Analysis of structure-induced performance in photothermal methane dry reforming reactor with coupled optics-CFD modeling

Structural design and optimization are important for improving the overall performance of solar reactors. In this study, a coupled optics-CFD model was established to simulate the complex processes of radiation absorption, mass and heat transfer, and chemical reactions in a solar methane dry reforming reactor. The effects of structural parameters on the photothermal chemical conversion process were mainly discussed. It is found that slight changes of structural parameters, such as inclined angle and length of transition section, and cut-off ratio and acceptance half-angle of compound parabolic concentrator, could affect the radiation heat flux density distributions greatly and thus leading to significant variation of the chemical reaction. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the coupled analysis of optics and fluid dynamics when designing and optimizing the solar-type reactor. The proposed model and the obtained results are of guiding significance for the study of various solar-thermochemical and photochemical reactors.