Annual Performance of a Solar-Thermochemical Hydrogen Production Plant Based on CeO2 Redox Cycle

Abstract

For the first time, a dynamic model of a 1-MWth thermochemical hydrogen production plant is developed and implemented for CeO2 redox cycle. The work explores the annual performance of a plant by studying the effect of the variables of the process by means of Direct Normal Irradiation (DNI), temperature, pressure and degree of oxidation affects the annual production of hydrogen. The model reproduces the behaviour of a thermochemical receiver-reactor exposed to solar radiation accounting of the thermal inertia of CeO2 which is significantly high to accomplish the oxidation without extracting the heat of reaction. The operation is optimized to obtain the maximum amount of hydrogen in a year by only modifying the mass flow rates at the inlet of the reactors. This characteristic demonstrates the flexibility and adaptability of the model that could be further improved to obtain a constant production of hydrogen.