Suggested Simulation of the First Copper-Chlorine Reactor Step for Solar Hydrogen Generation Process

Abstract

Hydrogen as an alternative energy source is being seriously considered due to its clean byproducts. Several cycles in the literature have been provided for splitting water and producing hydrogen. This work looks at the CuCl cycle proposed and looks at providing a suggested reactor and its simulation for the first reaction of this multistep cycle which produces the hydrogen. It was found that the use of a honeycomb geometry for the shape of the introduction of the solid copper can be used whereby the gaseous HCl reactant would go through that structure to achieve the reaction that frees the hydrogen in this cycle. The dynamic simulation tracks the mass history of the solid and the gas concentration as the gas goes through the reactor. Also the simulation provides a history of the temperatures of both reactants copper chloride and the hydrochloric acid. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.