Thermochemical performance analysis of solar driven CO2 methane reforming

•Solar driven CO2 methane reforming process in metal foam reactor is analyzed.•FVM with chemical reactions was developed to analyze solar CO2 methane reforming.•A joint inversion method was developed to obtain thermochemical reaction parameters.•Results can be a guidance for the solar driven CO2 methane reforming application.

Increasing CO2 emission problems create urgent challenges for alleviating global warming, and the capture of CO2 has become an essential field of scientific research. In this study, a finite volume method (FVM) coupled with thermochemical kinetics was developed to analyze the solar driven CO2 methane reforming process in a metallic foam reactor. The local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model coupled with radiative heat transfer was developed to provide more temperature information. A joint inversion method based on chemical process software and the FVM coupled with thermochemical kinetics was developed to obtain the thermochemical reaction parameters and guarantee the calculation accuracy. The detailed thermal and thermochemical performance in the metal foam reactor was analyzed. In addition, the effects of heat flux distribution and porosity on the solar driven CO2 methane reforming process were analyzed. The numerical results can serve as theoretical guidance for the solar driven CO2 methane reforming application.