Numerical Study of Solar Reactor for Thermochemical Production of Hydrogen

Numerical Study of Solar Reactor for Thermochemical Production of Hydrogen

Shinu M. Varghese and K. S. Reddy ^a

Heat Transfer and Thermal Power Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India.

^aksreddy@iitm.ac.in

ABSTRACT

In this article, a two dimensional numerical model is developed to investigate the thermal performance of a solar reactor for thermochemical production of hydrogen. The numerical model is solved under high concentration conditions using the CFD package Fluent 6.3. The reactor performance is investigated under various kinetic parameters such as Ea and K_o. The conversion efficiency of solar reactor is obtained about 70–90% under the heat flux condition (250-678 W/m²) with concentration ratio of 1000. It is found that there is significant variation of reaction in the radial direction. The reaction rate increases from axis to the wall. The flow rates are varied to find out the effect of residence time on hydrogen yield. Various geometric parameters of the reactor are analyzed to evolve an optimum geometric configuration.

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Numerical Study of Solar Reactor for Thermochemical Production of Hydrogen

Shinu M. Varghese and K. S. Reddy a

Heat Transfer and Thermal Power Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India.

ABSTRACT

Shinu M. Varghese and K. S. Reddy ^a

Heat Transfer and Thermal Power Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India.