Abstract
Solar fuels, as clean and sustainable fuels, are promising energy sources for future low carbon economy. In this work, a hybrid system consisting of a photoreactor and a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is proposed for on-site power generation from solar fuels. 2D numerical models are developed for the hybrid system for the first time by coupling the mass/momentum transport with the charge (electrons/ions) transport and the electrochemical/chemical reactions. A peak power density of 2162 W m−2 is achieved from the SOFC at 1073 K operating temperature. However, a rapid drop of the power density is observed at large current density due to the fuel starvation in the anode. The inlet CO2 mole fraction is found to significantly affect the output power density of the SOFC and CO2 utilization rate of the photo reactor, where a CO2 mole fraction of 40% is the optimum value for the studied cases. The results offer insightful information on energy conversion from solar to fuel to power and provide new options for sustainable energy conversion devices.
Highlights
Development of low-carbon and sustainable energy technologies has raised widely interest due to recent concerns about climate change and environmental problems [1,2,3]
A hybrid system consisting of a photoreactor and a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is proposed for on-site power generation from solar fuels. 2D numerical models are developed for the hybrid system for the first time by coupling the mass/momentum transport with the charge transport and the electrochemical/ chemical reactions
CO2 utilization rate is the main evaluation criterion in the photoreactor, while the output power density and CO2 recovery rate are the main criteria in the SOFC section
Summary
Development of low-carbon and sustainable energy technologies has raised widely interest due to recent concerns about climate change and environmental problems [1,2,3]. SOFCs are electrochemical devices for converting chemical energy into electricity with high efficiency (> 60%) [26,27,28] They are whole solid-state devices working quietly, usually with a dense ion-conducting electrolyte sandwiched between two electrodes [29,30]. Suitable components of hybrid systems; so far no work has been done to investigate a hybrid system combing a SOFC with a photoreactor to achieve on-site solar-fuel-to-power process (Fig. 1). Since this hybrid system has potential to realize low-carbon economy, it is of great importance to understand the detailed chemical/physical processes of the system. Parametric simulations are performed to gain insights in the coupled physical/chemical processes in the hybrid system for further optimization
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