Heat recovery from molten CuCl in the Cu–Cl cycle of hydrogen production

The copper–chlorine (Cu–Cl) cycle of thermochemical hydrogen production requires heat recovery from molten CuCl at various points within the cycle. This paper examines the convective heat transfer between molten CuCl droplets and air in a counter-current spray flow heat exchanger. This direct contact heat exchanger is analyzed as a proposed new method of recovering heat from the solidified molten CuCl. Effective thermal management within the Cu–Cl cycle is crucial for achieving high thermal efficiency. The cycle’s efficiency is improved drastically when all heat released by the products of reactions is recycled internally. Recovering heat from molten CuCl is very challenging due to the phase transformations of molten CuCl, as it cools from liquid to different solid states. In this paper, a spray column direct contact heat exchanger is analyzed for the heat recovery process. A predictive model of heat transfer and droplet flow is developed and then solved numerically. The results indicate that full heat recovery is achieved with a heat exchanger diameter of 0.13 m, and heights of 0.6 and 0.8 m, for a 1 and 0.5 mm droplet diameter, respectively. Additional results are presented and discussed for heat recovery from molten CuCl in the thermochemical Cu–Cl cycle.