A novel beam-down, gravity-fed, solar thermochemical receiver/reactor for direct solid particle decomposition: Design, modeling, and experimentation

A novel solar-thermochemical reactor for the reduction of ZnO powder using concentrated sunlight has been designed, constructed and tested. The purpose of the reactor is to accomplish the first step in a two-step water-splitting process to generate hydrogen renewably from sunlight using the ZnO redox cycle. Abbreviated as GRAFSTRR (Gravity-Fed Solar-Thermochemical Receiver/Reactor), the reactor is closed to the atmosphere, and features an inverted conical-shaped reaction surface along which reactant powder descends continuously as a moving bed, undergoing a thermochemical reaction at high temperature upon exposure to highly concentrated sunlight within the reaction cavity. Heat transfer and Zn production within the cavity have been modeled, as well as the influence of effective reactant particle size on reactive surface area. Initial experiments using a high-flux solar simulator successfully demonstrated the mechanical stability of the reactor and primary systems, namely particle entrainment in the vortex flow, moving bed adhesion to the reaction surface, and the solid particle delivery and exit mechanism. This paper presents the GRAFSTRR concept, select design choices, and a summary of pertinent findings from experimental and numerical investigations.