Session: 17-01: Poster Presentations

Paper Number: 170062

170062 - 3d Printing of Porous Redox Materials for Solar Thermochemical Fuel Production: Hierarchical Structure Optimization 

Abstract: 

Recent advancements in 3D printing enabled the production of sophisticated structures with most available materials including ceramic materials such as ceria and perovskites that are widely used in solar thermochemical hydrogen and hydrocarbon fuels production. Extrusion type 3D printers can develop any desired structures that can potentially enhance heat transfer and optical penetration depth which are the two crucial parameters to achieve higher fuel yield and higher solar-to-fuel efficiency. It has been demonstrated to use extrusion type 3D printers to print ceria in various structures for thermochemical processes including hierarchical structure approach to maximize optical penetration depth while maintaining structural stability and oxygen surface exchange ability, but the technique has been limited to ceria applications and has not been optimized for new materials such as doped ceria or perovskites that are proven to have much higher fuel yield and potential solar-to-fuel efficiency than pure ceria.

In this research, we perform a hierarchical structure approach using extrusion type 3D printing of porous redox materials on newly developed candidates such as Ca-Sr-Mn based perovskites and/or doped ceria using Pechini sol-gel synthesis method for solar thermochemical hydrogen and hydrocarbon fuels production with an optimized structure. 3D modeling and heat transfer analysis are performed prior to the 3D printing process to ensure the design optimization followed by shaping the redox material using extrusion type 3D printer. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is performed for the redox performance evaluation of such 3D printed hierarchical structure of the candidate redox materials by comparing to the reference materials.

Presenting Author: Kangjae Lee Oregon Institute of Technology

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Kangjae Lee is an Assistant Professor of Renewable Energy Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy at Oregon Institute of Technology with his area of expertise in thermal science, renewable/solar energy, green hydrogen production and solar thermochemistry. He received his B.S. from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) and M.S. from Seoul National University, South Korea, in Aerospace Engineering, and his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in Mechanical Engineering. During his time at the University of Florida, he served as a graduate research assistant and lab safety manager in the Renewable Energy Conversion Laboratory developing a laser-based heating system coupled with Raman spectroscopy for characterizing solar thermochemical redox materials. After graduation, Dr. Lee served as a postdoctoral researcher at German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Future Fuels for 2 years with DLR-DAAD Research Fellowship before joining Oregon Institute of Technology. He participated in 4 research projects (funded by Oregon Renewable Energy Center, German Research Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, and National Research Foundation of Korea) as a PI and a main contributor, in the field of solar thermochemical hydrogen and hydrocarbon fuel production including relevant redox materials development, and laser-based spectroscopy (Raman spectroscopy and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy).