Moving Brick Receiver–Reactor: A Solar Thermochemical Reactor and Process Design With a Solid–Solid Heat Exchanger and On-Demand Production of Hydrogen and/or Carbon Monoxide

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvan Siegrist ◽  
Henrik von Storch ◽  
Martin Roeb ◽  
Christian Sattler

Three crucial aspects still to be overcome to achieve commercial competitiveness of the solar thermochemical production of hydrogen and carbon monoxide are recuperating the heat from the solid phase, achieving continuous or on-demand production beyond the hours of sunshine, and scaling to commercial plant sizes. To tackle all three aspects, we propose a moving brick receiver–reactor (MBR2) design with a solid–solid heat exchanger. The MBR2 consists of porous bricks that are reversibly mounted on a high temperature transport mechanism, a receiver–reactor where the bricks are reduced by passing through the concentrated solar radiation, a solid–solid heat exchanger under partial vacuum in which the reduced bricks transfer heat to the oxidized bricks, a first storage for the reduced bricks, an oxidation reactor, and a second storage for the oxidized bricks. The bricks may be made of any nonvolatile redox material suitable for a thermochemical two-step (TS) water splitting (WS) or carbon dioxide splitting (CDS) cycle. A first thermodynamic analysis shows that the MBR2 may be able to achieve solar-to-chemical conversion efficiencies of approximately 0.25. Additionally, we identify the desired operating conditions and show that the heat exchanger efficiency has to be higher than the fraction of recombination in order to increase the conversion efficiency.

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Patel ◽  
K. K. Pant

The production of hydrogen was investigated in a fixed bed tubular reactor via steam reforming of methanol (SRM) using CuO∕ZnO∕Al2O3 catalysts prepared by wet impregnation method and characterized by measuring surface area, pore volume, x-ray diffraction patterns, and scanning electron microscopy photographs. The SRM was carried out at atmospheric pressure, temperature 493-573K, steam to methanol molar ratio 1–1.8 and contact-time (W/F) 3–15kg cat./(mol/s of methanol). Effects of reaction temperature, contact-time, steam to methanol molar ratio and zinc content of the catalyst on methanol conversion, selectivity, and product yields was evaluated. The addition of zinc enhanced the methanol conversion and hydrogen production. The excess steam promoted the methanol conversion and suppressed the carbon monoxide formation. Different strategies have been mentioned to minimize the carbon monoxide formation for the steam reforming of methanol to produce polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell grade hydrogen. Optimum operating conditions with appropriate composition of catalyst has been investigated to produce more selective hydrogen with minimum carbon monoxide. The experimental results were fitted well with the kinetic model available in literature.


Author(s):  
Sanjay Patel ◽  
K. K. Pant

The production of hydrogen was investigated in a fixed bed tubular reactor via steam reforming of methanol using CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts prepared by wet impregnation method and characterized by measuring surface area, pore volume, X-ray diffraction pattern and scanning electron microscopy photographs. The SRM was carried out at atmospheric pressure, temperature 493–573 K, steam to methanol molar ratio 1–1.8 and W/F 3 to 15. Effects of reaction temperature, contact-time, steam to methanol molar ratio and zinc content of catalyst on methanol conversion, selectivity and product yields were evaluated. The addition of zinc enhances the methanol conversion and hydrogen production. The excess steam promotes the methanol conversion and suppresses the carbon monoxide formation. Different strategies have been mentioned to minimize the carbon monoxide formation for the steam reforming of methanol to produce fuel cell grade hydrogen. Optimum operating conditions with appropriate composition of catalyst has been found to produce more selective hydrogen with minimum carbon monoxide. The reaction mechanism has been proposed based on the product distribution. The kinetic model available in literature fitted well with the experimental results.


2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Earnest ◽  
A. Echt ◽  
J. McCammon ◽  
K. Dunn ◽  
R. McCleery ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 4848
Author(s):  
Hitoshi Kiyokawa ◽  
Hiroki Tokutomi ◽  
Shinichi Ishida ◽  
Hiroaki Nishi ◽  
Ryo Ohmura

Kinetic characteristics of thermal energy storage (TES) using tetrabutylammonium acrylate (TBAAc) hydrate were experimentally evaluated for practical use as PCMs. Mechanical agitation or ultrasonic vibration was added to detach the hydrate adhesion on the heat exchanger, which could be a thermal resistance. The effect of the external forces also was evaluated by changing their rotation rate and frequency. When the agitation rate was 600 rpm, the system achieved TES density of 140 MJ/m3 in 2.9 hours. This value is comparable to the ideal performance of ice TES when its solid phase fraction is 45%. UA/V (U: thermal transfer coefficient, A: surface area of the heat exchange coil, V: volume of the TES medium) is known as an index of the ease of heat transfer in a heat exchanger. UA/V obtained in this study was comparable to that of other common heat exchangers, which means the equivalent performance would be available by setting the similar UA/V. In this study, we succeeded in obtaining practical data for heat storage by TBAAc hydrate. The data obtained in this study will be a great help for the practical application of hydrate heat storage in the future.


