Performance analysis of ammonia decomposition endothermic membrane reactor heated by trough solar collector

Abstract

In order to promote the engineering application of ammonia-based solar thermal storage systems, a one-dimensional model of an ammonia decomposition endothermic membrane reactor based on actual light condition is established by applying finite time thermodynamics. The reactor is heated by a trough solar collector and equipped with a regenerative preheater, and effects of four parameters including ammonia molar flow rate, ammonia preheated temperature, permeation zone pressure and light intensity on the total heat absorption rate, entropy generation rate and system efficiency are analyzed. The results show that the permeate pressure and light intensity affect the system performance significantly. When the permeate pressure reduces from 1 bar to 0.1 bar, the total heat absorption rate, the system efficiency and the entropy generation rate increase by 32.3%, 22.3% and 16.4%, respectively. When the light intensity increases from 800 W/m2 to 1200 W/m2, the heat absorption rate and the entropy generation rate increase by 53.8% and 38.2%, respectively. The results obtained in this paper provide some guidance for the practical engineering application of ammonia decomposition heat endothermic membrane reactors.