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Solar Hydrogen Production and Its Development in China

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Solar Hydrogen Production and Its Development in China Energy 34 (2009) 1073–1090 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy Solar hydrogen production and its development in China L.J. Guo*, L. Zhao, D.W. Jing, Y.J. Lu, H.H. Yang, B.F. Bai, X.M. Zhang, L.J. Ma, X.M. Wu State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, China article info abstract Article history: Because of the needs of sustainable development of the mankind society and natural environment Received 28 July 2007 building a renewable energy system is one of the most critical issues that today’s society must address. In Received in revised form the new energy system there is a requirement for a renewable fuel to replace current energy carrier. 19 July 2008 Hydrogen is an ideal secondary energy. Using solar energy to produce hydrogen in large scale can solve Accepted 24 March 2009 the problems of sustainability, environmental emissions, and energy security and become the focus of Available online 20 May 2009 the international society in the area of energy science and technology. It has also been set as an important research direction by many international hydrogen programs. The Ministry of Science and Keywords: Solar energy Technology of China supported and launched a project of National Basic Research Program of China (973 Biomass Program) – the Basic Research of Mass Hydrogen Production using Solar Energy in 2003 for R&D in the areas Hydrogen production of solar hydrogen production. The current status of solar hydrogen production research is reviewed and Supercritical water gasification some significant results achieved in the project are reported in this paper. The trends of development and Photocatalytic water splitting the future research directions in the field of solar hydrogen production in China are also briefly discussed. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction can be produced from water, which is abundant. Hydrogen is also renewable when it is produced from renewable energy sources. China is one of the largest energy consumers in the world with When it is converted into useful energy in the form of electricity via a coal-dominated energy structure which produces high CO2 a fuel cell, the by-product is harmless water vapor. We believe that emissions and leads to serious environment pollution. It makes with the progress of science and technology, solar hydrogen will be China one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases in the world competitive with traditional fossil energy regarding to economics within 20–30 years. Addressing these global concerns is dictating in 2030s and finally become equally important energy carrier as the need to reduce the present reliance on fossil fuels, and to electrical power [3,4]. increase the use of sustainable and environmentally friendly In the United States, Japan, Australia, Germany, and many other energy alternatives. This results in increased recognition of the countries and regions, researchers and government officials have importance of renewable energy to satisfy future energy demands. realized the possibility of a hydrogen economy. A series of impor- China has abundant renewable energy resources. For example, tant and large hydrogen energy programs, such as the ‘‘Agreement more than 2/3rd of China receives an annual total insolation that on the production and utilization of hydrogen’’ by International exceeds 5.9 GJ/m2 (1639 kWh/m2) with more than 2200 h of Energy Association (IEA) [5], the ‘‘Multiyear Plan for the Hydrogen sunshine a year. Besides, China also has a wide range of biomass R&D Program’’ by United States [4], and the ‘‘World Energy resources that can be used for energy supply. However, today’s Network’’ by Japan [6], have been launched. The Chinese govern- renewable energy resources (except for hydro-power) account for ment has also paid great attention to the hydrogen energy R&D. The only a fraction of China’s total energy consumption. The limitations Ministry of Science and Technology of China has launched a project of renewable energy utilization are low density, instability, of the Basic Research of Mass Hydrogen Production using Solar Energy discontinuity and changing with time, season and climate [1,2]. in the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) at the In order to better harness renewable energy, hydrogen has been end of 2003 [7]. identified as a potential alternative fuel as well as an energy carrier In this review, the current status of solar hydrogen production for the future energy supply. Hydrogen is clean and, in practice, it R&D in China is reviewed and some significant results achieved in the project of Basic Research of Mass Hydrogen Production using Solar Energy are reported. The trends of development and the future * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ86 29 8266 3895; fax: þ86 29 8266 9033. research directions in the field of solar hydrogen production in E-mail address: [email protected] (L.J. Guo). China are also briefly discussed. 