Thermochemical Energy Storage by Water-splitting Via Redox Reaction of Alkali Metals

The reaction cycles for water-splitting based on redox reactions of alkali metals are composed of four reactions, which are hydrogen generation by solid-liquid reaction, metal separation by thermolysis, oxygen generation by hydrolysis, and phase transition of the metal. Although all the cycles theoretically require more than 1000°C in thermodynamic equilibrium condition, the reaction temperature are reduced to below 800°C by non-equilibrium techniques using phase transition of metal vapor. In this work, thermodynamic analyses are performed by using the parameters such as operating temperature and partial pressures of the products obtained by the experiments to determine that the alkali metal redox cycles are potential hydrogen production technique as thermochemical energy storage.