Title: Analytical and experimental investigation of thermal efficiency improvement of thermochemical water splitting for hydrogen production

Authors: Samane Ghandehariun; Marc A. Rosen; Greg F. Naterer; Zhaolin Wang

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2G8, Canada ' Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4, Canada ' Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL A1B 3X5, Canada ' Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4, Canada

Abstract: This paper examines heat recovery in a thermochemical Cu-Cl cycle for efficient hydrogen production. It is essential to recover heat within the Cu-Cl cycle to improve the overall thermal efficiency of the cycle. A major portion of heat recovery can be achieved by cooling and solidifying the molten salt exiting an oxygen reactor. Heat recovery from the molten salt is achieved by dispersing the molten stream into droplets. In this paper, an analytical study and experimental investigation of the thermal phenomena of a falling droplet quenched into water is presented, involving the droplet surface temperature during descent and resulting composition change in the quench process. The results show it is feasible to quench the molten salt droplets for an efficient heat recovery process without introducing any material imbalance for the overall cycle integration.

Keywords: hydrogen production; thermochemical water splitting; heat recovery; molten salt; copper-chlorine cycle; thermal efficiency; droplet surface temperature; quenching.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPSE.2015.071413

International Journal of Process Systems Engineering, 2015 Vol.3 No.1/2/3, pp.181 - 190

Received: 12 Nov 2013
Accepted: 31 Mar 2014

Published online: 27 Aug 2015 *

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