SolarSyngas: Investigation of Redox Materials and Components for Solar-thermochemical Fuels Production

Abstract

To tackle the vision of producing CO2-neutral renewable fuels efficiently and economically via a thermo-chemical route, the Helmholtz Virtual Institute SolarSynGas brings together expertise from solar energy research and materials science to develop metal oxide based redox materials and to integrate them into suitable process technologies aimed in generating synthetic fuels via synthesis gas production from water, carbon dioxide, and concentrated sunlight . The focus is the systematic development of materials and components and their implementation into solar powered reactors. Functional ceramics have been developed as redox materials for solar water and CO2 splitting. The consortium is developing a basic understanding of interrelations between atomic structure and transport, microstructure, reactivity and life time of the materials in order to define suitable designs for solar specific components. Due to theoretical studies ceria-based materials are viable candidate redox materials for such cycles. The performance of ceria was enhanced via doping with zirconium and trivalent lanthanides. The most promising compositions were subjected to equilibrium reduction experiments under varying conditions. In parallel to material development the consortium also looks into optimizing the performance of the equipment needed to run such process in a solar tower facility.