Thermochemical water-splitting for H 2 generation using sol-gel derived Mn-ferrite in a packed bed reactor

Abstract

This paper reports synthesis of Mn-ferrite using sol-gel technique, which involved the addition of Mn and Fe salts in ethanol followed by gelation using propylene oxide (PO). As-prepared gels were aged, dried and calcined rapidly upto different temperatures of 600 °C–900 °C and quenched in air. Calcined powders obtained were analyzed using x-ray diffraction, BET surface area analyzer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The gels calcined rapidly upto 600 °C and quenched in air resulted into a phase pure Mn-ferrite with porous/nanoparticle morphology and higher SSA. The H 2 generation ability of the calcined powder was investigated by performing multiple thermochemical cycles in the Inconel packed bed reactor. In addition, the effects of several process parameters such as water-splitting temperature (T ws), regeneration temperature (T reg), regeneration time (t reg) and volumetric flow rate of water (v o) on H 2 generation ability of Mn-ferrite were investigated in detail.