{"id":134523,"date":"2023-11-15T07:26:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T06:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=134523"},"modified":"2023-11-09T12:49:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T11:49:14","slug":"3d-printed-reactor-core-makes-solar-fuel-production-more-efficient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/3d-printed-reactor-core-makes-solar-fuel-production-more-efficient\/","title":{"rendered":"3D printed reactor core makes solar fuel production more efficient"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.carousel.328117551-1-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"The artwork illustrates a 3D-\u200bprinted ceria structure with hierarchically channeled architecture. Concentrated solar radiation is incident on the graded structure and drives the solar splitting of CO2 into separate flows of CO and O2\" class=\"wp-image-134546\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.carousel.328117551-1-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.carousel.328117551-1-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.carousel.328117551-1-150x75.jpg 150w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.carousel.328117551-1-768x384.jpg 768w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.carousel.328117551-1-400x200.jpg 400w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.carousel.328117551-1.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The artwork illustrates a 3D-\u200bprinted ceria structure with hierarchically channeled architecture. Concentrated solar radiation is incident on the graded structure and drives the solar splitting of CO<sub>2\u00a0<\/sub>into separate flows of CO and O<sub>2<\/sub>.\u00a0(Graphic: Advanced Materials Interfaces, Vol. 10, Issue 30, 2023. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/admi.202300452)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Researchers have developed a 3D-\u200bprinting methodology to manufacture ceramic structures of hierarchically ordered geometries for the solar reactor<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The new graded designs enable a more efficient radiative transport than the previous isotropic designs: they can produce twice as much solar fuel with the same input of concentrated solar radiation.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The solar reactor uses water and CO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0from the air and sunlight as the energy source to produce carbon-\u200bneutral liquid fuels, for example, solar kerosene for aviation.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In recent years, engineers at ETH Zurich have developed the technology to produce liquid fuels from sunlight and air. In 2019, they demonstrated the entire thermochemical process chain under real conditions for the first time, in the middle of Zurich, on the roof of ETH Machine Laboratory. These synthetic solar fuels are carbon neutral because they release only as much CO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0during their combustion as was drawn from the air for their production. Two ETH spin-\u200boffs, Climeworks and Synhelion, are further developing and commercialising the technologies.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the heart of the production process is a solar reactor that is exposed to concentrated sunlight delivered by a parabolic mirror and reaches temperatures of up to 1500 degrees Celsius. Inside this reactor, which contains a porous ceramic structure made of cerium oxide, a thermochemical cycle takes place for splitting water and CO<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;captured previously from the air. The product is syngas: a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which can be further processed into liquid hydrocarbon fuels such as kerosene (jet fuel) for powering aviation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until now, structures with isotropic porosity have been applied, but these have the drawback that they exponentially attenuate the incident solar radiation as it travels into the reactor. This results in lower inner temperatures, limiting the fuel yield of the solar reactor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, researchers from the group of Andr\u00e9 Studart, ETH Professor of Complex Materials, and the group of Aldo Steinfeld, ETH Professor of Renewable Energy Carriers, have developed a novel 3D printing methodology that enables them to manufacture porous ceramic structures with complex pore geometries to transport solar radiation more efficiently into the reactor\u2019s interior. The research project is funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hierarchically ordered designs with channels and pores that are open at the surface exposed to the sunlight and become narrower towards the rear of the reactor have proven to be particularly efficient. This arrangement enables to absorb the incident concentrated solar radiation over the entire volume. This in turn ensures that the whole porous structure reaches the reaction temperature of 1,500\u00b0C, boosting the fuel generation. These ceramic structures were manufactured using an extrusion-\u200bbased 3D printing process and a new type of ink with optimal characteristics developed specifically for this purpose, namely: low viscosity and a high concentration of ceria particles to maximise the amount of redox active material.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.1286.1944652753-1-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"3D digital representation (upper right) and photographs (side and top view) of the porous ceramic structure with hierarchically channelled topology. The solar reactor (bottom right) contains an array of these graded structures, which are directly exposed to concentrated solar radiation.\" class=\"wp-image-134545\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1;width:605px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.1286.1944652753-1-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.1286.1944652753-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.1286.1944652753-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.1286.1944652753-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.1286.1944652753-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.1286.1944652753-1-270x270.jpg 270w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/11\/image.imageformat.1286.1944652753-1.jpg 1907w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">3D digital representation (upper right) and photographs (side and top view) of the porous ceramic structure with hierarchically channelled topology. The solar reactor (bottom right) contains an array of these graded structures, which are directly exposed to concentrated solar radiation.\u00a0(Images: Sas Brunser S, et al. Adv Mat Interfaces (Vol. 10, No. 30, 2023)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Successful initial testing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The researchers investigated the complex interplay between the transfer of radiant heat and the thermochemical reaction. They were able to show that their new hierarchical structures can produce twice as much fuel as the uniform structures when subjected to the same concentrated solar radiation of intensity equivalent to 1000 suns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The technology for 3D printing the ceramic structures is already patented, and Synhelion has acquired the license from ETH Zurich. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThis technology has the potential to boost the solar reactor\u2019s energy efficiency and thus to significantly improve the economic viability of sustainable aviation fuels,\u201d <strong>Steinfeld<\/strong> says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Reference<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Sas Brunser S., Bargardi F., Libanori R., Kaufmann N., Braun H., Steinfeld A., Studart A. Solar-\u200bdriven redox splitting of CO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0using 3D-\u200bprinted hierarchically channelled ceria structures, Advanced Materials Interfaces, 2300452, 2023. DOI:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/admi.202300452\">external page10.1002\/admi.202300452call_made<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In recent years, engineers at ETH Zurich have developed the technology to produce liquid fuels from sunlight and air. In 2019, they demonstrated the entire thermochemical process chain under real conditions for the first time, in the middle of Zurich, on the roof of ETH Machine Laboratory. These synthetic solar fuels are carbon neutral because [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Using a new 3D printing technique, researchers at ETH Zurich have developed special ceramic structures for a solar reactor. Initial testing show that these structures can boost the production yield of solar fuels","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,5571],"tags":[10588,5714,10744,10416,10743],"supplier":[5419,277,23320,17364],"class_list":["post-134523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","category-co2-based","tag-3dprinting","tag-biofuels","tag-carboncapture","tag-circulareconomy","tag-useco2","supplier-climeworks","supplier-eidgenoessische-technische-hochschule-zuerich-eth-zuerich","supplier-swiss-federal-office-of-energy-sfoe","supplier-synhelion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134523"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=134523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}