The rotary-type solar reactor has been developed for solar hydrogen production with the two-step water splitting process using the reactive ceramic (Ni, Mn-ferrite). The rotary-type reactor has the rotating tubular cylinder covered on a reactive ceramic and dual reaction cells for O2-releasing and H2-generation reactions. The successive evolutions of O2 and H2 gases were observed in the O2 releasing and H2 generation reaction cells, respectively, with the prototype (small) reactor (diameter of cylinder ; 4cm). There is an upper limit for the rate of H2 gas evolution in the case of the prototype reactor because of the slow rotation rate in a small irradiation area. To confirm the practical operation of the rotary-type solar reactor with the two-step water splitting process for the simultaneous production of H2 and O2 gases, a scaled-up rotary-type solar reactor with 400cm2 of the irradiation area was fabricated (diameter; 50cm). The scaled-up reactor made of inner and outer short tubular cylinders (stainless steel) has a quartz glass window for the irradiation of reactive ceramic coated on the inner tubular cylinder (cylindrical rotor) and reaction cells were aligned in the sharing spaces between the inner and outer short tubular cylinders with gas sealing mechanisms. In the reactor, reactive ceramic coated on the inner tubular cylinder was heated up to 1800K by using the infrared imaging lamps (solar simulator) with thermal flux = 600kW/m2. The solid solution between YSZ and Ni-ferrite was used as reactive ceramic for the scaled-up reactor in order to prevent from sintering at a high temperature in the O2-releasing reaction, since the sintering of reactive ceramic resulted in lowering the yield of H2 gas evolution in the H2-generation reaction. The amounts of H2 and O2 gases evolved at the rotation rate of 0.3rpm were evaluated to 64cm3 and 30cm3 for 10min with the scaled-up rotary-type solar reactor, respectively, which were much larger than those with the prototype reactor. The simultaneous evolutions of H2 and O2 gases in the two-step water splitting process were repeated by employing the scaled-up reactor with the solid solution between YSZ and Ni-ferrite.

Volume Subject Area:
Advances in Solar Hydrogen, Solar Chemistry and Bioconversion
Topics:
Fuels, Solar energy, Ceramics, Cylinders, Gases, Engineering prototypes, Ferrites (Magnetic materials), Irradiation (Radiation exposure), Water, Rotation, Sintering, Solid solutions, Glass, Heat flux, High temperature, Hydrogen production, Infrared imaging, Quartz, Rotors, Sealing (Process), Space, Stainless steel
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Copyright © 2008
 by ASME
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