We report on the experimental evaluation of a 5 kW solar chemical reactor for the steam-gasification of petcoke, carried out at PSI’s solar furnace. A petcoke-water slurry was continuously injected into a solar cavity-receiver to create a vortex flow directly exposed to concentrated solar radiation. For a nominal reactor temperature of 1500 K, a residence time of 2.4 s, and a water-petcoke molar ratio of 4.8, the maximum degree of petcoke conversion was 87%. Typical syngas composition produced was 62% H2, 25% CO, 12% CO2, and 1% CH4. The energy conversion efficiency — defined as the portion of solar energy absorbed as chemical energy and sensible heat — attained 17%. The effect of varying the particle size (range 8.5–200 μm) and slurry stoichiometry (range 2.1–6.3) on the degree of chemical conversion and energy conversion efficiency was examined.

Volume Subject Area:
Solar Thermal Systems
Topics:
Coke, Concentrating solar power, Fuel gasification, Hydrogen production, Petroleum, Slurries, Steam, Solar energy, Energy conversion, Water, Carbon dioxide, Cavities, Chemical energy, Furnaces, Heat, Methane, Particle size, Solar chemistry, Solar radiation, Stoichiometry, Syngas, Temperature, Vortex flow
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Copyright © 2006
 by ASME
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