Session: 19-01: Symposium to Honor Professor Jane Davidson I

Paper Number: 169465

169465 - Testing of the University of Minnesota Continuous Temperature-Swing Solar Thermochemical Reactor 

Abstract: 

Over a decade ago, the University of Minnesota Solar Energy Laboratory introduced a solar reactor concept for continuous water and carbon dioxide splitting with a temperature-swing redox cycle. The concept features a rotating ceria structure to enable simultaneous water or carbon dioxide splitting and solar-driven reduction of the ceria. Prior presentations at the Energy Sustainability conference detailed the concept’s thermal and mechanical design. This talk chronicles our heretofore unpublished experience instrumenting and operating the solar reactor prototype in the University of Minnesota High Flux Solar Simulator. Reactor testing culminated on October 21, 2015, in 150 minutes of continuous carbon monoxide production from carbon dioxide with a 400°C temperature difference between reduction and oxidation temperatures.

Presenting Author: Peter Krenzke Valparaiso University

Presenting Author Biography: Peter Krenzke is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the Dale F. Kempf Professor of Emerging Technology at Valparaiso University. His primary research interests are production of sustainable fuels via solar thermal processes and approaches for thermochemical energy storage. He is particularly passionate about introducing undergraduate students to ongoing work in the broad field of sustainable energy through undergraduate research experiences and in the classroom.