Experimental and numerical study regarding the biomimetic bone porous structure to match energy and mass flow in a solar thermochemical reactor

Abstract

In the methane dry reforming driven by concentrated solar energy, the challenges that restrict efficient solar energy conversion mainly include regulating the solar energy to match the solar thermochemical reaction on-demand, optimization of catalytic carrier structures and preparation of high-performance catalysts. The mismatch between energy and flow in a thermochemical reactor has important consequences for solar energy storage efficiency. To improve the solar thermochemical performance, the idea of using a biomimetic bone porous structure as a catalyst carrier is proposed to achieve flow and energy matching in a thermochemical reactor. The methods of Monte Carlo ray tracing and user-defined functions are used to establish thermochemical analysis model. A solar heat flux experimental system is built to determine the real concentrated solar heat flux. The effects of different pore size combinations and Gaussian-like inlet flow on the methane reforming performance are studied. The experiment system obtains a uniform light spot of 40 mm at Pe = 7.0 kW with the peak flux density of 3086.73 kW/m2. The results indicate that by the introduction of a biomimetic bone porous structure to optimize flow and energy matching, the energy storage efficiency and methane conversion rate can be improved by 2.17 % and 8.97 %, respectively. This research provides a novel approach for efficient solar energy conversion and storage in solar thermochemical reactor.