Another sector that consumes a lot of electricity and heat and thus is also responsible for a large share of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is the metallurgical industry. It was estimated (in Steinfeld and Meier, 2004) that by replacing the non-renewable energy in the technology used for processing of aluminum (which requires very high temperatures […]

Synergy with carbon capture and storage The various endothermic reactions that have been discussed that poten­tially convert hydrocarbons to H2 and CO2 are also those that are proposed for potential CO2 emission-free processes. In this scenario, some of the fossil fuel itself is oxidized to provide the heat input for the reactions. CO2 is then […]

Besides solar fuels that can replace fossil fuels in various applications, con­centrated solar energy may also be used directly to satisfy thermal or power needs of various processes. For instance, solar energy could be incorporated in the sector of waste treatment that comprises another modern-day man­agement problem that deals with hazardous compounds. After basic pro­cessing, […]

20.6.1 Closed-loop energy storage systems The utilization of the solar potential via thermochemical processes can be applied to closed-loop energy storage systems for the storage and transpor­tation of solar energy, as discussed in Chapter 11. The idea of closed-loop energy storage was first suggested in the 1970s and it involved gas phase reactions in endothermic […]

The ‘European hydrogen and fuel cell roadmap’ introduced by the Euro­pean Commission considers hydrogen as the most feasible solution to achieve independence from fossil fuels. However, currently hydrogen pro­duction employs fossil fuels (i. e., natural gas), and therefore has the undesir­able side effects of the use of carbonaceous materials. For this reason, the European roadmap […]

By employing solar energy, solar hydrogen and CO2, solar hydrocarbons can be synthesized. In this way solar hydrocarbons can play the role of a 20.16 (a) Partitioning of the SSPS-CRS heliostat field at the PSA (Roeb et al., 2011); (b) focus of solar radiation on the dual HYDROSOL-II reactor (Konstandopoulos and Lorentzou, 2010). renewable energy […]

The hydrosol reactor was the first solar thermochemical reactor that pro­duced on-sun (Roeb et al., 2006b; Konstandopoulos and Lorentzou, 2010) solar hydrogen from the dissociation of water vapor via a redox-pair cycle. Gaseous products toward analysis window   (a)   (b) Exit for the sweeping   20.8 (a) Schematic of the 20 kW solar reactor […]

As mentioned previously, the solar thermal cracking of natural gas can be achieved in two types of reactors. In a direct heating reactor (Kogan and Kogan 2003b; Kogan et al., 2005; Trommer et al., 2004; Hirsch and Steinfeld, 2004; Abanades and Flamant, 2008; Rodat et al., 2010b), the particles absorb heat from solar radiation and […]