Numerical Modeling of Solar Thermochemical Reactor for Kinetic Analysis

A lab-scale thermochemical reactor is designed and fabricated for the solar-driven thermal reduction of non-volatile manganese oxide to produce hydrogen by water splitting thermo chemical cycles. A time dependent three dimensional numerical model is developed to investigate the performance of the reactor since the chemical kinetics strongly depends on irradiance, temperature and fluid flow distribution around the reactant. Radiation heat transfer is calculated by using surface-to-surface (S2S) radiation model. Thermo-fluid flow, absorption efficiency and the temperature distribution of the sample are predicted as a function of time and the model is validated by experimental measurements.