Solar thermochemical reactor and methods of manufacture and use thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10072224-B2
Application number	US-201414896993-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 10, 2014
Priority date	Jun 11, 2013
Publication date	Sep 11, 2018
Grant date	Sep 11, 2018

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a solar reactor comprising a reactor member; an aperture for receiving solar radiation, the aperture being disposed in a plane on a wall of the reactor member, where the plane is oriented at any angle other than parallel relative to the centerline of the reactor member; a plurality of absorber tubes, wherein the absorber tubes are oriented such that their respective centerlines are at an angle other than 90° relative to the centerline of the reactor member; and wherein the aperture has a hydraulic diameter that is from 0.2 to 4 times a hydraulic diameter of at least one absorber tube in the plurality of absorber tubes; and a reactive material, the reactive material being disposed in the plurality of absorber tubes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A solar reactor comprising:
a reactor member;
an aperture for receiving solar radiation, the aperture being disposed in a plane on a wall of the reactor member, where the plane is oriented at any angle other than parallel relative to the centerline of the reactor member;
a plurality of cavities disposed in the plane on the wall of the reactor member, the plurality of cavities extending longitudinally from one end of the reactor member to an opposing end of the reactor member, and the plurality of cavities surrounding the aperture;
a plurality of absorber tubes disposed within the plurality of cavities, each absorber tube of the plurality of absorber tubes comprising an inlet channel and an outlet channel, the absorber tubes being oriented such that their respective centerlines are at an angle other than 90° relative to the centerline of the reactor member, the aperture having a hydraulic diameter that is from 0.2 to 4 times a hydraulic diameter of at least one absorber tube in the plurality of absorber tubes, and at least one end of each of the plurality of absorber tubes extending beyond at least one end of the reactor member; and
a reactive material, where the reactive material is in the form of a porous bed, the reactive material being disposed in the plurality of absorber tubes, the reactive material being surrounded by one of the inlet channel or the outlet channel in each absorber tube of the plurality of absorber tubes, and the reactive material surrounding the other one of the inlet channel or the outlet channel in each absorber tube of the plurality of absorber tubes.

2. The solar reactor of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of absorber tubes are oriented at an angle that is parallel or substantially parallel to the center line of the reactor member.

3. The solar reactor of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of cavities are arranged concentrically around an inner perimeter of the reactor member, and the plurality of absorber tubes are disposed along the inner perimeter of the reactor member.

4. The solar reactor of claim 1 , further comprising a sealing member and a manifold, wherein the sealing member is operative to seal at least one end of the absorber tubes in the plurality of absorber tubes, and the manifold is configured to fixedly attach the sealing member to the absorber tubes.

5. The solar reactor of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the absorber tubes in the plurality of absorber tubes comprise a silicon carbide tube coated with alumina.

6. The solar reactor of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the absorber tubes in the plurality of absorber tubes is a tube-within-a-tube, the tube-within-a-tube having an inner absorber tube body disposed within an outer absorber tube body, the outer absorber tube body having one end closed.

7. The solar reactor of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of absorber tubes comprise an absorber tube body which is oriented at an angle other than 90° relative to the center line of the reactor member and at least one end of the absorber tubes in the plurality of absorbing tubes is oriented at an angle other than 0° relative to the center line of the reactor member.

8. The solar reactor of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of one end of the reactor member is shaped to form an angle other than 90° relative to the center line of the reactor member.

9. The solar reactor of claim 1 , further comprising a shutter disposed upon the aperture in the reactor member, wherein said shutter may be adjusted to an open or a closed position.

10. The solar reactor of claim 1 , wherein the absorber tubes in the plurality of absorber tubes are at least partially surrounded by one or more layers of an insulating material.

11. The solar reactor of claim 10 , further comprising a radiation shield.

12. The solar reactor of claim 1 , wherein the solar reactor is used to produce syngas.

13. The solar reactor of claim 1 , wherein the aperture is devoid of optically transparent material.

14. A solar reactor comprising:
a reactor member;
an aperture for receiving solar radiation, the aperture being disposed in a plane on a wall of the reactor member, where the plane is oriented at any angle other than parallel relative to the centerline of the reactor member;
a plurality of cavities surrounding the aperture, the plurality of cavities being disposed in the plane on the wall of the reactor member, and the plurality of cavities extending longitudinally from one end of the reactor member to an opposing end of the reactor member;
a plurality of absorber tubes disposed within the plurality of cavities, each absorber tube of the plurality of absorber tubes comprising an inlet channel and an outlet channel, the absorber tubes being oriented such that their respective centerlines are at an angle other than 90° relative to the centerline of the reactor member, the aperture having a hydraulic diameter that is from 0.2 to 4 times a hydraulic diameter of at least one absorber tube in the plurality of absorber tubes, and at least one end of each of the plurality of absorber tubes extending beyond at least one end of the reactor member;
a reactive material, where the reactive material is in the form of a porous bed, the reactive material being disposed in the plurality of absorber tubes, and the reactive material being surrounded by at least one of the inlet channel or the outlet channel of individual absorber tubes of the plurality of absorber tubes; and
wherein the plurality of absorber tubes comprise an absorber tube body which is oriented at an angle other than 90° relative to the center line of the reactor member and wherein both ends of the absorber tubes in the plurality of absorber tubes are oriented at an angle other than 0° relative to the center line of the reactor member.

15. A method of manufacturing a solar reactor comprising:
disposing a plurality of absorber tubes within a plurality of cavities disposed in a plane on a wall of a reactor member, wherein the plurality of cavities extend longitudinally from one end of the reactor member to an opposing end of the reactor member, the absorber tubes are oriented such that their respective centerlines are at an angle other than 90° relative to the centerline of the reactor member, at least one end of each of the plurality of absorber tubes extends beyond at least one end of the reactor member, the reactor member has an aperture for receiving solar radiation, the aperture being disposed in the plane on the wall of the reactor member and being surrounded by the plurality of cavities, the plane is oriented at any angle other than parallel relative to the centerline of the reactor member, and the aperture has a hydraulic diameter that is from 0.2 to 4 times a hydraulic diameter of at least one absorber tube in the plurality of absorber tubes; and
disposing a reactive material in the absorber tubes, wherein the reactive material is in the form of a porous bed, each absorber tube of the plurality of absorber tubes comprises an inlet channel and an outlet channel, one of the inlet channel or the outlet channel surrounding the reactive material and the other one of the inlet channel or the outlet channel being surrounded by the reactive material.

Assignees

• Univ Florida

Inventors

• Klausner James F
• Petrasch Joerg
• Auyeung Nicholas
• Momen Ayyoub Mehdizadeh
• Mishra Rishi
• Lu Jinchao
• Hahn David Worthington
• Sehgal Nikhil
• Mei Renwei
• Greek Benjamin

Classifications

• C10J3/46

  Gasification of granular or pulverulent flues in suspension · CPC title

• B01J2208/00398

  inside the reactor bed · CPC title

• B01J8/067

  Heating or cooling the reactor (B01J8/062 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C10J2300/0976

  as steam · CPC title

• B01J2219/0218

  of ceramic · CPC title