A solar thermochemical praseodymium sesquioxide assisted CO ₂ splitting cycle

Abstract

Summary A Pr2O3/PrO based CO2 splitting (Pr‐CS) cycle was examined for the solar thermochemical production of CO. By utilizing the HSC Chemistry 9.9 software, and its property database, the thermodynamic equilibrium and efficiency analysis of the Pr‐CS cycle was conducted. The equilibrium analysis was carried out to identify the equilibrium compositions and temperatures required for the thermal reduction (TR) as well as CO2 splitting (CS) steps. It was observed that the rise in the partial TR of Pr2O3 (TR‐Pr) from 5% to 100% could be attained by increasing the TR temperature (TH) from 1918 K to 2240 K. As per the published literature and the delta G analysis, the CS step was carried out at a steady CS temperature (TL) equal to 1300 K. The efficiency analysis indicate that the solar energy needed to drive the Pr‐CS cycle (Q̇italicsolar−italiccycle−italicPr−italicCS) was increased from 667.9 up to 3123.0 kW to upsurge the TR‐Pr from 20% to 100%. It was also understood that the Pr‐CS cycle could attain the maximum solar‐to‐fuel energy conversion efficiency ( ηsolar − to − fuel − Pr − CS) equal to 9.65% at TR‐Pr equal to 55% (TH = 2153 K). By utilizing the recuperable heat energy obtained from the three coolers and the CS reactor, the process efficiency can be increased up to 20.10%.