Author(s):  
Seyyed Khandani ◽  
Himanshu Pokharna ◽  
Sridhar Machiroutu ◽  
Eric DiStefano

Remote heat pipe based heat exchanger cooling systems are becoming increasingly popular in cooling of notebook computers. In such cooling systems, one or more heat pipes transfer the heat from the more populated area to a location with sufficient space allowing the use of a heat exchanger for removal of the heat from the system. In analsysis of such systems, the temperature drop in the condenser section of the heat pipe is assumed negligible due to the nature of the condensation process. However, in testing of various systems, non linear longitudinal temperature drops in the heat pipe in the range of 2 to 15 °C, for different processor power and heat exchanger airflow, have been measured. Such temperature drops could cause higher condenser thermal resistance and result in lower overall heat exchanger performance. In fact the application of the conventional method of estimating the thermal performance, which does not consider such a nonlinear temperature variations, results in inaccurate design of the cooling system and requires unnecessarily higher safety factors to compensate for this inaccuracy. To address the problem, this paper offers a new analytical approach for modeling the heat pipe based heat exchanger performance under various operating conditions. The method can be used with any arbitrary condenser temperature variations. The results of the model show significant increase in heat exchanger thermal resistance when considering a non linear condenser temperature drop. The experimental data also verifies the result of the model with sufficient accuracy and therefore validates the application of this model in estimating the performance of these systems.   This paper was also originally published as part of the Proceedings of the ASME 2005 Pacific Rim Technical Conference and Exhibition on Integration and Packaging of MEMS, NEMS, and Electronic Systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 42-64
Author(s):  
Boris Basok ◽  
Ihor Bozhko ◽  
Maryna Novitska ◽  
Aleksandr Nedbailo ◽  
Myroslav Tkachenko

This article is devoted to the analysis of the heat engineering characteristics of the operation of an Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger, EAHE, with a circular cross-sectional shape, which is a component of the geothermal ventilation system. The authors analyzed literature sources devoted to the research of heat exchangers of the soil-air type of various designs and for working conditions in various soils. Much attention is paid to the issues of modeling the operation of such heat exchangers and the distinctive features of each of these models. Also important are the results of experimental studies carried out on our own experimental bench and with the help of which the numerical model was validated. The results of these studies are the basis for the development of a method for determining the optimal diameter of an EAHE under operating conditions for soil in Kyiv, Ukraine.


Author(s):  
Wei Huang ◽  
Eric Million ◽  
Kelvin Randhir ◽  
Joerg Petrasch ◽  
James Klausner ◽  
...  

Abstract An axisymmetric model coupling counter-current gas-solid flow, heat transfer, and thermochemical redox reactions in a moving-bed tubular reactor was developed. The counter-current flow enhances convective heat transfer and a low oxygen partial pressure environment is maintained for thermal reduction within the reaction zone by using oxygen depleted inlet gas. A similar concept can be used for the oxidation reactor which releases high-temperature heat that can be used for power generation or as process heat. The heat transfer model was validated with published results for packed bed reactors. After validation, the model was applied to simulate the moving-bed reactor performance, through which the effects of the main geometric parameters and operating conditions were studied to provide guidance for lab-scale reactor fabrication and testing.


Author(s):  
Valery Ponyavin ◽  
Taha Mohamed ◽  
Mohamed Trabia ◽  
Yitung Chen ◽  
Anthony E. Hechanova

Ceramics are suitable for use in high temperature applications as well as corrosive environment. These characteristics were the reason behind selection silicone carbide for a high temperature heat exchanger and chemical decomposer, which is a part of the Sulphur-Iodine (SI) thermo-chemical cycle. The heat exchanger is expected to operate in the range of 950°C. The proposed design is manufactured using fused ceramic layers that allow creation of micro-channels with dimensions below one millimeter. A proper design of the heat exchanges requires considering possibilities of failure due to stresses under both steady state and transient conditions. Temperature gradients within the heat exchanger ceramic components induce thermal stresses that dominate other stresses. A three-dimensional computational model is developed to investigate the fluid flow, heat transfer and stresses in the decomposer. Temperature distribution in the solid is imported to finite element software and used with pressure loads for stress analysis. The stress results are used to calculate probability of failure based on Weibull failure criteria. Earlier analysis showed that stress results at steady state operating conditions are satisfactory. The focus of this paper is to consider stresses that are induced during transient scenarios. In particular, the cases of startup and shutdown of the heat exchanger are considered. The paper presents an evaluation of the stresses in these two cases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 1225-1235
Author(s):  
Ajay K. Gupta ◽  
Manoj Kumar ◽  
Ranjit K. Sahoo ◽  
Sunil K. Sarangi

Plate-fin heat exchangers provide a broad range of applications in many cryogenic industries for liquefaction and separation of gasses because of their excellent technical advantages such as high effectiveness, compact size, etc. Correlations are available for the design of a plate-fin heat exchanger, but experimental investigations are few at cryogenic temperature. In the present study, a cryogenic heat exchanger test setup has been designed and fabricated to investigate the performance of plate-fin heat exchanger at cryogenic temperature. Major parameters (Colburn factor, Friction factor, etc.) that affect the performance of plate-fin heat exchangers are provided concisely. The effect of mass flow rate and inlet temperature on the effectiveness and pressure drop of the heat exchanger are investigated. It is observed that with an increase in mass flow rate effectiveness and pressure drop increases. The present setup emphasis the systematic procedure to perform the experiment based on cryogenic operating conditions and represent its uncertainties level.


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liangchao Li ◽  
Bin Xu

Gas dispersion and floating particles suspension in an agitated vessel were studied numerically by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The Eulerian multi-fluid model along with standard k-? turbulence model was used in the simulation. A multiple reference frame (MRF) approach was used to solve the impeller rotation. The velocity field, gas and floating particles holdup distributions in the vessel were first obtained, and then, the effects of operating conditions on gas dispersion and solid suspension were investigated. The simulation results show that velocity field of solid phase and gas phase are quite different in the agitated vessel. Floating particles are easy to accumulate in the center of the surface region and the increasing of superficial gas velocity is in favor of floating particles off-surface suspension. With increasing solids loading, the gas dispersion becomes worse, while relative solid holdup distribution changes little. The limitations of the present modeling are discussed and further research in the future is proposed.


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