Reversible Molten Catalytic Methane Cracking Applied to Commercial Solar-Thermal Receivers

Catalytic molten metals for the direct conversion of methane to hydrogen and separable carbon.

Metals that are active catalysts for methane (Ni, Pt, Pd), when dissolved in inactive low-melting temperature metals (In, Ga, Sn, Pb), produce stable molten metal alloy catalysts for pyrolysis of methane into hydrogen and carbon. All solid catalysts previously used for this reaction have been deactivated by carbon deposition. In the molten alloy system, the insoluble carbon floats to the surfac...

Finite element method for thermal analysis of concentrating solar receivers

Application of finite element method and heat conductivity transfer model for calculation of temperature distribution in receiver for dish-Stirling concentrating solar system is described. The method yields discretized equations that are entirely local to the elements and provides complete geometric flexibility. A computer program solving the finite element method problem is created and great n...

Thermal Analysis of Solar Thermal Energy Storage in a Molten-Salt Thermocline

Design of new molten salt thermal energy storage material for solar thermal power plant

In order to obtain molten salt with lower melting point, higher thermal stability and reduced cost relative to previously available materials, a variety of molten salt mixtures of alkali nitrates are investigated by experimental methods. However, since measurements are generally expensive and time-consuming, it is of interest to be able to predict melting point and the component of multi-compon...

Catalytic and Non-catalytic Conversion of Methane to C2 Hydrocarbons in a Low Temperature Plasma

The direct conversion of methane to C2 hydrocarbons, in a quartz tube reactor enforced by a DC corona discharge, was investigated at atmospheric pressure. The process was carried out in the presence of metal oxide catalysts of Mn/W/SiO2, Mn/W/SiO2 (tetraethyl orthosilicate, TEOS), and Mn/W/CNT (supported on carbon nanotubes). The total yield to C2 hydrocarbons in the presence of metal oxide cat...