Reactor modeling and simulation for the copper-chlorine thermochemical solar hydrogen generation process

Interest in hydrogen as a clean fuel has surged in the recent past as concerns over the costs of fossil fuels to the economy and environment have become paramount. As hydrogen burns only to produce water and can be used in efficient fuel cells, it has a great opportunity to be the replacement for carbon-based fuels in the twenty-first century. Hydrogen is an attractive fuel because it is renewable as an energy resource and it is also flexible as an energy carrier.; Quantities of hydrogen gas on earth are limited, so it must be chemically derived from some other sources. Thermochemical water-splitting cycles coupled to a solar heat source to drive the thermal reactions are considered a feasible and possibly advantageous method of generating hydrogen without greenhouse gas emissions. In this study, the copper-chlorine (Cu-Cl) cycle has been studied as a promising cycle which can produce hydrogen at a lower temperature than the other cycles. The cycle is closed since all materials are recycled with the exception of water which is split into hydrogen and oxygen. The process involves three main separate reactions: two thermal steps driven by heat and an electrochemical step driven by electric energy. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...