Solar thermochemical splitting of CO2 into separate streams of CO and O2 with high selectivity, stability, conversion, and efficiency

Developing solar technologies for converting CO2 into fuels has become a great energy challenge, as it closes the anthropogenic carbon cycle and leads to the production of sustainable transportation fuels on a global scale. However, the low mass conversion, poor selectivity, and/or low energy effici...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy & environmental science 2017, Vol.10 (5), p.1142-1149
Main Authors: Marxer, Daniel, Furler, Philipp, Takacs, Michael, Steinfeld, Aldo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropogenic factors
Carbon cycle
Carbon dioxide
Cerium oxide
Cerium oxides
Conversion
Energy balance
Energy conversion efficiency
Energy efficiency
Energy management
Fuels
Irradiation
Mass transport
Nuclear fuels
Porosity
Radiation
Reactors
Redox properties
Selectivity
Solar energy
Splitting
Streams
Structural stability
Sustainable production
Sustainable transportation
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Summary:Developing solar technologies for converting CO2 into fuels has become a great energy challenge, as it closes the anthropogenic carbon cycle and leads to the production of sustainable transportation fuels on a global scale. However, the low mass conversion, poor selectivity, and/or low energy efficiency of current approaches have hindered their industrial implementation. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the solar-driven thermochemical splitting of CO2 into separate streams of CO and O2 with 100% selectivity, 83% molar conversion, and 5.25% solar-to-fuel energy efficiency. This benchmark performance was accomplished using a 4 kW solar reactor featuring a reticulated porous structure, made of ceria, directly exposed to 3000 flux irradiation and undergoing redox cycling via temperature/pressure-swing operation. The dual-scale interconnected porosity (mm and mu m-sized pores) of the ceria structure provided volumetric radiative absorption and enhanced heat/mass transport for rapid redox kinetics, while 500 consecutive redox cycles further validated material stability and structure robustness. A detailed energy balance elucidates viable paths for achieving higher efficiencies and for large-scale industrial implementation using an array of modular solar reactors integrated into the established solar concentrating infrastructure.
ISSN:1754-5692
1754-5706
DOI:10.1039/c6ee03776c