INFLATABLE NON-IMAGING SOLAR CONCENTRATOR POWERED HIGH TEMPERATURE THERMO-CHEMICAL REACTION SYSTEM

Abstract

An inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator powered high temperature thermo-chemical reaction system, which is designed to reduce CO2 into CO and H2O into H2 for liquid fuels such as methanol and kerosene, comprises: 1) an inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator with a transparent cover and a Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC); 2) the first stage of the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator with a domed divergent Fresnel Lens transparent cover and a CPC; 3) the second stage of the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator with a domed divergent Fresnel Lens transparent cover and a CPC; 4) a high temperature thermo-chemical reactor with a steel high pressure vessel, an insulation layer, a first CeO2 catalyst layer, and a second CeO2 catalyst layer.

Claims

1. An inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator powered high temperature thermo-chemical reaction system comprises: 1) an inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator with a transparent cover and a Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC); 2) the first stage of the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator with a domed divergent Fresnel Lens transparent cover and a CPC; 3) the second stage of the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator with a domed divergent Fresnel Lens transparent cover and a CPC; 4) a high temperature thermo-chemical reactor with a steel high pressure vessel, an insulation layer, a first CeO2 catalyst layer, and a second CeO2 catalyst layer; wherein, the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator with a transparent cover and a Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) is positioned on the top of the system, and then the first stage of the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator with a domed divergent Fresnel Lens transparent cover and a CPC and the second stage of the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator with a domed divergent Fresnel Lens transparent cover and a CPC are connected into a cascaded concentrator optical waveguide to guide the concentrated sunlight onto the high temperature thermo-chemical reactor with a steel high pressure vessel, an insulation layer, a first CeO2 catalyst layer, and a second CeO2 catalyst layer; when in operating, incident sunlight including beam light and diffuse light is firstly concentrated by the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator in a large scale and an extremely low cost, then the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator including the first stage solar concentrator and the second stage solar concentrator further concentrate the diffuse sunlight concentrated by the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator to reach a ultra-high concentration ratio which is normally over 1000 suns, finally the concentrated sunlight is coupled into the thermo-chemical reactor including the steel vessel, the insulation layer, the first CeO2 catalyst layer, and the second catalyst layer to generate high temperature normally over 1000? C.;

2. The inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator powered high temperature thermo-chemical reaction system of claim 1, wherein the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator with a transparent cover and a Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) is a closed structure with the transparent cover and the CPC sealed to form a gas bag for inflation.

3. The inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator powered high temperature thermo-chemical reaction system of claim 1, wherein the first and second non-imaging non-tracking concentrator has a domed divergent Fresnel Lens on the top of a CPC non-imaging concentrator.

4. The inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator powered high temperature thermo-chemical reaction system of claim 1, wherein the high temperature thermo-chemical reactor comprises two CeO2 catalyst cylinders which are arranged in a coaxial way with a space in between the two cylinders for feeding in H2O.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

[0013] FIG. 1 is the configuration of the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator powered high temperature thermo-chemical reaction system including an inflatable non-imaging concentrator, a multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking concentrator, and a high temperature thermo-chemical reactor.

[0014] FIG. 2 is the top unit of the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking concentrator.

[0015] FIG. 3 is the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking concentrator.

[0016] FIG. 4 is an indication of the inner structure of the high temperature thermo-chemical reactor.

[0017] FIG. 5 is the section view of the high temperature thermo-chemical reactor.

[0018] FIG. 6 is an indication of work principle for non-imaging solar concentrator to concentrate both beam and diffuse sunlight.

[0019] FIG. 7 is a 3D view of the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator.

[0020] FIG. 8 is an indication of the work principle of the non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator.

[0021] FIG. 9 is an indication of the work principle of the non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator that takes the oblique incident diffuse light concentrated by its previous stage non-imaging concentrator and concentrates to next stage.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] Reference will now be made in detail to the present exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

