Session: 19-05: Symposium to Honor Professor Jane Davidson V

Paper Number: 159872

159872 - (Invited) Transatlantic Partnership - the Cooperation of Prof. Jane Davidson and Her Group With the German Aerospace Center 

Abstract: 

The joint vision of converting solar radiation into chemical energy most efficiently is the basis of the two decade partnership between Prof. Jane Davidson and her group at the University of Minnesota and the German Aerospace Center's (DLR) group on solar chemical engineering. DLR's group has developped massively in the past twenty years. Starting with a small group of about ten persons it has grown to over 130 in 2024. This development is mainly based on the recognition of the excellent work carried out in international cooperations like the one with Prof. Davidson. Over the time significant results were achieved together. The work is continuing with a number of former scholars of Prof. Davidson with some of them being PostDocs at DLR. 

This talk will describe the technical developments as well as the impact of the cooperation on the solar fuel community especially in the USA and Germany. It will focus on radiation absorption, heat transfer, and storage to handle the variyng conditions of solar radiation. It will also cover different chemical systems like solid oxide redox cycles for hydrogen production and oxygen pumping and sulfur based redox cycles for hydrogen production and heat storage. And it will discuss different forms of energy like heat and power in thermochemical electrolysis. Reactor developments are the key efforts of our cooperation. The talk will discuss different mechanical systems especially based on particles. It will present innovative solutions like particle based pressure separation. 

Another joint interest of both groups is the use of solar simulators to accelerate the developments in solar thermochemistry. DLR was involved when the solar simulator at the University of Minnesota was set-up. Therefore the solar simulator in Minneapolis is very simmilar to the one in Cologne. This enables us to compare developments precisely. Colleagues from Jane Davidson's group contributed with their knowledge and experience to further develop the DLR facilities and take the developments back to the USA. DLR's large scale solar simmulator Synlight in Julich, Germany is available for further joint work. So are the two solar towers of DLR with specific installations for solar thermochemistry. The outlook of the talk will discuss how to transfer work from all our labs into the next dimension and how to hand them over to industrial application. We see this as a very important option to demonstrate how a transatlantic partnership works and how it will contribute to make renewable energy available and economical for future fuel production.       

Presenting Author: Christian Sattler German Aerospace Center

Presenting Author Biography: Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Christian Sattler studied chemistry in Bonn, Germany. In 1997 he received his PhD and joined the German Aerospace Center DLR. He was guest scientist at Unversidade Federal de Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. From 2015 to 2022 he was professor for solar fuels production at TU Dresden, Germany. Since 2021 he is Director of the DLR Institute of Future Fuels and professor for solar fuel production at RWTH Aachen University, Germany Additionally he was Divisional Board Member for Energy and Transport of DLR from 2021 to 2023. He is also Vice-President of the Hydrogen Europe Research association and as an ASME lifetime fellow member of the ASME Clean Energy Technology Group.