Experimental study of solar reactors for carboreduction of zinc oxide

Roman Adinberg and Michael Epstein

Energy, 2004, vol. 29, issue 5, 757-769

Abstract: The reduction of zinc oxide (ZnO) with pure carbon has been studied in the temperature range of 1200–1500 °C for converting solar thermal power into chemical energy in the form of metallic zinc. An experimental solar facility was set up to test different types of reactors, including a tube-type reactor and a quartz-windowed reactor, both operating in a batch-processing mode. The capabilities of the experimental facility included a 20-kW solar thermal concentrating system; portable cavity-type solar receivers; cooling system for gas quenching and excessive heat rejecting; solar power control; measuring and data acquisition systems. Characterization tests, which were carried out under solar peak flux ranging from 1 to 2 MW m−2, demonstrated the feasibility of operating the tubular and windowed reactors at elevated temperatures, up to 1400 °C. Heat transfer simulation of the thermochemical process involving a kinetic global model to describe the windowed reactor is presented. The aspects discussed are the heating rate of reactants, the spatial temperature distribution and the effect of heat losses on reactor performance.

Keywords: Solar energy; Windowed reactor; Batch process; Zinc oxide; Carboreduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544203001828
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:29:y:2004:i:5:p:757-769

DOI: 10.1016/S0360-5442(03)00182-8

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().