Development and Experimental Study for Hydrogen Production from the Thermochemical Two-step Water Splitting Cycles with a CeO2 Coated New Foam Device Design Using Solar Furnace System

A solar reactor containing a CeO2-coated reactive foam device for producing hydrogen via a thermochemical two-step water splitting cycle was proposed and experimentally tested. Modeling of the optical properties of the 40 kW(th) KIER (Korea Institute of Energy Research) solar furnace was performed to design and prepare the optimized foam matrix shape and the new solar reactor. Solar demonstration of the solar reactor was accomplished in the KIER 40 kW(th) solar furnace and hydrogen was produced successfully during the water decomposition step. The conical shape foam device was suggested and tested the temperature gradients and hydrogen productivity. Finally, five cyclic test was conducted with the conical shape CeO2-coated foam device, the total hydrogen production was 1394.32 Ncm(3) during the five cycles and the average hydrogen production per cycle was 278.86 Ncm(3).