The sun can provide an unlimited amount of energy, but there is a major drawback, that is, about half a day at night, solar-powered facilities and equipment must shut down or store additional energy, and this process has a centralized solar (CSP) power plant Particularly destructive. Now scientists at the German Aerospace Center have tested a solar reactor concept called CONTISOL, which also includes a thermal energy storage system for day and night operation.
Although photovoltaic systems derive their energy from light, CSP systems are able to extract heat from the sun. This is usually done in the form of a facility consisting of a series of central tower receivers that reflect sunlight, which uses heat to trigger thermochemical reactions. This may involve converting water to steam to run the turbine or, with CSP participation, generate hydrogen by decomposing steam into its constituents. For this purpose, the reactor needs to reach 800°C and 900°C (1472°F and 1652°F). The temperature between. When the sun shines, it's all fine, but nightly nights are 12 hours dark, the system cools, wastes time and heat, because the reactor must be warmed up every morning.
The CONTISOL concept is designed to solve this problem. During the day, the sun heats two chambers filled with air that is drawn in from the outside. Once hot, the air in one chamber is sent to the reactor to trigger the thermochemical reaction to produce hydrogen, and the other chamber The room only stores energy. Once the sun goes down, the system can pull hot air out of the storage room and continue to use it in the reactor. 'The solar reactor encountered a problem in the past, that is when you do not have the sun, or even no clouds, What do you do at night,' said Justin Lapp, the lead author of the paper describing the CONTISOL test run. 'So CONTISOL's main idea is to combine two reactors, one with direct sunlight and the other with stored energy. In the chemical channel, the high temperature of the material drives the chemical reaction. The products in these channels will produce reactants. The cooling air in the air channel will be discharged to the front and the hot air will be discharged from the back.
To test the system, a team at the German Aerospace Center established a small prototype under the sun's heat simulation. The device can operate successfully at a temperature of 850°C and a power of 5 kW. Overall this is quite low, but the goal is It is the feasibility of testing the reactor, and this will be expanded for commercial use.
