As a new industry, lithium-ion battery recycling with pyrolysis could be heated by concentrated solar energy from the start One of the hurdles for concentrated solar thermal energy to decarbonize heat-based industrial processes is that most of these industries, from...
solar thermochemistry
Published at Joule – Ultra-long-duration energy storage anywhere: Methanol with carbon cycling
Abstract: Wind and solar generation are rapidly expanding around the globe as their costs come down and societal pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions rises. To supply a high fraction of electricity demand with variable sources, different types of storage are...
The Future Is Bright for Turning Sunlight Into Sustainable Jet Fuel
Source: Bloomberg/Lufthansa The Challenge The aviation sector has charted a course to decarbonize itself – and investors see opportunity. According to BNEF, startups with a focus on low-carbon aviation technology raised $4.6 billion in 2022, and another $1.21 billion...
Published at Journal of Cleaner Production – Sustainable assessment of an integrated energy system coupled with solar thermochemical cycle
Abstract The energy transition globally makes the development of carbon-free and low-carbon fuels obligatory as these fuels cannot only be utilized as energy carriers but also for long-term energy storage. This paper presents the energy, technoeconomic, and...
Published at Energy Conversion and Management – Thermodynamic and economic analysis of a multi-energy complementary distributed CCHP system coupled with solar thermochemistry and active energy storage regulation process
Abstract: The combination of distributed energy systems (DES) and solar energy is considered a vital measure to save the usage of fossil energy. A new distributed combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) system integrated with solar thermochemistry (STC) and energy...
US releases rule ensuring only green hydrogen gets $3/kg tax credit
Source: Hydrogen Insight The US government has finally unveiled its long-awaited proposed rules on clean hydrogen production, determining the criteria that developers will have to meet in order to qualify for the hydrogen tax credit of up to $3 per kilogram. The...
Game-changing Sun-to-Liquid: Fuels from Concentrated Sunlight launches II
Round II of Sun-to-Liquid is launched: This initiative will demonstrate the scalability and high efficiency of producing sustainable synthetic fuel from CO2, water, and sunlight. Synhelion is one of the industry partners for the project, providing the expertise for...
3D-printed ceria is a game-changer to increase solar fuel efficiency
In solar reactors for making solar fuels at high temperatures, ceria's behavior when heated makes it state-of-the-art for unlocking the thermochemistry involved. (How solar fuels are made). But its structure lacks “intelligent design.” So a precisely controlled design...
Methane pyrolysis with liquid metals in a bubble column reactor to generate green hydrogen and carbon
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...
Solar concentration boosted by shape-shifting heliostat glass
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...
$30 million in DOE funding for solar thermal fuel, heat, or storage
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced the Solar-thermal Fuels and Thermal Energy Storage Via Concentrated Solar-thermal Energy funding opportunity, which will award $30 million for projects to produce fuels via renewable...
Solar hydrogen testing begins at CSIRO conference tour site
Tests are underway on a cutting edge renewable hydrogen technology that is being backed by iron-ore billionaire Andrew Forrest to deliver a cheaper and more scalable way to produce the zero emissions fuel using concentrated sunlight.
Published at Next Energy – Direct solar-driven thermochemical CO2-to-fuel conversion with efficiency over 39 % employing hierarchical triply periodic minimal surfaces biomimetic foam reactors
Abstract: Solar-driven CO2 reforming of CH4 is considered a promising approach for achieving CO2 emission reduction and clean energy utilization simultaneously. However, reactors suffer from uneven temperature distribution and severe carbon deposition, leading to low...
Published at Energy Conversion and Management – Selection of iron-based oxygen carriers for two-step solar thermochemical splitting of carbon dioxide
Abstract: The two-step solar thermochemical cycle is a prospective clean energy technology that enables the direct splitting of water and carbon dioxide for solar fuel production. However, immature oxygen carriers fundamentally restrict the solar-to-fuel conversion...
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...
How can Synhelion’s solar receiver achieve such high temperatures?
Synhelion's solar receiver achieves a temperature of 1,500°C and higher. That's unprecedented. Even the Gen3 particle-based solar receiver being pilot-scale tested now at Sandia - and the DLR CentRec receiver licensed to Heliogen - operate at the (relatively!) lower...
Published – Technical, economic and environmental analysis of solar thermochemical production of drop-in fuels
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 CO2, and concentrated solar energy as the source of high-temperature process heat. The solar...
Tour Gen-3 solar receivers at the 29th SolarPACES Conference in October
Tour the pilot-scale sodium receiver and falling curtain particle receiver in Australia During the 29th SolarPACES Conference, a day trip from Sydney will take you on a Technical Tour of the CSIRO National Solar Energy Centre at Newcastle, where the working of two...
Published at Chemistry of Materials – Synthesis and Structural Study of Substituted Ternary Nitrides for Ammonia Production
Abstract: Over the past few decades, inorganic nitride materials have grown in importance in part due to their potential as catalysts for the synthesis of NH3, a key ingredient in fertilizer and precursor to industrial chemicals. Of particular interest are the ternary...
Sandia’s green ammonia research matters for a global shipping future
Green ammonia could be made sustainably using solar thermochemistry instead of the way it is made today in the fossil-fueled Haber-Bosch process, which taps fossil energy for the thermochemistry and the heat and the high pressure it requires, while emitting almost...
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