, 2007;Müller and Steinfeld, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat Transfer Numerical Analysis of a Thermochemical Solar Reactor

Vázquez–Rodríguez¹,

Varela-Ham²,

Avalos-Zuniga³

et al. 2014

Energy Research Journal

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In this study a 2D transient temperature distribution in a onedimensional thermochemical solar reactor of gas-particles is presented. The gas-particles medium is contained in a reactor where an endothermic chemical reaction of some oxide-metal at high temperature is expected to be occurred. The reactor receives the concentrated solar power on the reactor walls, or directly to the gas-particles medium. As expected the temperature distribution in the reactor is quite homogeneous when it operates to close steady state conditions, but also due to the fact that the inlet cold gas is reheated with the exit warm gas. However, when the reactor starts to operate, the temperature distribution is non-homogeneous depending on how the reactor receives the concentrated solar power.

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Modeling of a novel high-temperature solar chemical reactor

Cited by 51 publications

References 7 publications

Numerical Modeling and Optimization of an Entrained Particle-flow Thermochemical Solar Reactor for Metal Oxide Reduction

Numerical Modeling and Optimization of an Entrained Particle-flow Thermochemical Solar Reactor for Metal Oxide Reduction

Numerical Investigation of a Metal-oxide Reduction Reactor for Thermochemical Energy Storage and Solar Fuel Production

Heat Transfer Numerical Analysis of a Thermochemical Solar Reactor

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