• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.42-50
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• 2013

Solar thermal reactor was studied for hydrogen production with a two step thermochemical cycle including T-R(Thermal Reduction) step and W-D(Water Decomposition) step. NiFe2O4 and Fe3O4 supported by monoclinic ZrO2 were used as a catalyst device and Ni powder was used for decreasing the T-R step reaction temperature. Maintaining a temperature level of about $1100^{\circ}C$ and $1400^{\circ}C$, for 2-step thermochemical reaction, is important for obtaining maximum performance of hydrogen production. The controller was designed for adjusting high temperature solar thermal energy heating the foam-device coated with nickel- ferrite powder. A Pill temperature control system was designed based on 2-step thermochemical reaction experiment data(measured concentrated solar radiation and the temperature of foam device during experiment). The cycle repeated 5 times, ferrite conversion rate are 4.49~29.97% and hydrogen production rate is 0.19~1.54mmol/g-ferrite. A temperature controller was designed for increasing the number of reaction cycles related with the amount of produced hydrogen.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.11-18
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• 2014

Two-step water splitting thermochemical cycle with $CeO_2$ foam device was investigated by using a solar simulator composed of 2.5 kW Xe-Arc lamp and mirror reflector. The hydrogen production of $CeO_2$ foam device depending on reaction temperature of Thermal-Reduction step and Water-Decomposition step was analyzed, and the hydrogen production of $CeO_2$ and $NiFe_2O_4/ZrO_2$ foam devices was compared. As a result, the amount of reduced $CeO_2$ considerably varies according to the reaction temperature of Thermal-Reduction step. and hydrogen production was not much when the amount of reduced $CeO_2$ decreased even if the reaction temperature of Water-Decomposition step was high. Therefore, it is very important to keep the reaction temperature of Thermal-Reduction step high in two-step thermochemical cycle with $CeO_2$.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.214-220
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• 2019

Thermochemical cycles have been predominantly used for energy transformation from heat to stored chemical free energy in the form of hydrogen. The thermochemical cycle based on uranium (UTC), proposed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been considered as a better alternative compared to other thermochemical cycles mainly due to its safety and high efficiency. UTC process includes three steps, in which only the first step is unique. Hydrogen production apparatus with hectogram reactants was designed in this study. The results showed that high yield hydrogen was obtained, which was determined by drainage method. The results also indicated that the chemical conversion rate of hydrogen production was in direct proportion to the mass of $Na_2CO_3$, while the solid product was $Na_2UO_4$, instead of $Na_2U_2O_7$. Nevertheless the thermochemical cycle used for hydrogen generation can be closed, and chemical compounds used in these processes can also be recycled. So the cycle with $Na_2UO_4$ as its first reaction product has an advantage over the proposed UTC process, attributed to the fast reaction rate and high hydrogen yield in the first reaction step.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.45-48
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• 2007

Thermochemical 2-step methane reforming, involving the reduction of metal oxide with methane to produce syn-gas and the oxidation of the reduced metal oxide with water to produce pure hydrogen, was investigated on ferrite-based metal oxide mediums and $WO_{3}/ZrO_{2}$. Thermochemical 2-step methane reforming were accomplished at 900 $^{\circ}C$(syn-gas production step) and 800 $^{\circ}C$(water-splitting step). In syn-gas production step, it appeared carbon deposition on metal oxides with increasing react ion time. Various mediums showed the different starting point of carbon deposition each other. To minimize the carbon deposition, the reaction time was controlled before the starting point of carbon deposition. As a result, $CO_{x}$ were not evolved in water-splitting step, Among the various metal oxides, $Mn-ferrite/ZrO_{2}$ showed high reactivity, proper $H_{2}/CO$ ratio, high selectivity of undesired $CO_{2}$ and high evolution of $H_{2}$.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.13-22
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• 2017

Two-step water splitting thermochemical cycle with $CeO_2/ZrO_2$ foam device was investigated by using a solar simulator composed of 2.5 kW Xe-Arc lamp and mirror reflector. The hydrogen production of $CeO_2/ZrO_2$ foam device depending on heat recovery of Thermal-Reduction step and Water-Decomposition step was analyzed, and the hydrogen production of $CeO_2/ZrO_2$ and $NiFe_2O_4/ZrO_2$ foam devices was compared. Resultantly, the quantity of hydrogen generation increased by 52.02% when the carrier gas of Thermal-Reduction step is preheated to $200^{\circ}C$ and, when the $N_2/steam$ is preheated to $200^{\circ}C$ in the Water-Decomposition step, the quantity of hydrogen generation increased by 35.85%. Therefore, it is important to retrieve the heat from the highly heated gases discharged from each of the reaction spaces in order to increase the reaction temperature of each of the stages and thereby increasing the quantity of hydrogen generated through this.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.27-37
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• 2017

