Design and Control of Microchannel Solar Receiver

Solar energy is a promising clean energy source that could be of great economic and technological importance. Typically one of two conversion pathways are followed in converting solar energy to usable energy: (a) direct electrical power through photovoltaics, and (b) chemical processing and production of hydrogen or other fuels.

In this collaborative work between research groups of Dr. Apte, Dr.Narayanan, and Dr. Schmittt at OSU, we seek to address important technological challenges that could enable efficient solar thermochemical processing of clean fuels using biomass products (CO2+ CH4). Technological issues for solar thermochemical processing can be classified into: (a) design of solar concentrators that permit energy collection at high efficiency, (b) receiver designs that will increase the chemical efficiency of an endothermic reaction for biofuel reforming, and (c) process control schemes that could optimize the production of fuels. The technological readiness of solar concentrators is relatively high; however, significant improvements can be made to the receiver designs and process control to permit increased efficiencies of the receiver and chemical reforming.

As the first step, our overall objective is to use simulation-based engineering concepts, that will lead to optimized designs of solar receivers and process control for thermochemical processing of biofuels. We are using numerical schemes, analytical solutions/models, active control algorithms, and theoretical analysis to evaluate feasibility of efficient production of solar fuels. Preliminary analysis shows encouraging results. This effort is part of the Oregon Solar initiative (Oregon-BEST).

 

We are seeking OSU undergraduate students to work on their senior project/honors thesis in this area. Please contact Dr. Apte for more information.