PI: Jonas Baltrusaitis
Co-PI(s): Carlos Romero, Sudhakar Neti, Shalinee Kishore
University: Lehigh University
Industry partner: Solarflux Energy Technologies
This proposal is for a project to conduct fundamental research on direct solar thermochemical hydrogen (STCH) production by water splitting, with the intention of understanding and improving overall process performance. Challenges for STCH still remain in regard to material engineering, characterization and handling, solar reactor design, long-term-process stability and performance, scale-up, and evaluation and improvement of techno-economic benefits. The target cycle will be based on the thermolysis of H2O using electricity and concentrated solar light, using CuCl2 as a base material, which can be hydrolyzed to yield Cu2OCl2 and HCl. This cycle has already been studied and research results reported in the literature; however, the O2 evolved at atmospheric pressure and has been considered of little practical value. The novelty of the proposed work is to improve the techno-economics of the process by utilizing the released O2, resulting in a value-added product. One such product can be a partial oxidation of hydrocarbons methane and ethane, key blocks of the chemical industry. The project will focus on a study to partially oxidize methane for the production of methanol, using concentrated solar light at 500 deg. C, while co-producing green hydrogen. This project is scheduled as a 12-month project to be conducted jointly by faculty and researchers at Lehigh's Chemical Engineering Department, the Institute for Cyber Physical Infrastructure and Energy, and the Energy Research Center. Solarflux, a Pennsylvania company that manufactures point solar thermal concentrators, will also participate in the project. Solarflux will perform preliminary front-end engineering of their systems for adequacy for STCH production.