Volume 20: Sustainable Energy Solutions for a Post-COVID Recovery towards a Better Future: Part III

A parabolic prototype of solar driven natural gas chemical looping for syngas production. Yali Cao, Xueli Xing, Hui Hong

Abstract

In this paper, a chemical looping fixed-bed reactor driven by concentrating solar energy was built, and the chemical looping cycle process of the solar syngas production was studied experimentally, which is the key reaction of the liquid sunshine production process. N2 is used as a heat transfer medium to flow through the heat collecting tube and enter the reactor to provide heat for the reduction reaction. NiO is put into the reactor as an oxygen carrier, and methane is introduced as an oxygen carrier as fuel gas. The results show that with the development of the reaction process, the main reaction in the reactor has gradually changed from complete oxidation of methane to partial oxidation of methane. In this process, the methane conversion rate and the outlet syngas concentration are affected by the reaction temperature. Under the direct normal irradiation of over 860W/m2, the methane conversion rate can reach up to 90%, and the outlet syngas concentration can be maintained at 50%. This paper also studied the chemical looping cycle reaction of methane under different irradiation intensities. The results show that when the DNI reaches 920W/m2, the efficiency of solar energy to chemical energy can reach over 55%.

Keywords Syngas production, Chemical looping process, Solar thermal energy, Parabolic trough concentrator