In this study, an artificial solar simulator composed of a 2.5 kW Xe-Arc lamp and mirror reflector was used to carry out the solar thermal two step thermochemical water decomposition cycle which can produce high efficiency continuous hydrogen production. Through various operating conditions, the change of hydrogen production due to the possibility of a dual-zone reactor and heat recovery were experimentally analyzed. Based on the reaction temperature of Thermal-Reduction step and Water-Decomposition step at $1,400^{\circ}C$ and $1,000^{\circ}C$ respectively, the hydrogen production decreased by 23.2% under the power off condition, and as a result of experiments using heat recovery technology, the hydrogen production increased by 33.8%. Therefore, when a thermochemical two-step water decomposition cycle is conducted using a dual-zone reactor with heat recovery, it is expected that the cycle can be operated twice over a certain period of time and the hydrogen production amount is increased by at least 53.5% compared to a single reactor.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.03a
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• pp.113-119
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• 2012

The two-step water splitting thermochemical cycle is composed of the T-R (Thermal Reduction) and W-D (Water Decomposition) steps. The mechanism of this cycle is oxidation-reduction, which produces hydrogen. The reaction temperature necessary for this thermochemical cycle can be achieved by a dish-type solar thermal collector (Inha University, Korea). The purpose of this study is to validate a water splitting device in the field. The device is studied and fabricated by Kodama et al (2010, 2011). The validation results show that the foam device, when loaded with $CeO_2$ powder, was successfully achieved hydrogen production under field conditions. Through this experiment, we can analyze the characteristics of the catalyst and able to determine which is more advantageous thing to produce hydrogen compared with previous experiment that used ferrite-device.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.140-150
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• 2007

Thermochemical 2-step methane reforming, involving the reduction of metal oxide with methane to produce syngas and the oxidation of the reduced metal oxide with water to produce pure hydrogen, was investigated on ferrite-based metal oxide mediums. The mediums, CoFZ, CuFZ, or MnFZ, were composed of the mixture of M(M=Co, Cu or Mn)-substituted ferrite as an active component and $ZrO_2$ as a binder, respectively. The WZ medium, composed of the mixture of $WO_3$ and $ZrO_2$, was also prepared to compare. With an addition of $ZrO_2$, the surface area of the mediums was slightly increased and the sintering of active components was greatly suppressed during the reduction. The higher reactivity of the reduced mediums for water splitting was confirmed by the temperature programmed reaction. From the results of the thermochemical 2-step methane reforming, the reactivity of $CH_4$ reduction and water splitting with ferrite-based metal oxide mediums was relatively higher than that with WZ, and the order of reactivity of the mediums was MnFZ>CoFZ>CuFZ>WZ.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.169-176
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• 2011

The two-step water splitting thermochemical cycle is composed of the T-R (Thermal Reduction)and W-D (Water Decomposition)steps. The mechanism of this cycle is oxidation-reduction, which produces hydrogen. The reaction temperature necessary for this thermochemical cycle can be achieved by a dish-type solar thermal collector (Inha University, Korea). The purpose of this study is to validate a water splitting device in the field. The device is studied and fabricated by Kodama et al (2010, 2011). The validation results show that the foam device, when loaded with $NiFe_2O_4/m-ZrO_2$powder, was successfully achieved hydrogen production with 9 (10 with a Xe-light solar simulator, 2009, Kodama et al.) repeated cycles under field conditions. Two foam device used in this study were tested for validation before an experiment was performed. The lab scale ferrite-conversion rate was in the range of 24~76%. Two foam devices were designed to for structural stability in this study. In the results of the experiments, the hydrogen percentage of the weight of each foam device was 7.194 and $9.954{\mu}mol\;g^{-1}$ onaverage, and the conversion rates 4.49~29.97 and 2.55~58.83%, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.93-100
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• 2013

Two-step thermochemical cycle using ferrite-oxide($Fe_2O_4$) device was investigated. The $H_2O$(g) was converted into $H_2$ in the first experiment which was performed using a dish type solar thermal system. However the experiment was lasted only for 2 cycles because the metal oxide device was sintered and broken down. Another problem was that the reaction was taken place mainly on a side of the metal oxide device. The m-$ZrO_2$, which was widely known as a material preventing sintering, was applied on the metal oxide device. The ferrite loading rate and the thickness of the metal oxide device were increased from 10.67wt% to 20wt% and from 10mm to 15mm, respectively. The chemical reactor having two inlets was designed in order to supply the reactants uniformly to the metal oxide device. The second-experiment was lasted for 5 cycles, which was for 6 hours. The total amount of the $H_2$ production was 861.30ml. And cerium oxide($CeO_2$) device was used for increasing $H_2$ production rate. $CeO_2$ device had low thermal resistance, however, more $H_2$ production rate than $Fe_2O_4$ device.