<br/>The application of bubbling molten media offers potential to lower the cost of the production of green chemicals, including hydrogen, through a lower reactor temperature and more compact devices. This is due, in part, to the high rates of heat and mass transport in bubbling molten media. Catalytic effects are also generated by some molten metals, such as tin and indium, which can lower the activation energy of reforming reactions. Nevertheless, they bring challenges in terms of thermal management and containment that must be overcome before they can be implemented commercially.<br/><br/>We will report on novel developments in reactor technology that offer potential to overcome the challenges for potential application in both solar thermo-chemical and auto-thermal processes to drive the endothermic reactions. This includes the development and demonstration of both a novel solar bubbling reactor receiver, which has potential to implement bubbling reactions within a solar receiver, and an inter-connected bubbling reactor, which has potential to implement bubbling reactions continuously, avoiding the limitations of batch reactors. The interconnected bubbling technology could potentially be coupled to any suitable low-carbon energy source and could be heated indirectly via a thermal energy storage device or via hybrids. Two reactions of greatest interest are for hydrogen production, one via the hydrogen-sulphur cycle and the other by methane pyrolysis.

Bubbling reactor technology employing molten chemical media for the low-carbon transition

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.