High-temperature solar chemical reactors for hydrogen production from natural gas cracking

This study deals with the thermal cracking of natural gas for the coproduction of hydrogen and carbon black from concentrated solar energy without CO2 emission. A laboratory-scale solar reactor (1 kW) was tested and modeled successfully. It consists of a tubular graphite receiver directly absorbing solar radiation, in which a mixture of Ar and CH4 flows. A temperature increase or a gas flow rate decrease results in chemical conversion increase. Methane conversion higher than 75% was obtained. Reaction occurred near the wall where temperature is maximal and gas velocity is minimal due to the laminar flow profile. The work focused also on the design of a medium-scale tubular solar reactor (10 kW) based on the indirect heating concept. A reactor model including gas hydrodynamics and heat and mass transfers coupled to the chemical reaction was developed in order to predict the reactor performances. Temperature and species concentration profiles and final chemical conversion were quantified. According to the results, temperature was uniform in the tubular reaction zone and the predicted chemical conversion was 65%, neglecting the catalytic effect of carbon particles.