3D-printed ceria is a game-changer to increase solar fuel efficiency

3D-printing the perfect ceria structure enables incoming heat from a solar field of mirrors to spread evenly throughout a solar reactor.(How solar fuels are made: thermochemistry) IMAGE@Sebastian Sas Brunser 3D-printed ceria was one of the many brilliant ideas presented by international solar researchers at this year’s SolarPACES Conference in Sydney. In solar reactors for making …

Methane pyrolysis with liquid metals in a bubble column reactor to generate green hydrogen and carbon

Methane Pyrolysis in a Liquid Metal Bubble Column Reactor Using a bubble column reactor at Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, the Liquid Metal Laboratory team is working on producing hydrogen from methane, the cheapest method, but without CO2 emissions – the problem with the cheapest method. The main product, besides hydrogen, is carbon, which, like green …

Heliostat concentration boosted by shape-shifting glass

Heliostats get a concentration boost by bending and twisting the mirror with a mechanical frame By manipulating the shape of heliostats in real time, the optical efficiency of solar fields for tower CSP can be significantly increased, according to a paper presented at the New Mexico SolarPACES Conference: Heliostat with Automatic Shape Adjustment for High …

Australia’s liquid sodium solar receiver to be on show in October

CSIRO and the Australian National University (ANU) will display the liquid sodium receiver at the 2023 SolarPACES Conference tour of the CSIRO solar test site this October The solar receiver on view at this year’s SolarPACES Conference site tour in October will be the first that many attendees have seen. This solar receiver is designed …

Published at Energy Conversion and Management – Structural stabilization of granular Ca(OH)2 by coating with nanostructured additives for thermochemical cycling in a fixed reaction bed

Abstract: Thermochemical energy storage systems have a high potential to support a future energy supply based on renewables by providing comparably high storage capacities and option for long-term, cold and loss free storage, that allows a flexible utilization in several application areas. Due to its cost efficiency and abundance the reaction system Ca(OH)2/CaO is currently …

Published – Technical, economic and environmental analysis of solar thermochemical production of drop-in fuels

Fig. 5. Effect of the location on the minimum fuel selling price (€2020) with cost-built up for one GJ of jet fuel produced via the solar thermochemical pathway. 25 years lifetime. Abstract: This study analyzes the technical performance, costs and life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the production of various fuels using air-captured water and …

Synhelion and CEMEX make further progress toward the world’s first fully solar-powered cement plant

IMAGE@Energy Connects  Press Release: Aug 3 2023 Synhelion and Cemex announced today a significant milestone in their joint effort to develop fully solar-driven cement production: the scaling of their technology to industrially-viable levels. This includes the continuous production of clinker, the most energy-intensive part of cement manufacturing, using only solar heat. At the beginning of …

Sandia’s green ammonia research matters for a global shipping future

Cargo shipping will be very different in 2050. Increasingly, the shipping industry is looking to decarbonize and green ammonia research is funded globally from China to the UK IMAGE@Nottingham University: $5.5 million Research Effort to fuel ships on Green Ammonia Green ammonia could be made sustainably using solar thermochemistry instead of as it is made …

Fraunhofer Chile to develop a solar concentration system to recycle aluminum

The project, which will be carried out by researchers from Fraunhofer Chile with support from the Crea y Valida Fund of the government agency CORFO, proposes to develop and validate a solar thermal concentration system, capable of reaching and maintaining temperatures that allow the smelting of aluminum for its recycling. “We have designed a compact, …