Solar demonstration of thermochemical two-step water splitting cycle using CeO2/MPSZ ceramic foam device by 45kWth KIER solar furnace

摘要

The joint international project of Niigata University (Japan)-Korea Institute of Energy Research, KIER (Korea) on the "Solar demonstration of Water-Splitting Reactor using Ceramic Foam Device" aims to develop a novel-type of solar reactor with reactive cerium oxide foam devices for high-temperature two-step thermochemical water splitting cycle, and to demonstrate its performances on sun with a 45-kWu, solar furnace. The reactive CeO2 foam device for the two-step water splitting is proposed and prepared by Niigata University, Japan, and involves coating inert zirconia foam with reactive CeO2. The project includes the development of reactive foam devices, the new design and the fabrication of solar reactor with the reactive foam devices, and finally the solar demonstration on the KIER's 45-kWth solar furnace in Korea. In this paper, highly-active CeO2 particles were used as a redox material for preparing CeO2 foam devices. A ceramic foam disk made of MgO partially-stabilized Zirconia (MPSZ) was used as a ceramic matrix that was coated with the CeO2 particles. Solar thermochemical two-step water splitting was demonstrated with solar furnace in Korea system using the prepared CeO2-coated MPSZ (CeO2/MPSZ) foam devices. The prepared CeO2/MPSZ foam device has a diameter of 15 and 20cm and thickness of 2.5 cm, the loading of CeO2 was set to approximately 20 wt%.