Highly efficient solar-driven CO2 reforming of methane via concave foam reactors

Xianglei Liu, Bo Cheng, Qibin Zhu, Ke Gao, Nan Sun, Cheng Tian, Jiaqi Wang, Hangbin Zheng, Xinrui Wang, Chunzhuo Dang and Yimin Xuan

Energy, 2022, vol. 261, issue PB

Abstract: Solar-driven CO2 reforming of methane into value-added syngas is promising to solve global climate change and energy crisis problems simultaneously. However, there remains a large gap between currently reported solar-to-fuel efficiency and the theoretical limit. Here, we proposed an alternative way to enhance solar-driven CO2 reforming of methane performances by shaping foam reactors into concave geometries. By coupling solar radiation transport, fluid-solid coupling heat transfer, thermochemical kinetics, non-isothermal flow and mass transfer, a numerical analysis model is built. For the uniform planar reactor, multi-parameter optimization of porosity, pore diameter, and reactor length is conducted through a multi-island genetic algorithm, and the optimized solar-to-fuel efficiency achieves as high as 50.4%. By shaping planar foam reactors into parabolic concave geometries, the solar-to-fuel efficiency further increases 53.3%, the efficiency is increased by 21.97% compared with the reactor without multi-parameter optimization. This superior performance can be attributed to more uniform and appropriate temperature distribution, which makes major reactant components react within a higher temperature range above 1000 K. This work provides alternative routes for designing high-performance porous foam reactors and achieving highly efficient solar-driven CO2 reforming of methane.

Keywords: CO2 reforming of methane; Porous foam reactors; Solar thermochemical; Solar fuel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:261:y:2022:i:pb:s0360544222020357

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.125141

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