Volume 32: A Sustainable, Clean and Carbon-free Energy Future

Dynamic Operation Investigation of the Solar Thermochemical Polygeneration System Based on Methane Dry Reforming Shuoshuo Wang, Bo Zheng, Zhang Bai, Yucheng Gu

Abstract

The solar thermochemical technology as a promising method can effectively convert concentrated solar thermal energy into the chemical form of syngas, and then realizes efficient renewable energy utilization. In this work, a solar-driven polygeneration system with the methane dry reforming based solar thermochemical process is developed, and the generated syngas is further utilized by the methanol synthesis module and the gas-steam combined power cycle, to achieve diverse energy outputs of methanol and electricity. Meanwhile, within the fluctuating solar irradiation, the fed methane can be flexibly adjusted to promote reasonable solar energy utilization and comprehensive system operation performances. Through the system off-design analysis, the favorable concentrating solar heat to chemical energy conversion effects can be achieved with the optimal system energy efficiency of 63.0%. During the typical day operation process, the solar share can reach to 25.1% with the real-time regulation complementation of solar energy and fossil fuel. While the annual system operation efficiency is up to 54.4% with a solar share of 21.0%, the system surplus solar energy can be readily stored by the liquid methanol fuel, and the system monthly methanol outputs capacity is 6.65-26.88 GWh. With the flexible regulation and combination of solar energy and chemical energy, efficient multi-energy generation can be achieved, which provides an alternative way to optimize solar conversion performances.

Keywords solar thermochemical, polygeneration system, regulation complementation, dynamic operation