Particles fluidized bed receiver/reactor with a beam-down solar concentrating optics: First performance test on two-step water splitting with ceria using a Miyazaki solar concentrating system

A novel concept of a windowed, particles fluidized bed solar receiver/reactor has proposed by Niigata University [1,2]. A fluidized bed of particles is directly irradiated by concentrated solar radiation in the receiver/reactor which has a transparent quartz window on top of the reactor (Fig. 1). Concentrated solar radiation passes downward though the window and directly heats the particles in an upper region of the particles fluidized bed. The internally-circulating fluidization can be created by passing gas with a faster flow rate from the center region of the bottom distributor, which promotes good heat transfer by particles from the top to bottom of the bed to create uniform temperature distribution through the bed.