(336f) Solar Thermochemical Splitting of H2O and CO2 Using Nonvolatile Metal Oxides

Syngas i.e. a mixture of H₂ and CO is the
feedstock for the production of liquid transportation fuels such as gasoline,
diesel, and jet fuel via the Fischer Tropsch process. Solar driven
thermochemical splitting of H₂O and CO₂ using metal oxide
based redox reactions is considered as a promising new technology for the
production of syngas, bypassing the utilization of fossil fuels. As only
(atmospheric) CO₂ and H₂O is consumed, the syngas
produced can be considered a renewable product. Among the various metal oxides
investigated in past, nonvolatile metal oxides such as ferrite, ceria, and
perovskite based redox materials are considered as potential materials due to
their excellent redox reactivity and high fuel production capacity. In recent
years, most of the studies were published in terms of the water splitting
ability of these nonvolatile metal oxides. Therefore, in this investigation the
ability of these nonvolatile materials towards CO₂ splitting and
combined splitting of H2O and CO2 is studied. These non-volatile metal oxides
were prepared via suitable synthesis approaches such as sol-gel,
co-precipitation, combustion synthesis, etc., and tested towards the H2O/CO2
splitting reaction using a high temperature TGA, and packed bed reactor set-up.
The pre-reaction and post-reaction characterization of the non-volatile metal
oxides was also performed using different analytical methods such as powder
XRD, BET surface area analyzer, scanning and transmission electron microscopy,
and others. Obtained
experimental results will be presented and compared with previously published
literature.

Figure 1: TGA of
CO₂-splitting experiments performed using sol-gel derived
Co-ferrite.