EU-Project HYCYCLES – Solar Water-Splitting Thermochemical Cycle

Funding source: external page European Union
Partners: external page DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (D), external page CEA - Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (F), external page USFD - University of Sheffield (UK), external page APTL - Aerosol and Particle Technology Laboratory (Gr), external page JRC - Joint Research Center Petten (B),external page ENEA - Ente per le Nuove tecnologie, l'Energia e l'Ambiente (I), external page EA - Empresarios Agrupados (E), external page BOOSTEC - Boostec Industries (F)

Objective – Project aimed at the development of materials and components for the sulphur-based water-splitting thermochemical cycles for solar/nuclear hydrogen generation. The ultimate objective is to bring the technology closer to realisation by improving efficiency, reliability, and costs.

Background – Concentrated solar radiation is used as the energy source of high temperature process heat for the endothermic step of the sulphur-based thermochemical cycles for splitting water. The Sulphur-iodine cycle (SI) and the hybrid sulphur cycle (HyS), depicted in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, respectively, are thermodynamically and kinetically examined. Porous ceramics are employed as solar receivers and chemical reactors for driving the evaporation of H₂SO₄ and decomposition of SO₃. ETH is responsible for the fundamental analysis of the heat/mass transport phenomena within the porous absorbers, which are directly exposed to high-flux solar irradiation.