Experimental investigation of photo-thermal catalytic reactor for the reverse water gas shift reaction under concentrated irradiation

[EN] An upscaled photo-thermal catalytic reactor for the heterogeneously catalysed reverse Water Gas Shift (rWGS) reaction is tested under simulated concentrated irradiation. The reactor is equipped with an aperture of 144 cm2 area covered by a quartz window, where it receives irradiation flux densities of up to 80 kW/m2 corresponding to an irradiation power input of 1 kW thereby directly irradiating a RuO2 based photo-thermal catalyst that is deposited on a porous support. The system was operated under simulated concentrated sunlight for a total of 45.5 h with 35.4 h of chemical operation. A peak CO production rate of 1.6 mol/h was achieved with an average light concentration factor of 80 in the centre of the catalyst layer. This corresponds to a solar-to-chemical efficiency - defined by the ratio of the product of molar CO production rate and reaction enthalpy for the rWGS reaction and the irradiation power input - of 1.69 %. A calculation approach to determine the catalyst surface temperature under irradiation was introduced and utilised for performance analysis leading to the discussion of design modifications and operating strategies towards performance enhancement. The authors would like to thank the DLR team for their support and for the realisation of optics (C. Willsch, G. Dibowski) and test setup (M. Kloft, C. Spenke) and data acquisition and control (K. E ss er, F. Pierno) . Also, the authors acknowledge funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 862453. The material presented and views expressed here are the responsibility of the authors only. The EU Commission takes no responsibility for any use made of the information set out.The help on part of PCM-OTP CNRS PROMES in performing the optothermal spectral measurements (C. Escape) is appreciated. This work was supported by the French "Investments for the future" programme managed by the National Agency for Research under contract ANR-10- EQPX-49-SOCRATE.J.A. thanks the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the Ramon y Cajal research associate contract (RYC2021-031006-I financed support by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by European Union/NextGenerationEU/PRTR) and the financial support (PID2022-141099OA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FEDER "Una manera de hacer Europa". Brust, D.; Wullenkord, M.; García Gómez, H.; Albero-Sancho, J.; Sattler, C. (2024). Experimental investigation of photo-thermal catalytic