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A packed‐bed solar reactor for the carbothermal zinc production – dynamic modelling and experimental validation
Author(s) -
Tzouganatos Nikolaos,
Wieckert Christian,
Steinfeld Aldo
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.15522
Subject(s) - carbothermic reaction , packed bed , nuclear engineering , concentrated solar power , solar energy , solar furnace , materials science , solar simulator , process engineering , environmental science , chemical engineering , waste management , metallurgy , solar cell , engineering , optoelectronics , carbide , electrical engineering
Integration of concentrated solar energy into the pyrometallurgical Zn production process as clean source of high‐temperature process heat could significantly reduce fossil fuels consumption and its concomitant CO 2 emissions. The solar‐driven carbothermal reduction of ZnO is investigated using a 10‐kW th solar reactor featuring two cavities, the upper one serving as the solar absorber and the lower one containing a packed‐bed of ZnO and beech charcoal as the biogenic reducing agent. Experimentation in a high‐flux solar simulator is carried out under radiative fluxes of 2300–2890 suns, yielding a peak solar‐to‐chemical energy conversion efficiency of 18.4%. The reactor performance under variable operating conditions is analyzed via a dynamic numerical model coupling heat transfer with chemical kinetics. The model is validated by comparison to the experimental data obtained with the 10‐kW th packed‐bed solar reactor and further applied to predict the effect of incorporating semi‐continuous feeding of reactants on the process efficiency. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 62: 4586–4594, 2016