[0023] Referring to FIG. 1, the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator powered high temperature thermo-chemical reaction system of the present invention comprises: 1) an inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator with a transparent cover 110 and a Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) 120; 2) the first stage of the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator with a domed divergent Fresnel Lens transparent cover 210 and a CPC 220; 3) the second stage of the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator with a domed divergent Fresnel Lens transparent cover 310 and a CPC 320; 4) a high temperature thermo-chemical reactor with a steel high pressure vessel 410, an insulation layer 420, a first CeO2 catalyst layer 430, and a second CeO2 catalyst layer 440. When in operating, incident sunlight including beam light and diffuse light is firstly concentrated by the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator 110 and 120 in a large scale and an extremely low cost, then the multi-stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator including the first stage solar concentrator 210 and 220 and the second stage solar concentrator 310 and 320 further concentrate the diffuse sunlight concentrated by the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator to reach a ultra-high concentration ratio which is normally over 1000 suns, finally the concentrated sunlight is coupled into the thermo-chemical reactor including the steel vessel 410, the insulation layer 420, the first CeO2 catalyst layer 430, and the second catalyst layer 440 to generate high temperature normally over 1000? C.

[0024] Referring to FIG. 2, the first stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrator comprises a domed divergent Fresnel Lens 210 and a CPC 220; the oblique incident diffuse sunlight concentrated by the previous inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator 110 and 120 is firstly diverged by the divergent Fresnel Lens 210 to reduce the incident angles relative to the CPC 220, then concentrated by the CPC 220 with large concentration ratio.

[0025] Referring to FIG. 3, two stage non-imaging non-tracking solar concentrators 210 and 220, as well as 310 and 320, are stacked together to concentrate diffuse sunlight to reach ultra-high concentration ratio.

[0026] Referring to FIG. 4, the high temperature thermo-chemical reactor comprises an anti-pressure vessel 410, an insulation layer 420, a first layer of CeO2 catalyst 430, and a second layer of CeO2 catalyst 440. When in operating, H2O is fed into the gap between the insulation layer 420 and the CeO2 catalyst layer 430 to be reduced into H2; CO2 is fed into the hollow core of the CeO2 catalyst layer 440 to be reduced into CO.

[0027] Referring to FIG. 5, the 3D cylinder structure is illustrated.

[0028] Referring to FIG. 6, the CPC is able to concentrate both the beam light I.sub.b and the diffuse light I.sub.d, as long as their incident angles relative to the CPC are smaller than the acceptance half-angle of the CPC.

[0029] Referring to FIG. 7, the 3D view of the inflatable non-imaging solar concentrator of the present invention is illustrated.

[0030] Referring to FIG. 8, the working principle of non-tracking concentrator is illustrated; incident sunlight is firstly diverged by the divergent Fresnel Lens 210 to reduce incident angle relative to the CPC 220 then concentrated by the CPC 220 with high concentration ratio.

[0031] Referring to FIG. 9, in the present invention, a domed divergent Fresnel lens 210 is added on the domed transparent cover of the CPC 220 with small acceptance half-angle, so that the oblique incident light is refracted to fall in the small acceptance half-angle. In operating, the light with the original incident angle ?.sub.1 relative to the CPC, is refracted by the left-hand side of the domed divergent Fresnel lens, and falls into the CPC with the changed incident angle ?.sub.2, where ?.sub.1>?.sub.2, ?.sub.1>?.sub.c, ?.sub.2<?.sub.c.

[0032] The work principle of the non-tracking concentrator structure is elucidated as the following. The concentrated sunlight from previous concentrator is refracted to change direction by various portion of the domed divergent Fresnel lens surrounding the CPC, so that the refracted sunlight falls into the relatively small acceptance half-angle of the CPC and is concentrated by it. The addition of the domed divergent Fresnel lens to the CPC enlarges the acceptance angle of the CPC, and therefore enables the concentration with high concentration ratio.

[0033] From the description above, a number of advantages of the solar concentrator become evident. The inflatable apparatus provides an approach to realize an ultra-light, exclusively cheap, extremely compact solar concentrator. The concentrator is able to concentrate both beam and diffuse light. The addition of the divergent Fresnel lens onto the domed transparent top cover of the non-imaging CPC concentrator enables the possibility to concentrate concentrated diffuse light in cascade to reach ultra-high concentration ratio. The entire system concentrates sunlight downward onto the thermo-chemical reactor so that the reactor can be located on ground to facilitate system design. Double layer CeO2 catalysts enable the separation of CO2 reduction and H2O reduction, which provides means to enhance mass transfers of reactants and products to enhance chemical reaction efficiencies.

[0034] In the preceding specification, various preferred embodiments have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will, however, be evident that various other modifications and changes may be made thereto, and additional embodiments may be implemented, without departing from the broader scope of the invention as set forth in the claims that follow. The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than restrictive sense.

[0035] Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with the true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.