0360-5442/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2009.03.012 1074 L.J. Guo et al. / Energy 34 (2009) 1073–1090 2. Pathway of solar hydrogen production temperatures the electrode reactions are more reversible, and the fuel cell reaction can more easily be reversed to an electrolysis reaction. Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of feedstocks: from For the SOEC, the main R&D needs are related to materials develop- fossil resources such as natural gas and coal and from renewable ment and thermo-mechanical stress within the functional ceramic resources such as water and biomass with input from renewable materials, which is similar to the main challenges for the SOFC. energy resources (e.g. sunlight, wind, wave or hydro-power). Presently, hydrogen is commonly produced from fossil fuels. 2.2. Thermochemical water splitting and biomass decomposition Natural gas steam reforming is one of the economical hydrogen production processes. Only about 5% of hydrogen is produced from Solar thermochemical cycles are alternative technologies for renewable sources, they are called solar hydrogen in this paper. solar energy utilization. By using trough, dish, or tower concen- Water electrolysis that can be driven by photovoltaic (PV) cells or trators, solar energy can be collected and concentrated to high wind turbines is an important solar hydrogen production tech- energy fluxes and high temperature above 2000 K. The thermal nology today. Other promising solar hydrogen production tech- energy can be used to activate chemical reactions with feedstocks, nologies include solar thermochemical, photoelectrochemical, and such as water, biomass, and fossil fuels, to produce hydrogen. Solar photocatalytic hydrogen production. Biomass products, such as thermochemical cycles suitable for renewable hydrogen production plants, microalgaes, and organic wastes, are also renewable sources include: 1) water thermolysis, 2) thermochemical water splitting, for solar hydrogen production. The latest developments of indi- and 3) thermochemical biomass decomposition. vidual important renewable hydrogen production technologies are reviewed in the following sections. 2.2.1. Solar water thermolysis Solar water thermolysis is the direct dissociation of water into hydrogen and oxygen gas by using concentrated solar thermal 2.1. Water electrolysis energy at a high temperature about 3000 C. At this temperature 10% of the water is decomposed and the remaining 90% can be Water electrolysis is currently the most dominant technology recycled. The process is conceptually simple, but operating at such used for hydrogen production from renewable sources because of high temperature requires special material selection. The efficiency high energy conversion efficiency. Water, used as a feedstock, is split is low mainly because of re-radiation loss and energy loss in gas into hydrogen and oxygen by electricity input as in Equation (1): separation by rapid quenching. The gas separation process will also generate explosive mixtures. 1 H2O þ electricity/H2 þ O2 (1) 2 2.2.2. Solar thermochemical water splitting The total energy demand for water electrolysis is increasing To reduce the temperature many thermochemical cycles for slightly with temperature, while the electrical energy demand high temperature splitting of water have been suggested. The decreasing. There are three types of water electrolysis available in chemical reactions involved in 2-step water splitting thermo- the industry: 1) alkaline electrolysis, 2) polymer electrolyte chemical cycles for hydrogen production are shown below: membrane (PEM) electrolysis, and 3) high temperature electrolysis. Alkaline electrolysers use an aqueous KOH solution (caustic) as an y MxOy/xM þ O2 (2) electrolyte that usually circulates through the electrolytic cells. They 2 are suited for stationary applications and are available at operating / pressure up to 25 bar. Alkaline electrolysis is a mature technology xM þ yH2O MxOy þ yH2 (3) allowing remote operation with significant operating experience in or industrial applications. The major R&D challenges for the future are the design and manufacturing of electrolyser equipment at lower MxOy/Mx0 Oy0 þ O2 (4) costs with higher efficiency and large turndown ratios. PEM electrolysers require no liquid electrolyte, which simplifies Mx0 Oy0 þ H2O/MxOy þ H2 (5) the design significantly. The electrolyte is an acidic membrane. PEM electrolysers can be designed for an operating pressure up to Where M is a metal and MxOy and Mx0 Oy0 are the corresponding several hundred bars, and are suited for both stationary and mobile metal oxides. Since O2 and H2 are produced in two different steps, no applications. The main drawback of this technology is the limited gas separation is needed. However, separation of metal produced in lifetime of the membranes. The major advantages of PEM over the first step is needed to avoid re-oxidation. Candidate metal oxides alkaline electrolysers are higher turndown ratio, increased safety include TiO2,ZnO,Fe3O4,MnO,MgO,Al2O3,andSiO2.
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